October 27, 2024

Rocket Launch Threatened by Sliced Cheese Stuck on Leg (Source: Futurism)
During an important rocket test, some students decided to strap some cheese onto one of the craft's landing legs — and got a crucial lesson in physics. The student-built Gruyère Space Program in Lausanne, Switzerland beat ESA when achieving the region's first-ever "rocket hop" test earlier in October. During the test, the group's CALIBRI rocket prototype climbed vertically before dropping back down to terra firma.

During the test, the team decided to strap a slice of gruyère — yes, just like their name — onto the rocket's leg. But what was intended as a joke about one of their country's premier cheeses became no laughing matter when the slice nearly caused a rocket failure. As video of the historic incident shows, CALIBRI does indeed start to spin upon its descent, which took place after the rocket reached its peak altitude of 32 yards. Luckily, the rocket landed safely with its dairy stowaway intact. It does seem that the additional weight of the cheese on one of the rocket's three legs undermined the craft's stability. (10/26)

NASA Goes After the Mysterious Dark Matter: Will Look for it Inside a Black Hole (Source: El Diario)
In its quest to solve one of the biggest mysteries in the universe dark matter NASA is about to make historic progress. Dark matter, which is thought to comprise around 85% of all matter in the universe, is still elusive and unseen. Its gravitational pull on visible matter is the sole way to determine its existence. NASA’s most recent project uses state-of-the-art technology to explore dark matter within black holes, which could uncover secrets about the structure of the universe. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a potent instrument that will be crucial for detecting events surrounding black holes, is at the center of this project. (10/26)

Space Tourist Alarmed When Vision Starts to Deteriorate (Source: Futurism)
Scientists are still trying to understand the toll that spaceflight takes on the human body. With SpaceX's civilian Polar Dawn mission, which lasted five days and wrapped up last month, we're getting an opportunity to observe the effects on more or less average humans — rather than the elite, highly trained government astronauts who are normally the ones that spend so much time in orbit. Some of what they're reporting sounds a little worrying. At the top of the list: inexplicably malfunctioning eyeballs.

"My vision acuity started to deteriorate those first few days," Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a former US Air Force pilot who served as pilot of the mission, told CNN of the journey. What caused Poteet's vision to deteriorate is likely a condition known as spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome, or SANS. This is believed to be the result of a microgravity environment, which causes the optic nerve to swell, and fluids in the eye and brain to shift.

SANS is still poorly understood. All four crew members wore high-tech, cyberpunk-looking contact lenses to measure intraocular pressure throughout the mission, in the hopes of teasing out its causes. Poteet said his vision quickly returned to normal once he was back on Earth. But as SpaceX engineer and the mission's medical officer Anna Menon told CNN, the effects — if unaddressed — could be disastrous in the long term. (10/26)

SpaceX Launches From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
It's a record-breaking launch day — with the Space Coast's unparalleled 73rd orbital rocket of 2024 launched from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport! SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on a Starlink satellite mission from Launch Complex 40. This mission surpassed Florida's annual record of 72 orbital rocket launches, which was set last year and tied this week — with November and December still remaining on the calendar. (10/26)