October 2024: A Booster Caught and a Moon Chased
October 2024 gave spaceflight a 48-hour double header. On Sunday, October 13, SpaceX caught a returning Super Heavy booster in the launch tower's arms, a first. On Monday, October 14, NASA sent Europa Clipper toward Jupiter's ocean moon. The month holding both ran 31 days, from Tuesday, October 1 to Thursday, October 31. Earth got five Tuesdays, five Wednesdays and five Thursdays to watch from.
The shape of October 2024
The ledger: 31 days, 23 business days, eight weekend days. Five Tuesdays, five Wednesdays and five Thursdays; four of every remaining weekday. Week numbers ran 40 to 44.
The sky opened the month early. An annular solar eclipse arrived on Wednesday, October 2. Its ring of fire crossed the Pacific, Easter Island and the far south of Chile and Argentina. The full Hunter's Moon followed on Thursday, October 17, with last quarter on Thursday, October 24.
The space weekend
Sunday, October 13: the booster came home. Super Heavy steered itself back to the Texas coast, and the launch tower's mechanical arms, nicknamed “chopsticks”, closed around it midair. The point was reuse: a rocket caught is a rocket that can fly again.
Monday, October 14 belonged to NASA. Europa Clipper rose on a Falcon Heavy, the largest planetary spacecraft NASA has ever built. It is bound for Jupiter's ice-covered moon and the ocean beneath. Arrival is set for 2030, a patient errand.
Nobels, auroras and a comeback
Stockholm's Nobel week leaned toward the machines. Physics went on Tuesday, October 8 to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, pioneers of the neural networks behind modern AI. Chemistry followed on Wednesday, October 9 for protein-folding work. Literature on Thursday, October 10 went to Han Kang, the first South Korean to win it.
The sky performed as well. A severe geomagnetic storm on October 10 and 11 pushed the northern lights over Germany, Britain and the northern United States. Baseball finished its season on Wednesday, October 30. The Los Angeles Dodgers, down 5-0, came back to beat the New York Yankees 7-6 and take the World Series.
At the box office, the little film won. Terrifier 3, made for about 2 million dollars, beat Joker: Folie a Deux outright. Its debut weekend, October 11 to 13, brought in 18 million dollars.
Two storms, two continents
October's weather turned lethal twice. Hurricane Milton came ashore in Florida on Wednesday, October 9 as a Category 3 storm. Its winds hit 120 mph and its bands spun dozens of tornadoes; more than 20 people died.
On Tuesday, October 29, a year's worth of rain fell in hours around Valencia, Spain. The flash floods killed more than 220 people. The month that caught a booster also mourned on two continents.
A rocket landed in a pair of chopsticks and a spacecraft left for an ocean beyond the asteroids. October 2024 aimed high and stuck the landing.