News around the world

A total lunar eclipse --  the longest of the century  -- was visible Friday night across much of the Eastern Hemisphere. The moon appeared red in the night sky as it moved into Earth's shadow, perfectly aligned with Earth and the sun. Totality lasted about an hour and 43 minutes, and a partial eclipse could be seen before and after that. Those in North America and other parts of the Western Hemisphere were out of luck, as the eclipse happened during daytime hours there. The silhouettes of people can be seen before the totally phase of the eclipse in Van, Turkey. Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The full moon rises behind a youth hostel in Bernkastel-Kues, in western Germany. HARALD TITTEL/AFP/Getty Images A partial lunar eclipse, as seen from Gaza City on Friday, July 27. Hatem Moussa/AP The blood moon is seen behind a mountain in Lucerne, Switzerland. Christian Merz/AP This composite photo shows sev...

SpaceX kicked off the second half of its 2018 launch schedule early Sunday with the successful delivery of a Canadian telecommunications satellite to orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — already the company’s 13th launch of the year. The mission was the first of two planned in less than a month for Ottawa-based Telesat, and potentially the first of four SpaceX could fly during the same period from the Eastern and Western ranges, with the next targeted for Wednesday morning from California. At 1:50 a.m. Sunday, July 22, a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket fired nine Merlin main engines to rumble from Launch Complex 40 on time at the opening of a four-hour window. Less than 33 minutes later, after two burns by the rocket’s upper stage, the more than 15,500-pound Telstar 19 Vantage satellite was released on its way to an orbit high over the equator. Earlier, about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster dropped to a tail-first landing on legs...