Month: August 2023

Enlarge / This long exposure photo of the Crew-7 launch shows SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket streaking into the sky over NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, followed by the return of the Falcon 9 booster to Earth. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann/Ars Technica)

SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft into orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Saturday, carrying a multinational crew from the United States, Denmark, Japan, and Russia on a flight to the International Space Station.

The four crew members strapped into their seats inside SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft overnight and then waited for a Falcon 9 rocket to shoot them into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. With a flash of orange light, the rocket's nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines ignited and propelled the Falcon 9 off the launch pad at 3:27 am EDT (07:27 UTC).

The rocket headed northeast from the Florida coast to arc over the Atlantic Ocean and line up with the flight path of the International Space Station. About two-and-a-half minutes into the launch, the Falcon 9's first stage booster separated from the rocket's upper stage to begin thrusting back toward Cape Canaveral. The return maneuver culminated in an on-target vertical landing a few miles south of the launch pad.

Enlarge / Paiter-Surui volunteers alongside "forest engineers" from a Brazillian Government support program using GPS equipment to map and measure the trees and vegetation in the "7th September Indian Reserve" Rondônia, Brazil. This information is intended to later be used to calculate the forest carbon content. Indigenous people have contributed less to climate change than has any other section of the population, yet they are among those most in jeopardy from its impact. (credit: Craig Stennett/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. 

Carbon offset projects claiming to curb deforestation are significantly overestimating their impact, according to a new study published in Science on Thursday.

Sold as a way to lessen the impact of greenhouse gas emissions by allowing polluters or consumers to purchase offsets or credits that allow them to keep emitting in return for funding projects that decrease emissions elsewhere, offsets have become a high-profile model for corporate climate action.