Sci/Tech

Amazon’s new AI-enabled assistant Alexa+ is launching Monday but not all of the features the company showcased at a splashy event last month are ready, and not every Alexa owner will get access to them right away.

The slow race of getting NASA’s Space Launch System rocket pieced together for next year’s Artemis II moon mission jumped a big hurdle over the weekend.

Murphy, the bald eagle who delighted the world by trying to hatch a rock before becoming an orphaned bird’s foster dad, died this month. He was 33.

In the Inland Northwest, tiny owls with large, cartoonish yellow eyes manage to be everywhere and nowhere.

The pair of Boeing Starliner astronauts left behind on the International Space Station are finally on their way back to Earth after a planned eight-day trip turned into more than 9 1/2 months in space.

Firefly Aerospace managed to stay upright when it landed on the moon two weeks ago and announced Monday it had completed its mission.

Editor’s note: Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson was in Florida last week to report on Anne McClain’s and NASA’s SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.

Editor’s note: Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain’s and NASA’s SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at spokesman.com/sections/return-to-space.

NASA and SpaceX are prepared for “take two” of the Crew-10 mission launch, as Spokane astronaut Anne McClain put it in a message on social media.

Lilac City astronaut Anne McClain has a cadre of supporters well outside the confines of Spokane County. The shortlist of friends and family members who made the trek to the United States' southeastern tip to watch her set out on a voyage to space include her high school math teacher, half a dozen of her former West Point softball teammates and Congressional Gold Medal recipient Steve Gleason and family.

From staff reports

Spokane astronaut Anne McClain isn’t headed to space just yet. NASA officials delayed the launch scheduled for Wednesday, at 4:48 p.m. Pacific, due to an issue with the hydraulics system on the launchpad discovered about 4 hours before the Falcon 9 rocket and “Endurance” Dragon capsule were set to takeoff.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s 45th Weather Squadron said earlier that morning that the Florida weather was near perfect for the scheduled launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch at 4:48 p.m Pacific Time. 

The four members of NASA SpaceX Crew-10 mission -- NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander; and Nichole Ayers, pilot; along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov -- are set to launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:03 p.m. Pacific Time Friday. 

Rounding out the rest of Crew-10, the 10th SpaceX crew to go to the ISS, are NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi.

Elon Musk spread misinformation about the return of astronauts at the International Space Station, sparking outrage in space. 

Several renewable energy projects are on the horizon after Garfield County’s moratorium on wind farms lifted last month, while neighboring Whitman County continues to hold off on such projects as it drafts new rules for them following local opposition.

Now retired, Shari Manikowski educated some of Spokane’s most prominent figures during her nearly 24 years of teaching at Gonzaga Prep, including Congressman Michael Baumgartner, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel, and Steve Gleason, a retired NFL football player and Congressional Gold Medal recipient for his work advocating for those diagnosed with ALS. But she likes to say her “claim to fame” is having the privilege of being NASA astronaut Anne McClain’s high school math teacher.

The rocket launch taking Spokane astronaut Anne McClain and her fellow crew members to the International Space Station is moving forward as scheduled, pending the resolution of some technical issues, officials say.