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Virgin Galactic Cleared to Launch after US Closes Safety Probe

Richard Branson speaks after he flew into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the "experience of a lifetime" Patrick T. FALLON AFP/File
Richard Branson speaks after he flew into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the "experience of a lifetime" Patrick T. FALLON AFP/File
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Virgin Galactic Cleared to Launch after US Closes Safety Probe

Richard Branson speaks after he flew into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the "experience of a lifetime" Patrick T. FALLON AFP/File
Richard Branson speaks after he flew into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the "experience of a lifetime" Patrick T. FALLON AFP/File

Virgin Galactic said Wednesday it had been cleared for spaceflight after the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) concluded a probe into a safety "mishap" related to its high-profile mission in July that featured company founder Richard Branson.

The FAA told the company it had accepted its proposed corrective actions related to the flight, which saw the SpaceShipTwo vehicle drop below its assigned airspace during its descent back to its runway at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic will update its calculations for future flights and request more airspace, and promised real-time communication with the FAA during flight operations, the company said.

"Our entire approach to spaceflight is guided by a fundamental commitment to safety at every level, including our spaceflight system and our test flight program," said CEO Michael Colglazier in a statement.

"We appreciate the FAA's thorough review of this inquiry. Our test flight program is specifically designed to continually improve our processes and procedures."

The FAA grounded Virgin Galactic earlier this month after an investigative report in The New Yorker said the flight experienced irregularities that could have jeopardized the mission.

The article said the pilots encountered cockpit warnings indicating the rocket-powered spaceplane's climb was too shallow and the nose was insufficiently vertical.

This could have meant that, after taking its crew to the edge of space, it would have lacked sufficient energy to glide back to its runway on Earth.

In the end, the vessel did land on the runway, but its altitude fell lower than it should have.

An FAA statement confirmed it had closed its "mishap investigation."

"The FAA also found Virgin Galactic failed to communicate the deviation to the FAA as required," the statement said -- a line that suggests the agency only learned of the irregularity through the article in The New Yorker.

Virgin Galactic is planning its next test flight, with members of the Italian air force, around mid-October.

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Star-Eating Black Hole Unleashes Record-Setting Energetic Flare 

This illustration provided by Caltech shows a supermassive black hole shredding a large star to pieces, leading to a bright flare. (Robert Hurt, Caltech (IPAC) via AP) 
This illustration provided by Caltech shows a supermassive black hole shredding a large star to pieces, leading to a bright flare. (Robert Hurt, Caltech (IPAC) via AP) 
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Star-Eating Black Hole Unleashes Record-Setting Energetic Flare 

This illustration provided by Caltech shows a supermassive black hole shredding a large star to pieces, leading to a bright flare. (Robert Hurt, Caltech (IPAC) via AP) 
This illustration provided by Caltech shows a supermassive black hole shredding a large star to pieces, leading to a bright flare. (Robert Hurt, Caltech (IPAC) via AP) 

Scientists are observing the most energetic flare ever seen emanating from a supermassive black hole, apparently caused when this celestial beast shredded and swallowed a huge star that strayed too close.

The researchers said the flare at its peak was 10 trillion times brighter than the sun. It was unleashed by a black hole roughly 300 million times the mass of the sun residing inside a faraway galaxy, about 11 billion light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).

Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape. Most galaxies are thought to have one at their center. The black hole in this research is extremely massive - more so, for instance, than the one at the center of our Milky Way that possesses roughly 4 million times the mass of the sun.

The researchers said the most likely explanation for the flare is a large star being pulled into the black hole. As material from the ill-fated star falls inward, it causes a flare of energy when it reaches the black hole's point of no return.

The researchers believe the star was at least 30 times, and perhaps up to 200 times, the mass of the sun. It may have been part of a population of stars orbiting in the vicinity of the black hole and somehow was sent too close through some interaction with another object in the neighborhood, the researchers said.

"It seems reasonable that it was involved in a collision with another more massive body in its original orbit around the supermassive black hole which essentially knocked it in," said Caltech astronomer Matthew Graham, lead author of the study published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"It was put on a much more elliptical orbit, which brought it much closer to the supermassive black hole at its closest pass - too close, it turns out," Graham added.

Supermassive black holes are surrounded by a disk of gas and dust being drawn inward after being caught by their gravitational strength.

"However it happened, the star wandered close enough to the supermassive black hole that it was 'spaghettified' - that is, stretched out to become long and thin, due to the gravity of the supermassive black hole strengthening as you get very close to it. That material then spiraled around the supermassive black hole as it fell in," said astronomer and study co-author K.E. Saavik Ford of City University of New York Borough of Manhattan Community College and Graduate Center.

The flare would be the result of the gas from the shredded star heating up and shining as it falls into oblivion.

The star thought to be involved was unusually massive.

"Stars this massive are spectacularly rare both because smaller stars are born more often than massive ones, and because very massive stars live very short lives," Ford said.

The researchers suspect that stars that orbit near a supermassive black hole can increase in mass by attracting some of the material swirling around the black hole, making them abnormally large.

The researchers observed the flare using telescopes in California, Arizona and Hawaii. They considered other possible causes such as a star exploding at the end of its lifetime, a jet of material streaming outward from the black hole or a phenomenon called gravitational lensing that could have made a fainter event look more powerful. None of these scenarios fit the data.

Because of the time it takes for light to travel, when astronomers observe faraway events like this they are looking back in time to an earlier epoch of the universe.

The flare brightened by a factor of 40 during the observations, apparently as more and more material from the star fell into the black hole, and peaked in June 2018. It was 30 times more luminous than any previously observed black hole flare. It is still ongoing but diminishing in luminosity, with the entire process expected to take about 11 years to complete.

"The flare is still fading," Graham said.

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Worker Trapped Under Collapsed Medieval Tower in Rome Dies 

Dust rises due to a second collapse of part of the medieval tower "Torre dei Conti" near the Roman Forum in the historic center of Rome on November 3, 2025. (AFP)
Dust rises due to a second collapse of part of the medieval tower "Torre dei Conti" near the Roman Forum in the historic center of Rome on November 3, 2025. (AFP)
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Worker Trapped Under Collapsed Medieval Tower in Rome Dies 

Dust rises due to a second collapse of part of the medieval tower "Torre dei Conti" near the Roman Forum in the historic center of Rome on November 3, 2025. (AFP)
Dust rises due to a second collapse of part of the medieval tower "Torre dei Conti" near the Roman Forum in the historic center of Rome on November 3, 2025. (AFP)

A Romanian worker trapped for hours under the rubble of a partially collapsed medieval tower near the Colosseum in central Rome has died, Italian and Romanian authorities said on Tuesday.

Parts of the 29-meter (95 ft) Torre dei Conti crashed to the ground at around 1030 GMT on Monday and a second collapse followed 90 minutes later, videos posted on social media and Reuters video showed.

Clouds of dust came billowing out of the windows to the sound of collapsing masonry. The second incident took place while firefighters were working on the structure with aerial ladders.

MAN PULLED FROM RUBBLE AFTER 11 HOURS

The man was pulled out of the tower by emergency services late on Monday, after about 11 hours, but was in a state of cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital and was declared dead early on Tuesday, a hospital statement said.

"Despite the sustained efforts of the medical teams in Rome, Octav Stroici, who had been trapped under the rubble of a historic building undergoing restoration works, has sadly passed away," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said on X.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also expressed her condolences.

A second worker, also Romanian, was pulled out almost immediately and hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening head injuries, while two more workers suffered minor injuries and declined hospital treatment.

None of the firefighters were injured.

TOWER BUILT BY 13TH CENTURY POPE

The tower, which was due to be converted into a museum and conference space, is located halfway along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the broad avenue that leads from central Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum.

The building was still standing, but showing significant internal damage.

It once hosted city hall offices but has not been in use since 2006 and was being worked on as part of a four-year renovation project due to end next year, according to Rome city authorities.

Due to the EU-funded restoration work, the area around the tower was closed off to pedestrians.

The building was erected by Pope Innocent III for his family in the early 13th century, and was originally twice as high, but was scaled down after damage from earthquakes in the 14th and 17th centuries.

Varieties

Underwater Sculpture Park Brings Coral Reef Art to Miami Beach

Concrete cars wait to the submerged off South Beach to become an underwater sculpture park Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. Native corals grown in a lab will be attached to the cars to create a reef. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Concrete cars wait to the submerged off South Beach to become an underwater sculpture park Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. Native corals grown in a lab will be attached to the cars to create a reef. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
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Underwater Sculpture Park Brings Coral Reef Art to Miami Beach

Concrete cars wait to the submerged off South Beach to become an underwater sculpture park Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. Native corals grown in a lab will be attached to the cars to create a reef. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Concrete cars wait to the submerged off South Beach to become an underwater sculpture park Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Miami Beach, Fla. Native corals grown in a lab will be attached to the cars to create a reef. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

South Florida is seeing a wave of new cars, but they won't add to traffic or lengthen anyone's commute. That's because the cars are made of marine-grade concrete and were installed underwater.

Over several days late last month, crews lowered 22 life-sized cars into the ocean, several hundred feet off South Beach. The project was organized by a group that pioneers underwater sculpture parks as a way to create human-made coral reefs.

"Concrete Coral," commissioned by the nonprofit REEFLINE, will soon be seeded with 2,200 native corals that have been grown in a nearby Miami lab. The project is partially funded by a $5 million bond from the city of Miami Beach. The group is also trying to raise $40 million to extend the potentially 11-phase project along an underwater corridor just off the city's 7-mile-long (11-kilometer) coastline.

“I think we are making history here," Ximena Caminos, the group's founder, said. “It’s one of a kind, it’s a pioneering, underwater reef that’s teaming up with science, teaming up with art.”

She conceived the overall plan with architect Shohei Shigematsu, and the artist Leandro Erlich designed the car sculptures for the first phase.

Colin Foord, who runs REEFLINE's Miami coral lab, said they'll soon start the planting process and create a forest of soft corals over the car sculptures, which will serve as a habitat swarming with marine life.

“I think it really lends to the depth of the artistic message itself of having a traffic jam of cars underwater,” Foord said. “So nature’s gonna take back over, and we’re helping by growing the soft corals.”

Foord said he's confident the native gorgonian corals will thrive because they were grown from survivors of the 2023 bleaching event, where a marine heatwave killed massive amounts of Florida corals, The AP news reported.

Plans for future deployments include Petroc Sesti's “Heart of Okeanos,” modeled after a giant blue whale heart, and Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre's “The Miami Reef Star, a group of starfish shapes arranged in a larger star pattern.

“What that’s going to do is accelerate the formation of a coral reef ecosystem,” Foord said. "It’s going to attract a lot more life and add biodiversity and really kind of push the envelope of artificial reef-building here in Florida.”

Besides being a testing ground for new coral transplantation and hybrid reef design and development, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner expects the project to generate local jobs with ecotourism experiences like snorkeling, diving, kayaking and paddleboard tours.

The reefs will be located about 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface of the water and about 800 feet (240 meters) from the shore.

“Miami Beach is a global model for so many different issues, and now we’re doing it for REEFLINE,” Meiner said during a beachside ceremony last month. “I'm so proud to be working together with the private market to make sure that this continues right here in Miami Beach to be the blueprint for other cities to utilize."

The nonprofit also offers community education programs, where volunteers can plant corals alongside scientists, and a floating marine learning center, where participants can gain firsthand experience in coral conservation every month.

Caminos, the group's founder, acknowledges that the installation won't fix all of the problems — which are as big as climate change and sea level rise — but she said it can serve as a catalyst for dialogue about the value of coastal ecosystems.

“We can show how creatively, collaboratively and interdisciplinarily we can all tackle a man-made problem with man-made solutions,” Caminos said.