NASA’s 2 stuck astronauts may return to Earth sooner
Cape Canaveral (US), Feb 12: NASA’s two stuck astronauts may end up back on Earth a little sooner than planned. The space agency announced Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home in mid-March instead of late March or April.
That will shave at least a couple weeks off their prolonged stay at the International Space Station, which hit the eight-month mark last week.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said in a statement.
The test pilots should have returned in June on Boeing’s Starliner capsule after what should have been a weeklong flight demo. But the capsule had so much trouble getting to the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX.
Then SpaceX delayed the launch of their replacements on a brand new capsule that needed more prepping, which added more time to Wilmore and Williams’ mission. (AP)
Apple changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America
San Francisco, Feb 12: Apple renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its maps Tuesday after an order by President Donald Trump was made official by the US Geographic Names Information System.
The move follows Google, which announced last month that it would make the change once the official listing was updated and wrote in a blog post Sunday that it had begun rolling out the change. In Google’s case, the company said people in the US will see Gulf of America and people in Mexico will see Gulf of Mexico. Everyone else will see both names.
After taking office, Trump ordered that the water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba be renamed.
The US Geographic Names Information System officially updated the name late Sunday. Microsoft has also made the name change on its Bing maps.
The AP, which provides news around the world to multiple audiences, will refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its original name, which it has carried for 400 years, while acknowledging the name Gulf of America. (AP)