Month: May 2020

Enlarge / A NASCAR sign is seen during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on April 24, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

On Thursday afternoon, NASCAR announced that it would be the first major sporting series to get back into action since the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to public gatherings. The series had halted racing in mid-March, at the time saying that it planned to resume its calendar on May 9. Now, its cars will fire up again for a 400-mile (643km) race on Sunday, May 17 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, although spectators will not be allowed at the track.

NASCAR plans to run seven races over 10 days. The first three will be at Darlington, with its Cup series racing on May 17, and also again Wednesday, May 20, with an Xfinity race (the feeder series) running Tuesday, May 19. On May 24, the sport relocates to Charlotte Motor Speedway, in North Carolina, for the Coca-Cola 600. Charlotte will also host an Xfinity race on May 25, a truck race on May 26, and another Cup race on May 27.

"NASCAR and its teams are eager and excited to return to racing and have great respect for the responsibility that comes with a return to competition. NASCAR will return in an environment that will ensure the safety of our competitors, officials, and all those in the local community," said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer.

Enlarge / HUBEI, CHINA - APRIL 15: (CHINA MAINLAND OUT)220 volunteers from Wuhan are vaccinated with the novel coronavirus vaccine, which is in a human clinical trial. (credit: Getty | TPG)

The clearest way out of the COVID-19 crisis is to develop a safe, effective vaccine—and scientists have wasted no time in getting started.

They have at least 102 vaccine candidates in development worldwide. Eight of those have already entered early clinical trials in people. At least two have protected a small number of monkeys from infection with the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes COVID-19.

Some optimistic vaccine developers say that, if all goes perfectly, we could see large-scale production and limited deployment of vaccines as early as this fall. If true, it would be an extraordinary achievement. Less than four months ago, SARS-CoV-2 was an unnamed, never-before-seen virus that abruptly emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Researchers there quickly identified it and, by late January, had deciphered and shared its genetic code, allowing researchers around the world to get to work on defeating it. By late February, researchers on multiple continents were working up clinical trials for vaccine candidates. By mid-March, two of them began, and volunteers began receiving the first jabs of candidate vaccines against COVID-19.

Enlarge / The mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket takes to the skies. (credit: Aurich Lawson/United Launch Alliance)

Welcome to Edition 2.42 of the Rocket Report! Our report this week is filled with news about the biggest of boosters, from flight hardware for Omega to ongoing development of Starship and the near readiness of China's most powerful rocket for its next mission.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Rocket Lab rolls out Electron in Virginia. In preparation for a launch in the third quarter of this year, Rocket Lab has rolled out the first Electron rocket that will lift off from Launch Complex 2, NASASpaceflight.com reports. This is the company's launch site at Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Construction on the launch site began in earnest in February 2019.