#Hurricane Erin downgraded to Category 3 as tropical storm warning issued for Turks and Caicos.

Hurricane Erin weakened to a Category 3 hurricane Sunday as its outer bands continued to lash the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with heavy rains and tropical-storm force winds.

While Erin’s maximum winds diminished, the storm’s overall size grew and forecasters issued tropical storm warnings for the Turks and Caicos Islands and a watch for the southeast Bahamas.

The storm wasn’t expected to directly impact the U.S. East Coast, but by doubling or tripling in size it could bring rip currents all along the Southeast coast. Gusty winds and flooding tides could wash out parts of the highway that connects the North Carolina Outer Banks by midweek, the National Weather Service said.

Bermuda could have similar conditions as Erin is forecast to turn to the north and then northeast, forecasters said.

Erin, the first Atlantic hurricane of 2025, reached Category 5 status Saturday with maximum winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) before weakening.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds were 125 mph (205 km/h) late Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The winds decreased as the storm went through internal changes. Erin is expected to remain powerful for the next several days, forecasters said.

PARK CITY, Utah — SpaceX will perform its next Starship/Super Heavy test flight Aug. 24 after completing an investigation into the failure of the previous mission and getting approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

#MOSCOW, August 15. An asteroid known as 2025 PM with a diameter of about 50 meters will pass Earth on August 17 at a distance approximately equivalent to the distance between our planet and the Moon, the laboratory of solar astronomy of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences told TASS.

"On August 17, asteroid 2025 PM will pass by at a distance of approximately one diameter of the lunar orbit from Earth. This is one of the closest approaches of an object of such a size in recent time so it has been included in the potentially hazardous list," the laboratory said.

2025 PM is one of the largest asteroids recently getting closer than one million kilometers near Earth. The passage of a larger object at a comparable distance is expected only once this year, at the end of September.

The asteroid was detected on August 1. It does not display any cometary properties, and, according to preliminary data, is a stone rock without any traces of volatile substances. It is an Apollo-categorized asteroid from a group of near-Earth asteroids with their orbits intersecting Earth’s orbit from the outside. 2025 PM’s orbital period is slightly over two years.

The asteroid will come the closest to Earth on August 17 at 12:03 p.m. Moscow time (9:03 a.m. GMT). According to calculations, despite being within Earth’s gravitational pull, the probability of its "capture" is very low and may occur only in the event of an unforeseen collision with another celestial body.

The laboratory reiterated that the most well-known fall to Earth of a meteorite of a comparable size occurred about 50,000 years ago, creating the Barringer Crater in Arizona in the US.

Could the U.S. actually build a nuclear reactor on the moon? Here’s what an expert says:

As #NASA eyes a return to the moon, the agency has set an ambitious goal: deploy a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface by 2030 to provide consistent energy for future missions.

But how feasible is this idea?

According to Lionel Wilson, professor emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Lancaster University, powering a moon base is one of the most significant challenges facing long-term lunar exploration.

“The moon has no atmosphere, no wind and no renewable resources like coal or forests,” Wilson told CTV’s Your Morning Thursday. “So solar power is the obvious (source).”

Wilson explained that the moon rotates slowly - taking 28 days to complete one rotation - experiencing 14 days of sunlight followed by 14 days of darkness. He says that means bases would need extensive battery systems to store power or a reliable alternative.

According to Wilson, a system that provides constant power, like a radioisotope generator, helps reduce reliance on solar energy. It keeps producing electricity around the clock, so even if a solar setup fails, there’s a reliable backup.

Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy has directed the agency to fast track plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon, a moved aimed at staying ahead of China and Russia, which have jointly announced efforts to build a similar system by the mid-2030s.

NASA has previously collaborated with the U.S. Department of Energy on fission surface power projects, which were capable of delivering 40 kilowatts - enough to power 30 homes for 10 years.

The type of system NASA has used in deep-space probes, where solar power is too weak, relies on small amounts of plutonium, Wilson said. But for the 100 kilowatts of power NASA hopes to generate on the moon, Wilson estimates much more would be needed.

“About 200 kilograms of plutonium - that’s roughly a fifth of a ton,” he said. “That’s what it would take using the same design currently powering spacecraft.”

Still Wilson believes producing such a reactor in time is technically possible. The bigger question is whether humans will be back on the moon by then. There’s no point in getting the power source to the moon if you’re not getting the people there,” he said.

#Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97.

Lovell died Thursday in Lake Forest, Illinois, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

“Jim’s character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the Moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount,” NASA said. “We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements.”

One of NASA’s most traveled astronauts in the agency’s first decade, Lovell flew four times -- Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 -- with the two Apollo flights riveting the folks back on Earth.

In 1968, the Apollo 8 crew of Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders was the first to leave Earth’s orbit and the first to fly to and circle the moon. They could not land, but they put the U.S. ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Letter writers told the crew that their stunning pale blue dot photo of Earth from the moon, a world first, and the crew’s Christmas Eve reading from Genesis saved America from a tumultuous 1968.
The Apollo 13 mission had a lifelong impact on Lovell

But the big rescue mission was still to come. That was during the harrowing Apollo 13 flight in April 1970. Lovell was supposed to be the fifth man to walk on the moon. But Apollo 13’s service module, carrying Lovell and two others, experienced a sudden oxygen tank explosion on its way to the moon. The astronauts barely survived, spending four cold and clammy days in the cramped lunar module as a lifeboat.

“The thing that I want most people to remember is (that) in some sense it was very much of a success,” Lovell said during a 1994 interview. “Not that we accomplished anything, but a success in that we demonstrated the capability of (NASA) personnel.”

A retired Navy captain known for his calm demeanor, Lovell told a NASA historian that his brush with death did affect him.

“I don’t worry about crises any longer,” he said in 1999. Whenever he has a problem, “I say, `I could have been gone back in 1970. I’m still here. I’m still breathing.’ So, I don’t worry about crises.”

And the mission’s retelling in the popular 1995 movie “Apollo 13” brought Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert renewed fame -- thanks in part to Lovell’s movie persona reporting “Houston, we have a problem,” a phrase he didn’t exactly utter.

Lovell had ice water in his veins like other astronauts, but he didn’t display the swagger some had, just quiet confidence, said Smithsonian Institution historian Roger Launius. He called Lovell “a very personable, very down-to-earth type of person, who says ‘This is what I do. Yes, there’s risk involved. I measure risk.”’
Lovell spent a total of nearly 30 days in space

In all, Lovell flew four space missions -- and until the Skylab flights of the mid-1970s, he held the world record for the longest time in space with 715 hours, 4 minutes and 57 seconds.

Aboard Apollo 8, Lovell described the oceans and land masses of Earth. “What I keep imagining, is if I am some lonely traveler from another planet, what I would think about the Earth at this altitude, whether I think it would be inhabited or not,” he remarked.

That mission may be as important as the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, a flight made possible by Apollo 8, Launius said.

“I think in the history of space flight, I would say that Jim was one of the pillars of the early space flight program,” Gene Kranz, NASA’s legendary flight director, once said.
Lovell was immortalized by Tom Hanks’ portrayal

But if historians consider Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 the most significant of the Apollo missions, it was during Lovell’s last mission -- immortalized by the popular film starring Tom Hanks as Lovell -- that he came to embody for the public the image of the cool, decisive astronaut.

The Apollo 13 crew of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was on the way to the moon in April 1970, when an oxygen tank from the spaceship exploded 200,000 miles from Earth.

That, Lovell recalled, was “the most frightening moment in this whole thing.” Then oxygen began escaping and “we didn’t have solutions to get home.”

“We knew we were in deep, deep trouble,” he told NASA’s historian.

Four-fifths of the way to the moon, NASA scrapped the mission. Suddenly, their only goal was to survive.

Lovell’s “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” a variation of a comment Swigert had radioed moments before, became famous. In Hanks’ version, it became “Houston, we have a problem.”

What unfolded over the next four days captured the imagination of the nation and the world, which until then had largely been indifferent about what seemed a routine mission.

With Lovell commanding the spacecraft, Kranz led hundreds of flight controllers and engineers in a furious rescue plan.

The plan involved the astronauts moving from the service module, which was hemorrhaging oxygen, into the cramped, dark and frigid lunar lander while they rationed their dwindling oxygen, water and electricity. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, they swung around the moon, aimed for Earth and raced home.

By coolly solving the problems under the most intense pressure imaginable, the astronauts and the crew on the ground became heroes. In the process of turning what seemed routine into a life-and-death struggle, the entire flight team had created one of NASA’s finest moments that ranks with Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s walks on the moon nine months earlier.

“They demonstrated to the world they could handle truly horrific problems and bring them back alive,” said Launius.

The loss of the opportunity to walk on the moon “is my one regret,” Lovell said in a 1995 interview with The Associated Press for a story on the 25th anniversary of the mission.

U.S. President Bill Clinton agreed when he awarded Lovell the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1995. “While you may have lost the moon ... you gained something that is far more important perhaps: the abiding respect and gratitude of the American people,” he said.

Lovell once said that while he was disappointed he never walked on the moon, “The mission itself and the fact that we triumphed over certain catastrophe does give me a deep sense of satisfaction.”

And Lovell clearly understood why this failed mission afforded him far more fame than had Apollo 13 accomplished its goal.

“Going to the moon, if everything works right, it’s like following a cookbook. It’s not that big a deal,” he told the AP in 2004. “If something goes wrong, that’s what separates the men from the boys.”

James A. Lovell was born March 25, 1928, in Cleveland. He attended the University of Wisconsin before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. On the day he graduated in 1952, he and his wife, Marilyn, were married.

A test pilot at the Navy Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, Lovell was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1962.

Lovell retired from the Navy and from the space program in 1973, and went into private business. In 1994, he and Jeff Kluger wrote “Lost Moon,” the story of the Apollo 13 mission and the basis for the film “Apollo 13.” In one of the final scenes, Lovell appeared as a Navy captain, the rank he actually had.

He and his family ran a now-closed restaurant in suburban Chicago, Lovell’s of Lake Forest.

His wife, Marilynn, died in 2023. Survivors include four children.

Don Babwin, The Associated Press

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

#NASA Crew-10 astronauts depart space station after five-month mission

#NASA’s Butch Wilmore retires from astronaut corps after spending 9 unexpected months in space.

Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than five months after he returned from a troubled test mission that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than expected, the space agency announced Wednesday.

Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last year. The mission gained worldwide attention when the spacecraft experience several serious issues en route to the space station, including thruster outages and gas leaks.

Williams and Wilmore had been expected to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent weeks attempting to pinpoint what went wrong with their vehicle and assessing whether Starliner was safe to carry the astronauts home.

The space agency ultimately decided returning the duo to Earth aboard Starliner was too risky a proposition. NASA announced last August that Williams and Wilmore would join the next International Space Station crew rotation along with two other astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission and remain aboard the orbiting laboratory for several additional months.

Williams and Wilmore ultimately returned home in March — more than nine months after they left Earth. Such a duration of stay in orbit is not uncommon, as astronauts routinely live on the space station for six months or longer when they serve on staff rotation missions.
‘Legacy of fortitude’

Both astronauts have maintained the position that they were fully prepared for their extended stay in space, saying they each understood the risks and uncertainty associated with test flying a spacecraft for the first time.

Williams and Wilmore also repeatedly sought to quash narratives that they were “abandoned,” “stuck” or “stranded” in space.

“That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it, we both get it,” Wilmore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February. “Help us change the narrative, let’s change it to: prepared and committed despite what you’ve been hearing. That’s what we prefer.”

Wilmore’s “commitment to NASA’s mission and dedication to human space exploration is truly exemplary,” said Steve Koerner, the acting head of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where astronauts train, in a statement Wednesday.

“His lasting legacy of fortitude,” Koerner added, “will continue to impact and inspire the Johnson workforce, future explorers, and the nation for generations.”

Wilmore’s departure from NASA follows the example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission marked the last for both Behken and Hurley, who have each since retired.

Wilmore, a Naval officer and test pilot who served in 21 combat missions, joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000.

He flew on three missions during his 25 years of service, including a mission on the space shuttle Atlantis and a trip to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Notably, upon his return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule in March, Wilmore said that he would theoretically fly aboard one of Boeing’s Starliner capsules again if given the opportunity.

“We’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them, we’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said during a March 31 news conference. “And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”

By Jackie Wattles, CNN

#Tropical Storm Gil expected to become a hurricane in the eastern Pacific but won’t threaten land. The Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm is about 920 miles (1,480 kilometres) west-southwest of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.

Gil had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 km/h) and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (26 km/h).

There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect. The storm is expected to keep traveling to the west-northwest in the coming days, as well as speed up as it crosses over the ocean.

Gil was strengthening during a busy period for storms in the eastern Pacific.

Tropical Storm Iona is moving west-northwest in the ocean, about 1,295 miles (2,080 kilometres) west-southwest of Honolulu with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 km/h). It was earlier a hurricane but has since weakened. It isn’t threatening land.

And other storms could develop in the coming days in the eastern Pacific, forecasters said.

U.S. Energy Department misrepresents climate science in new report, experts say.

The document released July 29 outlines the Trump administration’s rationale for revoking a foundational scientific ruling that underpins the government’s authority to combat climate change.

The paper was written by a working group including John Christy and Judith Curry, who have both in the past been linked to The Heartland Institute, an advocacy group that frequently pushes back against the scientific consensus on climate change.

It “completely misrepresents my work,” Benjamin Santer, atmospheric scientist and honorary professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in Britain, told AFP.

Santer said a section of the report on “stratospheric cooling” contradicted his findings while citing his research on climate “fingerprinting,” a scientific method that seeks to separate human and natural climate change, as evidence for its analysis.

AFP and other media, including NOTUS, a US digital news website affiliated with the nonprofit Allbritton Journalism Institute, found inaccurate citations, flawed analysis and editorial errors across the document.

This is the third time since January, when Donald Trump took office, that scientists have told AFP a government agency has misrepresented academic work to defend their policies.

Previous instances included made up citations in the government’s “Make America Healthy Again” report, which the administration then rushed to edit.

“I am concerned that a government agency has published a report, which is intended to inform the public and guide policy, without undergoing a rigorous peer‑review process, while misinterpreting many studies that have been peer‑reviewed,” Bor-Ting Jong, an assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, told AFP.

Jong said the paper made false statements about the climate model her team examined and used different terminology that led to a flawed analysis of her findings.

On Bluesky, the budding social media platform favoured by academics, other researchers in atmospheric and extreme weather fields also deplored that the DoE document cherry-picked data and omitted or plainly distorted their academic findings.

James Rae, a climate researcher at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who said his work is also misrepresented in the report, told AFP the shift in how the department uses scientific research “is really chilling.”

“DoE was at the forefront of science for decades. Whereas this report reads like an undergraduate exercise in misrepresenting climate science,” he said.

Contacted by AFP, a DoE spokesperson said the report was reviewed internally by a group of scientific researchers and policy experts from the Office of Science and National Labs.

The public will now have the opportunity to comment on the document before it is finalized for the Federal Register.

“The Climate Working Group and the Energy Department look forward to engaging with substantive comments following the conclusion of the 30-day comment period,” the department added.

First Australian-made rocket crashes after 14 seconds of flight in a failed attempt to reach orbit