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NASA on a regular basis shares pictures on its social media handles of missions currently underway. But occasionally, it takes us down the memory lane too. On Thursday, July 8, the American space agency shared images of a mission from a decade ago on its Twitter and Instagram handles. It was on this day back in 2011 that space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In a four-slide post on Instagram, NASA shared images of Atlantis lifting off, “riding a plume of fire,” to the International Space Station.

The third picture in the post shows the spacecraft in the space, and the fourth landing back after completing the mission. That was also the last flight of the Atlantis. “Exactly 10 years ago today, the final mission of our American Space Shuttle Program lifted off from @NASAKennedy at 11:29 a.m. EDT en route to the International Space Station (@ISS),” read the caption to the post.

NASA it was an emotional end to an era for many. “This launch was the final chapter in a 30-year history of space shuttle flights from the Florida Space Coast,” the post further read.

Aboard the shuttle Atlantis was a crew of four NASA astronauts — Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley, along with Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim — who set on the STS-135 mission. During this final space shuttle mission, the crew delivered payloads and supplies to support the International Space Station for more than one year, said NASA.

Here’s a GIF of the Orbiter Atlantis lifting off from the Keneddy Space Centre, posted on Twitter by NASA.

On July 15, 2011, Barack Obama, the then-US President, held a radio conversation with the combined shuttle and station crews. “We’re all watching as the 10 of you work together as a team,” Obama said. Your example means so much not just to your fellow Americans, but also your fellow citizens on Earth, the former President added. The space programme has always embodied our sense of adventure and explorations and courage, he further said.

On July 21, 2011, as seen in the last picture of the post, Atlantis dropped out of the predawn darkness and landed at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility Runway 15.

“Caught in the last seconds by the runway lights, a space shuttle rolled to a stop for the final time,” said the agency.

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NASA Deploys High-Tech Aircraft to Support Texas Flood Relief and Recovery Efforts

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July 15, 2025

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NASA Deploys High-Tech Aircraft to Support Texas Flood Relief and Recovery Efforts

NASA deployed two aircrafts to help state and local authorities in the continuing recovery operations, in response to the flood near Kerrville, Texas. The aircrafts are from NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, and is activated to support the emergency response for flood and is closely working with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the humanitarian groups Save the Children and GiveDirectly, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Persistent cloud-cover over there has made it quite difficult to capture the clear satellite images.

NASA Deploys Aircraft with Advanced Sensors for Texas Flood Response

As reported by NASA, if this can be done, the NASA’s Airborne Science Program can concur a series of flights to fetch observations of te impacted areas. NASA is sharing this data with emergency response teams to inform the search and rescue efforts and help in resource allocation and decision making. WB-57 aircraft departed from Ellington Field on July 8, 2025 for conducting aerial surveys. The aircraft is loaded with the DyNAMITE which is known as Day/Night Airborne Motion Imager for Terrestrial Environments sensor.

Real-Time Data and Imagery Aid Emergency Teams and Flood Recovery Efforts

The DyNAMITE views the Guadalupe River and many miles of the surrounding area, and provides high-resolution imagery which is important to evaluate the damage and support coordination of the foundation-based recovery efforts. This system enables the real-time data collection and analysis, which enhances the situational awareness and enhancing emergency response times.

Further, the agency’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Syntehtic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) aboard the Gulfstream III. UAVSAR is managed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and is planning to collect the observations over the Guadalupe, San Gabriel, and Colorado river basins on three weekdays, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It can penetrate the vegetation to see water that sensors are unable to detect. The goal of the team is to characterise the flood extent of flood and help the understanding of the damage amount within communities.

Further, the Disasters are being coordinated with FEMA, the local responders and the Texas Division of Emergency Management for ensuring the data is quickly delivered to the decision making people on the ground. The data is being shared on the NASA Disasters Mapping Portal as soon as it is available.

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Massive Boulders Ejected by DART Mission Could Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection

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July 15, 2025

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Massive Boulders Ejected by DART Mission Could Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection

When NASA’s DART spacecraft smashed into the asteroid moon Dimorphos in 2022, it was more than proof that a kinetic impactor can nudge the orbit of an asteroid. The impact created about 100 large boulders, some of which had greater than three times the spacecraft’s momentum. These high-speed ejecta added unanticipated forces that may complicate future planetary defence efforts. Using data from Italy’s LICIACube—an observer satellite deployed during the mission—a University of Maryland-led team tracked the rocks’ locations and velocities, revealing a complex and potentially disruptive impact legacy.

DART’s Boulder Ejecta Could Disrupt Asteroid Deflection, New Study Warns of Hidden Forces

As per a study in Planetary Science Journal published on July 4, 2025, the team discovered that the boulders weren’t scattered randomly but instead clustered into two clear groups, indicating unknown mechanisms at work. Lead author Tony Farnham noted that this added momentum, largely perpendicular to the spacecraft’s trajectory, might have tilted Dimorphos’ orbit and introduced unpredictable rotation. The largest cluster, travelling southward at shallow angles, likely originated from two larger surface boulders struck moments before the main impact.

Second author Jessica Sunshine explained that DART’s solar panels may have shattered these large boulders, Atabaque and Bodhran, creating chaotic debris patterns. In contrast to NASA’s earlier Deep Impact mission—which hit a dustier target and produced smoother ejecta—DART’s rocky terrain resulted in filamentary structures. The results emphasise how varied the surfaces of asteroids can be and how that variety can affect the practicality of deflection techniques, complicating mission-level planning.

The debris kicked out would transfer momentum, shifting the asteroid’s orientation in space — an aspect that had not been accounted for in previous models. Unaccounted for, these forces may have led to future missions missing their deflection targets. Sunshine emphasised that such subtle forces are critical, likening future planetary defence efforts to “a cosmic pool game” where missing a shot could have planetary consequences.

ESA’s Hera mission, to the Didymos-Dimorphos system in 2026, will demonstrate these predictions and reveal more about the physics of the boulder-flying impact. The need for two points of view is already apparent from the LICIACube data, Farnham stressed. With Hera’s help, researchers aim to refine their models to better prepare for the next real-life asteroid threat.

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Earth’s Spin to Speed Up Briefly, Causing Shorter Days This Summer

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July 14, 2025

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Earth’s Spin to Speed Up Briefly, Causing Shorter Days This Summer

Reports indicate that for three days this summer – July 9, July 22 and August 5 – Earth’s rotation will speed up slightly, trimming 1.3 to 1.5 milliseconds off each day. Imperceptible in everyday life, this shift underscores how the Moon’s position influences our planet’s spin. For reference, the shortest day on record was July 5, 2024, lasting 1.66 milliseconds less than 24 hours. Over billions of years Earth’s rotation has slowly lengthened, but recent data show speedups. Scientists say monitoring these tiny changes is important for understanding Earth’s dynamics and timekeeping.

Causes of Faster Spin

According to timeanddate.com, the shortest-ever recorded day was on July 5, 2024, which was 1.66 milliseconds shy of 24 hours. The acceleration is largely driven by the Moon’s gravity. On those dates (July 9, July 22 and August 5), the Moon will lie far north or south of Earth’s equator, weakening its tidal braking on our planet’s spin. As a result, Earth rotates a bit faster – like spinning a top held at its ends. Seasonal shifts in mass distribution also affect rotation. Richard Holme of the University of Liverpool notes that summer growth and melting snow in the Northern Hemisphere move mass outward from Earth’s axis, slowing the spin in the same way an ice skater slows by extending her arms.

Timekeeping and Technology

Shifts in day length are handled by precise timekeeping. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) monitors Earth’s spin and adds leap seconds to keep Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in sync with solar time. Normally a second is added when Earth’s rotation slows, but if the spin-up trend continues, scientists have floated a “negative leap second” – removing a second – to realign clocks.

Dr. Michael Wouters of Australia’s National Measurement Institute says this fix would be unprecedented, and notes that even if a few seconds accumulated over decades, it would likely go unnoticed. Dr. David Gozzard of the University of Western Australia points out that GPS satellites, communications networks and power grids rely on atomic clocks synced to nanoseconds, and that millisecond-scale changes in Earth’s rotation are easily absorbed by these systems.

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