EYE SPY: Irises are blooming all over our 'campus' at the moment.
I have never understood irises. (Not that any flower really needs to be 'understood.') It's just that they are so bizarre, with their big, curling petals* and they occupy such a short window in the 'look at me' regard.
Today we learned that there are some 300 or so species of irises, and that they take their name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow (Iris.)
*We also learned that the iris' petals aren't all petals. Rather, the flower has six colorful lobes. The three inner lobes are, indeed, petals, while the three outer lobes are sepals. The petals stand upright and are sometimes called 'standards.'
NAILED IT: Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I spent some time watching history being made in two very different ways. On one channel we were monitoring the Mariners' horrible game where no one on their team managed to get even a single hit. That meant a no hitter for Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Means.
In another tab, we were closely monitoring the launch of SpaceX's SN15. (SN stands for serial number, in case you were wondering.) We'd watched many an SN launch before, with the enormous silver rocket lifting off, doing a belly flop of sorts, and then attempting a landing. Previous attempts have resulted in pretty spectacular explosions following failed landings.
However, yesterday was the day - the rocket stuck the landing!
Right afterward, a fire broke out on the landing pad at SpaceX's Starbase site in south Texas, and we worried the whole ship was going to go up in flames. Fortunately, the fire was controlled, and the landing was considered a success. Congrats, SpaceX!
SN is the rocket that's supposed to take astronauts to the moon someday. Coincidentally, Wednesday's uncrewed test occurred on the 60th anniversary of the United States' first-ever crewed spaceflight, the suborbital mission of NASA astronaut Alan Shepard.
BYE BYE, BENNU: On Monday, May 10, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fire its thrusters and start a two-year trek back to planet Earth, which it left on September 8, 2016. On board OSIRIS-REx is precious cargo in the form of a sample of the asteroid it has called home since December 3, 2018. (Our names are also on board the craft!)
You can watch live coverage of the spacecraft’s departure from asteroid Bennu on NASA Television, the NASA App, and the agency’s website on Monday, May 10 at 1 p.m. Pacific time.
The video below, from NASA Goddard and the University of Arizona, shows the OSIRIS-REx mission’s Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection event. The sampling event brought the spacecraft all the way down to sample site Nightingale, and the team on Earth received confirmation of successful touchdown at 6:08 pm EDT on October 20, 2020.
Preliminary data show the sampling head touched Bennu’s surface for approximately 6 seconds, after which the spacecraft performed a back-away burn.
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