Watching and Waiting

Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

HISTORY AWAITS: Many eyes are on the Space Coast this week, as four astronauts prepare to become the first to fly to the International Space Station in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

In the photo above, you can see the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket. It's set to launch at 4:49 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, Nov. 14, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Onboard will be Crew-1 NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi. We here at MPA will *definitely* be watching this historic mission.

                   Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Once they get settled in on the orbiting science laboratory, the astronauts will have a hand in several scientific experiments, including food physiology, neural function in low Earth orbit, tissue chips, and spacesuit technology.

Back in May of this year, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were aboard a demonstration mission, launching in the first manned SpaceX mission. That was a complete success, laying the groundwork for Saturday's launch to the ISS.  They splashed down in the Dragon Endeavour capsule at 2:48 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 2, off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

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CLOTHES OUT: In an unexpected twist, some of our clothing will soon be headed to Central America.

A couple of days ago a neighbor (but not someone we know) posted to our local Buy Nothing group asking for clothing donations. She wrote, 'As many of you know Central America has been hit by Hurricane ETA and has left many people homeless and nothing else but their clothes on their back.'

I'm embarrassed to admit we knew nothing of the hurricane. Pretty much it has been nonstop election-related coverage on our TV since November 3.

Anyway, the neighbor was asking for donations of clothing to send to Honduras, where she has family.

According to The Gurardian, "Hurricane Eta making landfall as a category 4 storm to the south of Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua. The storm weakened as it moved slowly inland towards Honduras through the week. Some areas saw as much as 550mm of rain (22 inches), leading to landslides and flooding. At least 100 people have died as a result."

It just so happened that 'clean closets' was on our to do list the day I saw the neighbor's ask for help, so we were happy to take three large garbage bags worth of men's, women's and children's clothing to them. I was impressed by how much they'd collected already. There were boxes and boxes of goods being loaded into a large shipping container as we arrived. 

Our surplus clothing was likely destined for a nonprofit thrift store before I spied the Buy Nothing post. It's nice to know our our gently-used and happily-donated items will be going right to people in dire need instead.