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NASA astronauts board International Space Station in historic SpaceX mission

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken boarded the International Space Station Sunday in the historic Demo-2 mission with SpaceX.

The hatch was opened at 1:02 p.m. ET. After making final preparations, the astronauts were warmly welcomed aboard the orbiting space lab by fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, commander of the Space Station’s Expedition 63 and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Behnken was the first to enter the space station.

SPACEX MAKES HISTORY, LAUNCHES NASA ASTRONAUTS INTO SPACE FROM US SOIL FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2011

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft made its ‘soft capture’ docking with the International Space Station at 10:16 am ET after an almost 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. The space station was 262 statute miles above the border of northern China and Mongolia when the docking occurred. “Hard capture” docking was complete at 10:28 am ET with the full docking sequence complete about two minutes later.

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (right) and Bob Behnken (second right) after boarding the International Space Station, where they were welcomed by fellow astronaut and Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy (center) and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin (left) and Ivan Vagner (second left).
(NASA TV)

During a welcome ceremony, Hurley said that the mission can serve as an inspiration at a difficult time when the world has been battling the coronavirus pandemic. “This is just one effect, that we can show for the ages, in this dark time that we have had over the last few months, to kind of inspire, especially these young people in the United States,” he said.

The spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center Saturday. The mission is the first time that astronauts have launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011. An initial launch attempt was scrubbed on Wednesday as a result of bad weather.

SPACEX SPACECRAFT DOCKS WITH INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ON HISTORIC NASA MISSION

The mission is also the first time a private company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into orbit.

In this image taken from NASA TV video, the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, docks with the International Space Station Sunday, May 31, 2020.
(NASA TV via AP)

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On Saturday evening Hurley announced that the spacecraft, previously known as capsule 206, has been renamed Endeavour, continuing the tradition of astronauts naming their capsules.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

SpaceX spacecraft docks with International Space Station on historic NASA mission

SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft crewed by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken has docked with the International Space Station on its historic Demo-2 mission.

The mission is also the first time a private company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into orbit.

SPACEX MAKES HISTORY, LAUNCHES NASA ASTRONAUTS INTO SPACE FROM US SOIL FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2011

The spacecraft made its ‘soft capture’ docking with the International Space Station at 10:16 am ET after an almost 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. The space station was 262 statute miles above the border of northern China and Mongolia when the docking occurred. “Hard capture” docking was complete at 10:28 am ET with the full docking sequence complete two minutes later.

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour capsule docked with the International Space Station, ending its 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab.
(NASA TV)

“Happy to be aboard!” said Hurley when the capsule was docked.

The hatch is expected to open around 12:45 pm ET, with a welcome ceremony at 1:15 pm ET.

“Welcome home @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug! America’s two favorite dads in space have docked to the @Space_Station,” tweeted NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who is chairman of the National Space Council, were at Kennedy Space Center to watch Hurley and Behnken lift off from storied launch pad 39A, which was also used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs.

On Saturday evening Hurley announced that the spacecraft, previously known as capsule 206, has been renamed Endeavour, continuing the tradition of astronauts naming their capsules.

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“We would like to welcome you aboard capsule Endeavour,” he said. “We chose Endeavour for a few reasons – one, because of the incredible Endeavour NASA, SpaceX and the United States has been on since the end of the shuttle program in 2011. The other reason we named it Endeavour is little more personal – Bob and I, we both had our first flight on Shuttle Endeavour and it just meant to much to us to carry on that name.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

SpaceX makes history, launches NASA astronauts into space from US soil for the first time since 2011

SpaceX has launched NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on their historic Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is the first time that astronauts have launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011.

Hurley and Behnken blasted off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic launch pad 39A, which was also used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs, at 3:22 p.m. ET Saturday. An attempt on Wednesday was scrubbed due to weather conditions.

The launch is the first time a private company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into orbit.

50 YEARS AFTER APOLLO 11, NEIL ARMSTRONG’S SONS DESCRIBE THE DAY THEIR DAD WALKED ON THE MOON

There were concerns that bad weather would force Saturday’s launch to be scrubbed, but the mission was able to proceed as planned. President Trump and Vice President Pence, who is chairman of the National Space Council, watched the launch from Kennedy Space Center.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches into space from Kennedy Space Center with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft on May 30, 2020.
(Photo by Saul Martinez/Getty Images)

Speaking at Kennedy Space Center following the launch, Trump praised America’s “bold and triumphant return to the stars.”

“With this launch, the decades of lost years and little action are officially over,” he said. The names of Hurley and Behnken, he added, will stand in the history books alongside the likes of Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gus Grissom.

‘THERE WAS A BIT OF TENSION’: ASTRONAUT DESCRIBES WATCHING MOON LANDING WITH BUZZ ALDRIN’S FAMILY

“We have liftoff! Congratulations @Astro_Doug, @AstroBehnken, @NASA and @SpaceX!” tweeted Pence.

Launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Hurley and Behnken are traveling to the International Space Station in a Crew Dragon spacecraft built by the space company.

After a short journey into orbit, Crew Dragon began its 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. Autonomous docking with the International Space Station is expected at 10:29 a.m. EDT on Sunday. The duration of the astronauts’ stay on the orbiting space lab is yet to be determined.

NASA’S DEMO-2 LAUNCH WITH SPACEX IS ‘SHOT OF INSPIRATION’ AMID CORONAVIRUS: FORMER ASTRONAUT MIKE MASSIMINO

After separation, the Falcon 9 booster successfully returned to Earth, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (R) and Doug Hurley sit in a Tesla vehicle after walking out of the Operations and Checkout Building on their way to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“Today was just an amazing day,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said shortly after the launch. “I can breathe a sigh of relief but I can also tell you that I’m not going to celebrate until Bob and Doug are home safely.”

Bridenstine said he was praying for the astronauts during the liftoff. “I have heard that rumble [of a rocket launch] before, but it’s a whole different feeling when you’ve got your own team on that rocket.”

‘WONDER, AWE, EXCITEMENT’: APOLLO 16 ASTRONAUT DESCRIBES WALKING ON THE MOON

Under normal circumstances, large crowds would have been expected to witness the historic launch but, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, NASA urged people to stay away.

A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Crew Dragon capsule, sits on Launch Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020.
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

STS-135, the last space shuttle mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center on July 8, 2011. The space shuttle Atlantis carried four NASA astronauts on the mission to resupply the ISS, as well as an experiment for robotically refueling satellites in space.

Since then, the U.S. has relied on Russian Soyuz rockets launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to get astronauts into space. Russia charges the U.S. about $75 million to send an astronaut into space.

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NASA recently agreed to pay Russian space agency Roscosmos $90 million for one final seat on one of its Soyuz rockets.

Fox News’ Kristin Fisher, Lauren Blanchard and The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

Dinosaur-killing asteroid created massive magma chamber that lasted millions of years, study shows

The asteroid that slammed into Earth some 66 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs also produced a gigantic pool of magma many times larger than the crater at the center of Yellowstone National Park, new research reveals.

The incident, known as the Chicxulub impact event, killed off 75 percent of all life on Earth, and it also produced a massive hydrothermal system filled with magma, according to research published today in Science Advances.

The impact produced about 100 million megatons of energy and likely created winds in excess of 600 miles per hour near the blast’s center — wiping out vegetation, soil and animals.

‘UNACCEPTABLE’ ALLIGATOR INCIDENT BEING INVESTIGATED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

That energy was enough to melt part of our planet’s crust, creating what the researchers call a “central melt pool” of magma that lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, according to the study.

“Chicxulub is the largest, best-preserved crater on Earth and is thus our best example of the craters that were produced early in Earth history,” David Kring, the first author of the study and a researcher from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas, explained to Gizmodo.

The dinosaur-killing asteroid that struck Earth produced a gigantic pool of magma.
(SWNS)

10 PERCENT OF CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS WITH DIABETES DIE WITHIN A WEEK OF HOSPITALIZATION, STUDY FINDS

“There were thousands of craters its size and larger when life emerged on Earth. There is evidence that suggests that life emerged from hydrothermal systems, potentially produced by impacting asteroids and comets,” he added.

For the study, Kring and his colleagues examined chemically altered rocks pulled from the Chicxulub crater. A drilling expedition led by two groups of international scientists provided the samples, after having acquired them from deep below the seafloor.

A different study released earlier this week found that the asteroid slammed into Earth at the “deadliest possible angle” of about 60 degrees, which maximized the amount of climate-changing gases that were thrust into the upper atmosphere.

‘Egregious and unacceptable’ alligator incident being investigated in South Carolina

A South Carolina town is investigating how a massive alligator was removed from a mini-golf course this week, according to local officials.

The male alligator’s capture and euthanasia after being removed from a lagoon in Hilton Head Island prompted outrage, in particular after photos and video posted on social media showed the beast being manhandled after its capture, according to the Island Packet.

Town Manager Steve Riley said the community is “deeply concerned about the egregious and unacceptable behavior” that took place during the alligator’s removal.

Hilton Head officials are also investigating Critter Management’s removal permit, which the town issued to the company after Legendary Golf called for their assistance with the gator’s removal.

CAT IN FRANCE THAT CONTRACTED COVID-19 SURVIVES INFECTION

(Officials investigated the removal of an alligator in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, that got out of hand. (iStock))

A crowed of about 100 people who had gathered to see the 12-foot-long beast be removed started to come closer at the request of Joey Maffo, 19, the grandson of Legendary Golf’s owner, according to the newspaper.

At that point, onlookers began to take pictures with the alligator, riding it and posing near it — some of which ended up on social media.

FOR 15 MILLION YEARS, SEA SNAKES HAVE ADAPTED UNDERWATER VISION, STUDY SHOWS

Critics took issue with how the animal was being treated.

“I didn’t know how it would look to all the people online,” Maffo told the Island Packet. “They’re just tourists. They want to see a gator up (close). … I was just trying to get everybody to understand how big and powerful they are.”

Both Joey and his grandfather, Joe Maffo, apologized for the incident on Thursday.

“It certainly wasn’t our intent to exploit this alligator,” Joe Maffo told reporters at Critter Management’s headquarters. “We had no intentions of making it look like a fiasco.”

Baby gorilla at Seattle zoo badly injured in family skirmish

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SEATTLE — A baby gorilla was badly injured at a Seattle zoo on Saturday when he was caught in a skirmish between his family group members, zookeepers said.

EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD WEAKENS

Animal health experts at the Woodland Park Zoo say little Kitoko was bitten on the head, likely by accident when another gorilla tried to bite his mother, Uzumma. Kitoko sustained a fractured skull and a severe laceration, but zoo officials say the 2-month-old gorilla underwent surgery and may fully recover if he doesn’t develop an infection.

(Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo)

“We are cautiously optimistic for a full recovery and hope to return Kitoko to his mom today,” Dr. Darin Collins, the zoo’s animal health director, said in a prepared statement on Sunday. “Over the next two weeks, we will maintain a close assessment for any signs of infection or bleeding resulting in neurological deficits.”

The gorilla keepers didn’t see the fight between the western lowland gorillas, but security cameras show it happened just before 8 a.m. in the animals’ sleeping den. The zoo keepers noticed the baby’s wound about 10 minutes later, and Kitoko appeared to be nursing and behaving normally afterward.

Kitoko’s family group includes his mother and three other females, as well as his father, the silverback Kwame.

“Gorillas tend to be gentle giants but conflicts among family members do occur, in zoos and in nature,” Woodland Park Zoo mammal curator Martin Ramirez said. “Conflicts can involve biting and shoving among individuals. We suspect one of the adult females may have inadvertently bitten the baby while engaged in a skirmish with Uzumma.”

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The zoo brought in a team of pediatric neurosurgery consultants from Seattle Children’s Hospital to evaluate Kitoko’s injuries and surgically repair his wound. Ramirez said Kitoko will be likely returned to his mother and father, with the three temporarily kept separate from the other family members.

Hurricanes are growing stronger as climate warms, new NOAA study shows

Hurricanes are reportedly strengthening as the Earth’s climate grows warmer, according to a new study.

Although studying how hurricanes have changed over time is difficult and the tools scientists use to measure their impact are constantly in flux, a report released last week from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found a clear upward trend in storm intensity and rate over the 39 years, between 1979 and 2017.

2020 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON MAY BE ‘EXTREMELY ACTIVE,’ WITH 13 TO 19 NAME STORMS, NOAA SAYS

According to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as temperatures rose so did the probability of storms reaching “major hurricane” status. The planet has significantly warmed in every year of those 39 studied, and the recorded years include eight of the 10 warmest ever recorded.

Using satellite imagery, scientists sanded the edges off newer, sharper tropical cyclone images to fit an older standard: images where each pixel represents an area five miles by five miles, taken every three hours. In addition, they discarded images from newer satellites that provide views of storms from angles not available in 1998. The result was an extensive dataset of approximately 225,000 similar-quality images of about 4,000 global tropical cyclones stretching back to the 1970s.

Julia Aylen wades through waist deep water carrying her pet dog as she is rescued from her flooded home during Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Bahamas, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. Practically parking over the Bahamas for a day and a half, Dorian pounded away at the islands Tuesday in a watery onslaught that devastated thousands of homes, trapped people in attics and crippled hospitals. Julia Aylen is the daughter of Photojournalist Tim Aylen, author of this photo. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

In examining these images — to estimate wind intensities, measured in kilotons — the group found that the chances of any given tropical cyclone hitting 65 knots to become classified as a hurricane have gone up and the odds of 100-knot storms have risen by a 15 percent increase.

“The main hurdle we have for finding trends is that the data are collected using the best technology at the time,” James Kossin, a NOAA scientist and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, said in a statement. “Every year the data are a bit different than last year, each new satellite has new tools and captures data in different ways, so in the end we have a patchwork quilt of all the satellite data that have been woven together.”

However, other conclusions have not yet been completely ruled out by the authors of the study. The paper does not strike down the possibility that the uptick in hurricanes isn’t the result of some perfect coincidence of other trends.

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That said, it points strongly — with purported 95 percent confidence — toward the idea that tropical cyclones “have become substantially stronger, and that there is a likely human fingerprint on this increase,” the researchers wrote.

Skeptics have largely dismissed fears over man’s impact on global warming, saying climate change has been going on since the beginning of time. They’ve also claimed the dangers of a warming planet are being wildly exaggerated and question the impact that fossil fuels have had on climate change.

Endangered lemurs are practicing social distancing after new birth

At least one group of mammals is good at social distancing.

A family of lemurs has been observing the practice while they wait to see the newest member of its clan at a British zoo, British news agency SWNS reports. The lemur is just a few weeks old and is being cared for by experts at the Wild Place Project in Bristol, England.

Lemurs are endangered, making the birth of the newborn critical to the species’ survival.

A critically endangered lemur has been born at Wild Place Project. The tiny Lac Aloatra gentle lemur is smaller than a tennis ball but its birth is crucial to the survival of this rare species. Now two weeks old, the primate is the second gentle lemur to be born to parents Tiana and Roa in the past two years. (Credit SWNS)

INCREDIBLE PICTURES SHOW PONY BONDING WITH THREE ORPHANED LAMBS

“It’s always exciting to welcome a newborn and Tiana is proving to be a fantastic mother and is very attentive towards her baby, holding it close and grooming it,” Joe Norman, animal team leader at Wild Place Project, said. “We will be keeping an eye on the pair over the coming weeks but the infant appears strong and healthy and has been seen feeding well.”

The baby lemur, which does not have a name yet, is the second baby born to its parents, Tiana and Roa, after its brother Hazo.

It’s unclear at this point whether the newborn lemur is a male or female, and experts note that it could be six months before its gender is identified at its first health check.

Lac Alaotra gentle lemurs are at risk of extinction in their home country of Madagascar, the New England Conversancy writes on its website.

The newly born baby lemur and her mother at Bristol Zoo. (Credit SWNS)

Since 1990, it is estimated the population of the species, which can live for up to 23 years, has plummeted from 11,000 to 2,500. A separate, more recent report believes the total population in the wild may be less than 1,000.

In October, a California man was sentenced to three months in prison for stealing a ring-tailed lemur from the Santa Ana Zoo.

In November, a lemur on Madagascar attempted to “steal” a photographer’s camera as he was trying to take pictures of it.

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Fox News’ Talia Kaplan contributed to this story.

UK coronavirus vaccine trial is ‘progressing very well,’ recruiting children and older adults

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A COVID-19 vaccine trial at Oxford University in the U.K. is “progressing very well,” according to researchers involved in the project.

“The clinical studies are progressing very well and we are now initiating studies to evaluate how well the vaccine induces immune responses in older adults, and to test whether it can provide protection in the wider population,” said Professor Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, in a statement released Friday. “We are very grateful to the huge support of the trial volunteers in helping test whether this new vaccine could protect humans against the pandemic coronavirus.”

The same investigational vaccine protected six monkeys from pneumonia caused by the virus. The ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine is made from the ChAdOx1 virus, a weakened version of the common cold that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to replicate in humans, according to the Oxford researchers.

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Researchers have started recruiting in the next phase of human trials for the COVID-19 vaccine. The Phase I trial in healthy adult volunteers began in April and more than 1,000 immunizations have been completed, the researchers said, noting that follow-up is currently ongoing.

Fox News has reached out to Oxford University and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency with a request for comment. The MHRA oversees drug trials in the U.K.

“The next study will enroll up to 10,260 adults and children and will involve a number of partner institutions across the country,” they explained in the statement. Phase II of the study will involve a small number of older adults aged 56 to 59 and over 70, as well as children aged 5 to 12.

“For these groups, researchers will be assessing the immune response to the vaccine in people of different ages, to find out if there is variation in how well the immune system responds in older people or children,” the researchers said. “Adult participants in both the Phase II and Phase III groups will be randomized to receive one or two doses of either the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine or a licensed vaccine (MenACWY) that will be used as a ‘control’ for comparison.”

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Phase III of the study will assess how the vaccine works in a large number of people over the age of 18. “This group will assess how well the vaccine works to prevent people from becoming infected and unwell with COVID-19,” they said in the statement.

To assess whether the vaccine works, Oxford’s statisticians will compare the number of infections in the control group to the number of infections in the vaccinated group.

“For this purpose, it is necessary for a small number of study participants to develop COVID-19,” they said. “How quickly we reach the numbers required will depend on the levels of virus transmission in the community. If transmission remains high, we may get enough data in a couple of months to see if the vaccine works, but if transmission levels drop, this could take up to 6 months.”

Earlier this week, the U.K.’s Business Secretary Alok Sharma said that the Oxford vaccine trial, if successful, could deliver 30 million doses by September.

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With 252,246 cases and 36,124 deaths the U.K. is one of the most impacted countries by the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine are underway around the world. Scientists at Israel’s Tel Aviv University and biopharmaceutical company Neovii, for example, recently announced a project to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Experts involved in the effort say that they are targeting the “Achilles heel” of coronavirus.

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CALIFORNIA BIOPHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY CLAIMS CORONAVIRUS ANTIBODY BREAKTHROUGH

As of Friday morning, more than 5.12 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, at least 1,577,785 of which are in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The disease has accounted for at least 333,489 deaths around the world, including at least 94,729 people in the U.S.

Fox News’ Christopher Carbone contributed to this article. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

35 percent of coronavirus patients could be asymptomatic, CDC says

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Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are of great concern to public health officials and lawmakers due to their ability to spread the virus without knowing they’re sick themselves.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than a third of COVID-19 patients could be asymptomatic.

The new guidance, which the agency says is “designed to help inform decisions by modelers and public health officials who utilize mathematical modeling,” lists five scenarios and notes scenario five, which has 35 percent of COVID-19 patients as asymptomatic, as its “current best estimate.”

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It also notes that 0.4 percent of those who do show symptoms will die from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The most at-risk group is people 65 and older, with the CDC saying it expects 1.3 percent of those who symptoms to die. The next most at-risk group is people between the age of 50 and 64, with the agency estimating 0.2 percent of these symptomatic patients will die.

The CDC says these values are based on data received by the agency before April 29, and the numbers are subject to change as the pandemic goes into the later months of the year. As of Friday morning, more than 94,000 people have died in the U.S., according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The high number of asymptomatic patients has led to concerns of a so-called “second wave” of the coronavirus pandemic cropping up later this year. However, some have suggested rolling on and off lockdowns to deal with the pandemic.

Earlier this month, the CDC said there was mounting evidence that suggests the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from presymptomatic or asymptomatic individuals, bolstering the argument for maintaining proper social distancing measures and possibly impacting the case-fatality rate for COVID-19.

In April, the CDC estimated some 25 percent of cases could be asymptomatic. However, that number varied for different groups, including as high as 70 percent for military personnel, according to the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Hyten.

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As of Friday morning, more than 5.12 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, more than 1.57 million of which are in the U.S., the most impacted country on the planet.

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Fox News’ Alexandria Hein and Madeline Farber contributed to this story.

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