NASA announced Saturday it rescheduled its Ingenuity Mars helicopter's first experimental flight, originally planned for Sunday.
The latest: "During a high-speed spin test of the rotors on Friday, the command sequence controlling the test ended early due to a 'watchdog' timer expiration," NASA said in a statement. "This occurred as it was trying to transition the flight computer from ‘Pre-Flight’ to ‘Flight’ mode."
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation granted $1.4 million to Michigan State University's Enslaved.org, a database developed by MSU researchers containing millions of records cataloging the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants.
Why it matters: The open-access research platform, developed by historians, archivists, librarians, genealogists, data scientists and the general public, contains records on more than 600,000 people through which anyone can see the lives of the enslaved in richer detail.
More tropical storms and hurricanes will take place during an "average" Atlantic hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday in its new guidelines.
Why it matters: NOAA attributed the uptick in hurricanes to better reconnaissance technology and climate change warming the oceans and atmosphere, which may make the storms more common and destructive.
A volcano on the northern tip of the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines that had been dormant for decades erupted Friday after showing signs of activity in late December, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: La Soufrière's eruption came hours after the Caribbean country evacuated around 20,000 people from near the volcano. There were no immediate reports of casualties, according to AP.
