Category: News: US

History-making Spelling Bee

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

14-year-old girl makes spelling bee history .

The winner of this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee captured the illustrious title with the word murraya, a genus of tropical trees.
“M-U-R-R-A-Y-A”    “That is correct!”
The competition on ESPN as 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde from New Orleans, Louisiana becomes the first African-American champion. Covid forced the cancellation of last year’s spelling bee but this year’s 11 finalists got to compete in person and Zaila got to celebrate her victory on stage for the world to see. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Zaila Avant-garde is only the second Black student to win the spelling bee. The first was Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Zaila is a champion in other ways.  She owns three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple basketballs at the same time. 

NASA Names Moonikin

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

NASA selects a name for a manikin it plans to send into space. Fox’s Carmen Roberts reports.

Commander Moonikin Campos

When NASA launches a test flight of Artemis I around the moon later this year, a male manikin will fly in the commander’s seat. NASA held a contest to name him and after sorting through more than 300,000 votes, the winner is “Commander Moonikin Campos” in honor of Arturo Campos, who was a key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. Commander Campos will fly in the Orion spacecraft wearing the same type of survival suit astronauts will use and sensors to record radiation, vibration and acceleration data during the flight. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Arturo Campos was asleep in his home when he got the call from his colleagues at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) on April 13, 1970. Something had gone wrong with the Apollo 13 mission, and he needed to report to work immediately.
Commander Moonikin Campos will fly on the Artemis I test flight set for November 22, 2021. Using robots and humans to explore more than ever before, NASA also will use the Moon for humanity’s next giant leap – sending the first astronauts to Mars.

Two female manikins will also be on the November test flight. Israel’s and Germany’s space agencies named them “Zohar” and “Helga.”

Data from the Moonikins will help NASA protect astronauts on Artemis II. That flight in 2023 will be the first mission in more than 50 years to send a human crew around the Moon.

NY Philharmonic Plays Live Again

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

The world-famous orchestra takes a step out of the pandemic dark by performing in public Wednesday for the first time since March 2020.


Music from the New York Philharmonic poured over a live audience for the first time since going dark last March. Members of the orchestra performed a special outdoor concert in New York City for 120 health care workers. Lincoln Center CEO Henry Timms says they were the perfect first audience. “All of us in the artistic community, all of us as New Yorkers, we owe such a debt to the health care community.”

Trombonist Colin Williams says it sounded like, “A little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.” The Philharmonic will keep sharing that light during some 100 open-air concerts and graduations. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

The New York Philharmonic hopes to resume subscription performances in September.

NASA Gets Ready for a Test Flight on Mars

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

The US space agency will attempt to make flight history on Mars 118 years after humans first flew on Earth.

Ingenuity carries a piece of fabric under a solar panel that came from the Wright Brothers’ plane.

You’ve likely heard of NASA’s Mars rovers but how about a Mars helicopter? The latest rover mission carried the Ingenuity Mars helicopter to the red planet and NASA hopes to fly it as soon as April 8.

In tribute to human’s first flight here on Earth, Ingenuity has a tiny piece of fabric on board from the plane the Wright Brothers flew in 1903.

If Ingenuity is successful, this will be the first ‘known’ aircraft to fly on another planet.  Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

NASA says flying in a controlled manner on Mars is far more difficult than flying on Earth. The Red Planet’s gravity is about one-third that of Earth’s and its atmosphere is just 1% as dense. Plus temperatures are far lower, especially at night when they can drop as low as minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 90 degrees Celsius), which can freeze and crack unprotected electrical components.

Apple Issues Warning to iPhone and iPad Users

Posted on by Carmen Roberts

Apple reveals hackers may have ‘actively exploited’ a security flaw in its iOS.

Apple tells iPhone and iPad users to update their operating software – now. The tech giant issued a software patch yesterday after researchers uncovered multiple vulnerabilities in the iOS software. Apple posting on its support website that those security flaws “may have been actively exploited.” In other words, hackers may have also discovered them. The software update will fix the bugs for newer products and models back to iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and Mini 4, as well as the latest iPod Touch. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.