SpaceX launches GPS upgrade into orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- SpaceX has launched the U.S. Air Force's most powerful GPS satellite ever built.
A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, hoisting the satellite into orbit.
The satellite was supposed to soar Tuesday but rocket concerns and then weather delayed the flight.
Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force, says this next-generation GPS satellite is three times more accurate than previous versions and eight times better at anti-jamming. It's the first in a series and nicknamed Vespucci after the 15th-century Italian explorer who calculated Earth's circumference to within 50 miles.
Lockheed Martin developed the advanced GPS technology and is building the satellites at a facility near Denver.
Sunday's launch was Space X's 21st and final launch of the year, a company record.
Santa trackers ignore partial shutdown
DENVER -- The government may be partially shut down, but that won't stop hundreds of volunteers dressed in Christmas hats and military uniforms today from taking calls from children around the world who want to know when Santa will be coming.
The military says the NORAD Tracks Santa won't be affected by the government shutdown because it is run by volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado and is funded by the Department of Defense's budget that was approved earlier this year.
Now in its 63rd year, the Santa tracker became a Christmas Eve tradition after a mistaken phone call to the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1955. CONAD, as it was known, had the serious job of monitoring a far-flung radar network for any sign of a nuclear attack on the United States.
When Col. Harry Shoup picked up the phone that day, he found himself talking not to a military general, but to a child who wanted to speak to Santa Claus. A Colorado Springs newspaper had run an ad inviting kids to call Santa but mistakenly listed the hotline number.
Shoup figured out what had happened and played along. The tradition has since mushroomed into an elaborate operation that attracts tens of thousands of calls every year.
For the 1,500 civilian and military volunteers who will answer the phones for kids calling 1-877-HI-NORAD, it infuses the holiday with childlike wonder.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command -- a joint U.S.-Canadian operation based in Colorado Springs that protects the skies over both countries -- has taken over the Santa tracker since the tradition started. The military command center embraced and expanded the Santa-tracking mission and has been rewarded with a bounty of goodwill and good publicity.
Congolese boy in U.S. for surgery dies
A Congolese boy who was flown to the United States for surgery to remove a large facial tumor died Friday, said former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, whose foundation sponsored the child's trip.
Matadi Sela Petit, 8, was born with a cleft lip and a tumor on the left side of his face that grew as he got older, Mutombo wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday. Matadi died during surgery because of a "rare and unpredictable genetic reaction" to anesthesia.
"Despite the diligent efforts of his medical caregivers, Matadi did not recover and he passed away last night," Mutombo wrote. "We are devastated by the loss of Matadi and our heart goes out to his father, his mother and the rest of his family, and all his old and new friends."
Matadi was born in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, where he received treatment on his cleft lip at a hospital built by the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation, ABC7 reported. But his tumor required surgery from specialists who were not available at the hospital, prompting Mutombo to sponsor the boy's Dec. 12 trip to Los Angeles, where he would receive the surgery free.
Mutombo indicated in previous Instagram posts that Matadi had been shunned from society, and Mutombo expressed optimism about how the surgery would positively affect the boy's life. Footage of Mutombo waiting for Matadi at Los Angeles International Airport went viral this month.
Water notice boosts recycling in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas -- Austin's recycling center became overwhelmed by a spike in recycled plastic items in the weeks after the city ended its boil-water notice after flooding that filled lakes with silt, mud and debris.
Austin Resource Recovery saw the number of recyclables collected in October increase 8.7 percent from the same month last year, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The center's data show November's recyclables jumped 5 percent from the previous year.
Austin officials told residents on Oct. 22 to boil their tap water before drinking it after rain and flooding overloaded water treatment plants' capacity. The notice led panicked residents to clear grocery stores out of plastic water bottles and jugs before the city lifted the order Oct. 28.
Austin handed out about 626,000 gallons of bottled water over four days.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 12/24/2018