Susan Rodrigues

Death is always lurking. We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys. #Easter

I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. Take a moment and listen to this 81 second response from Victor Glover after being asked if he had any thoughts leading up to Easter. I don’t quite think it can be overstated how perfect this crew is for the job.

We haven't been able to bring any supplies into Gaza, Palestine, since 1 January 2026, because Israeli authorities are blocking aid. Read from our medical adviser in Gaza about how this is affecting operations in our hospitals and clinics: msf.org/gaza-israeli-e…

Christina Koch was a firefighter at the South Pole at -111°F before she ever applied to be an astronaut. That was maybe the fourth most interesting line on her resume. She grew up in North Carolina, got three degrees from NC State, and her first real job was building deep-space instruments at NASA. Then she left for Antarctica. Spent three and a half years bouncing between the Arctic and Antarctic as a research scientist, including a full winter at the South Pole base. That means going months without sunlight or fresh food, with a crew of about 50 people and no way out until flights resume. While she was down there, she also joined the glacier search-and-rescue team. After coming back, she went to Johns Hopkins and built instruments for two NASA missions (one of them is still orbiting Jupiter right now). She figured out how to start a tiny vacuum pump that NASA designed for a future Mars rover. Johns Hopkins nominated it for their Invention of the Year in 2009. Then she went back to the field. More time in Antarctica and a stretch up in Greenland. A government research station in northern Alaska, near the top of the world. Then she ran another one in American Samoa, near the equator. In 2013, NASA selected her from 6,300 applicants. Eight people got in. Her first space mission was supposed to be a normal rotation on the International Space Station, but NASA extended it. She ended up staying 328 straight days and orbiting Earth 5,248 times, covering about 139 million miles (roughly 291 round trips to the Moon). Up there, she ran over 210 experiments, including tests of cancer drugs in zero gravity and 3D printers that can build structures close to human tissue. Six spacewalks, 42 hours floating outside the station. She learned Russian for the training. She flies supersonic jets. Right now, Koch is on Artemis II, heading for a flyby behind the far side of the Moon. The crew launched on April 1 and is on track to travel about 252,000 miles from Earth, which would break the all-time human distance record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970. That record has stood for 56 years, and it was set during a disaster that nearly killed the crew. Fred Haise, one of the Apollo 13 astronauts, is 92 now. He told Koch: "I heard you're going to break our record." Nobody had left Earth's neighborhood since December 1972. Koch and her three crewmates are the first in 53 years, and they are coming home at about 25,000 mph. That is faster than any crewed spacecraft has ever come back through the atmosphere.

“I’m the space plumber, I’m proud to call myself the space plumber.” Mission specialists like @Astro_Christina train for all roles so they can jump in wherever they’re needed. Sometimes that means fixing vital machinery, like the spacecraft toilet.

Passengers on a commercial flight captured the launch of Artemis II on camera The plane happened to pass near the launch trajectory at the exact moment of liftoff, giving passengers a rare view of the rocket launch right from their windows.

🚨 This was the Artemis II crew's view this morning from 41,756 miles (67,200 km) up No human has seen a crescent Earth in full since 1972

We're going around the Moon. Come watch with us. Artemis II's four-astronaut crew is lifting off from @NASAKennedy on an approximately 10-day mission that will bring us closer to living on the Moon and Mars. The launch window opens at 6:24pm ET (2224 UTC). twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Two years of live-streamed genocide and now this. Just horrifying levels of depravity.

Action. Wonder. Adventure. Artemis II has got it all. Don't miss the moment. Our crewed Moon mission will launch as early as April 1. Learn how to watch: nasa.gov/ways-to-watch/

The Geneva Convention says it’s a war crime to target journalists, even if they work for an enemy organisation. It’s also a war crime to target medical workers. After the killing of 3 Lebanese TV journos last week, several medics coming to help them were killed as well.

Margaret Hamilton, NASA's lead developer for Apollo program, stands next to all the code she wrote by hand that took humanity to the moon in 1969.

#OnThisDay in 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott made his final diary entry as he, Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers, waited for the inevitable end, trapped in their tent with unseasonably cold temperatures and worsening health preventing them from making the 11-mile journey to their next food and fuel depot. Scott's diary: "Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT. For God’s sake look after our people." Scott's Polar Party reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, 34 days after Amundsen and his Norwegian party. During the journey home Edgar Evans suffered a fatal concussion and passed away 17 February. Thereafter, in March, Scott’s diary records the heroic end of Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates who, stricken with frostbite, walked out from the camp to his death. For Scott and his remaining men, a successful march home depended on the decisions made and the depots laid months prior to the expedition. However, the storm that raged and a lack of food and fuel prevented this, and the men died in their sleeping bags within their tent. The journal of Tryggve Gran, part of the 11-man search party, records that the bodies were found on 12 November 1912. He used his own skis to construct a cross above the cairn that he and the rest of the search party erected over the site and wrote of Scott's skis, "I am using the Owner's ski(s) - they must finish the journey - and they will." 📸 Snow Cairn erected over the final resting place of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection. #OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #RobertFalconScott #terranova #southpole

In 2010, Iceland introduced the concept of electrical support structures designed to resemble towering, walking iron giants.

The history of mathematics tells a rich story of collective labour, curiosity, dialogue, adventurousness and responsiveness to human questions. Educators have responsibility to tap into this for current and future students, writes Clemency Montelle: timeshighereducation.com/campus/i-blame…

Flying over the line between day and night in the International Space Station.

Knowing this can help keep your mouth and teeth healthy.

This is incredible. This machine is capable of cleaning up 100 million kg of plastic ocean waste, and as of 2025, it has already collected about 500,000 kg of plastic. It aims to remove 90% of ocean plastic by 2040.

Scholarships are being offered to scientists willing to relocate to remote Scottish islands as part of efforts to protect them for the future, reports @TWilliamsTHE timeshighereducation.com/news/scholarsh…