Rocket woes have again delayed NASA’s return to the moon.
The agency is now targeting a launch in March or April 2022 for its Artemis 1 flight, an uncrewed mission around the moon and the first flight of its massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. NASA was previously targeting Feb. 12, 2022, for the flight, which is the first in the Artemis program that aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade. But hiccups in the mission’s integrated testing program have forced another schedule delay.
“After performing a series of inspections and troubleshooting, engineers determined the best course of action is to replace the engine controller, returning the rocket to full functionality and redundancy while continuing to investigate and identify a root cause,” NASA officials wrote in a statement published Friday (Dec. 17). “NASA is developing a plan and updated schedule to replace the engine controller while continuing integrated testing and reviewing launch opportunities in March and April.”
In photos: NASA’s SLS megarocket core stage arrives in Florida for Artemis 1
The SLS rocket includes a core booster equipped with four RS-25 engines, each with an independent flight controller that NASA describes as the “brain” of the engine. Each of these flight controllers can operate on two channels to offer the system redundancy. Earlier this year, the Artemis 1 rocket successfully tested its full launch procedure while anchored in place, but now one of the channels of one of the controllers is acting glitchy, hence NASA’s decision to replace the system.
The full Artemis 1 system, including both the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, is at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida undergoing final tests before launch. Among the completed tests are procedures that check how ground systems communicate with each part of the mission hardware.
Several tests remain before NASA can commit to a launch date. Those outstanding items include simulating the countdown procedure, filling the rocket’s tanks with fuel and installing the systems that will abort a flight if something goes wrong.
The culmination of Artemis 1 testing before launch will be what rocket engineers call a wet dress rehearsal, during which crews execute each step of launch preparations, including filling the rocket with propellant. NASA is waiting for that test to be successful before it will officially commit to a launch date.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow uson Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Bitcoin (BTC) bulls are once again on the defensive foot after the breakout momentum that put the price above $50,000 on the weekend evaporated and pulled the price under $47,000. Analysts say the slight pullback in equities markets and the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting are the primary reasons for Dec. 13’s pullback and a few suggest that a revisit to the swing low at $42,000 could be on the cards.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Here’s a look at what analysts are saying about the current Bitcoin price action and what they expect in the short term.
Fed taper talks put pressure on the market
The current headwinds facing BTC are in large part being influenced by regulatory matters in the United States, as highlighted in a recent report from Delphi Digital, which noted that “the latest tightening by global policymakers and Fed tapering has already caused markets to reprice.”
Delphi Digital said,
“BTC is among one of the worst-performing assets compared to traditional asset classes since the November FOMC meeting, losing nearly 20% of its value over the last month.”
While this latest downturn is testing the will of many traders who hold out hope that this is just another shakeout before the price heads higher, cryptocurrency analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user CryptoCapo offered some hope after posting the following chart comparing the current price action to the price dump that was seen back in September.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Twitter
CryptoCapo said,
“These two corrections are very similar. Same 3 wave move pattern. Same bottom formation (3 touches). Same funding+premium negative rates. Same hidden bearish divergence before the last leg down.”
Looking for a bullish divergence below $46,500
Further insight into the price action for BTC was offered by analyst and Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, who posted the following chart noting that the “market is dropping down as resistances rejected on Bitcoin.”
BTC/USD 3-hour chart. Source: Twitter
Poppe said,
“Looks to me as if we’re looking for a bullish divergence to be created beneath the $46.5K area in order to have a reversal possible.”
Related: ‘Monster bull move’ means whales could secure the next Bitcoin price surge
This price action is “nothing out of the ordinary”
A final word of reassurance was provided by market analyst and pseudonymous Twitter user Rekt Capital, who posted the following chart and noted that “BTC downside wicking below the red weekly support area has happened many times in the past (orange circles).”
BTC/USD 1-week chart. Source: Twitter
Rekt Capital indicated this recent dip is par for the course and is nothing to be too concerned about in the long term.
He said,
“This sort of downside volatility at these price levels is nothing out of the ordinary.”
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.152 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 41.5%.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
For the first time in the eight-year history of the College Football Playoff, a team from a Group of 5 conference has cracked the top four in the selection committee’s rankings, which would assure it a spot in one of the two semifinals games on New Year’s Eve.
Cincinnati, one of just three undefeated teams left in the FBS, is ranked No. 4 in the latest rankings that were released on Tuesday night, behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Alabama.
Michigan is No. 5, followed by Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Ole Miss and Oklahoma. The selection committee’s final rankings will be released on Dec. 5.
The Bearcats jumped one spot after Oregon, which was No. 3 in last week’s rankings, lost 38-7 at Utah on Saturday. The Bearcats blasted SMU 48-14 at home in one of their most impressive performances of the season.
“I think it’s awesome, for our entire team, our community, our campus. But we stress to the guys, that we have a ways to go,” Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell said on ESPN’s rankings release show. “But the excitement about it, is well deserved for a group that’s fought hard all year.”
Cincinnati plays on the road at East Carolina on Friday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC and ESPN App) and then will play No. 24 Houston in the AAC championship game on Dec. 4.
“Most people have heard that we don’t talk about separation. Cincinnati, we’ve talked a lot about the win at Notre Dame, and it continues to look better,” selection committee chair Gary Barta, the athletic director at Iowa, said on the show. “And this past week, against SMU, they played very well. So, Cincinnati at four, the committee felt strongly about.”
After Week 1 of the process, Cincinnati seemed like the least respected of the contenders. But times have changed, especially with the win over the Mustangs.
“During the week, I thought we had a little more energy, and it was Senior Night, too,” Fickell said about the team’s preparation for SMU. “Trying to figure out the mindset of an 18- to 22-year-old, you never know. It all just kind of came to a head, and they had a lot of focus.”
It definitely resonated with the committee.
“We’ve had a lot of respect for Cincinnati all year,” Barta said. “But this win against SMU, the way they played offensively and defensively, we had a lot of opinions, but they came in at four.”
Barta was also asked about the breakdown at Nos. 2 and 3 for two CFP staples, the Buckeyes and the Crimson Tide.
“Two great teams, both Ohio State and Alabama. This past week, though, (Ohio State’s) dominating win over Michigan State got the committee’s attention, and the defense is playing much better,” he said. “When the vote came down, Ohio State came in ahead of Alabama.”
With Michigan and Notre Dame not far behind of course, and the committee seems to be following the Irish closely.
“Notre Dame has been building momentum all year,” Barta said. “They are a terrific team, and they are highly thought of by the committee.”
But the news of this week is Cincinnati.
“We try to preach to them, to not allow the outside noise to affect us, and try to somehow find a way to enjoy what’s going on,” Fickell said. “We try to take their minds into what they need to do, and not focus on what other people think they need to do.”
Ohio State, which suffered its only loss of the season to Oregon at home on Sept. 11, moved ahead of Alabama, the defending national champion, after another impressive performance this past weekend. The Buckeyes routed Michigan State 56-7 at home, scoring touchdowns in each of their seven first-half possessions. Ohio State has won nine consecutive games heading into Saturday’s road contest at Michigan.
The Crimson Tide dropped one spot from last week’s ranking after another so-so performance in a 42-35 victory against Arkansas at home. It was Alabama’s second close call in the last three games; it defeated struggling LSU 20-14 at home on Nov. 6.
Oregon and Wake Forest fell eight spots after ugly losses last week, while Michigan State dropped five. Utah moved up four spots, and Clemson joined the rankings for the first time after a 48-27 win against the Demon Deacons.
WASHINGTON — NASA announced Nov. 22 that it is delaying the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope by at least four days to investigate an incident that took place preparing the spacecraft for launch in French Guiana.
NASA said that, working in conjunction with the European Space Agency and Arianespace, it has delayed the launch of JWST on an Ariane 5 from Dec. 18 to no earlier than Dec. 22 to perform additional testing of the spacecraft after the incident.
In that incident, according to the NASA statement, a “sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band” that secures JWST to its launch vehicle adapter “caused a vibration throughout the observatory.” Those activities, the statement added, were the responsibility of Arianespace.
It’s not clear exactly when the incident took place other than in the last few days. NASA officials did not mention it during a pair of Nov. 18 briefings about the science and instruments of JWST, saying at the time that the mission was still on schedule for a Dec. 18 launch.
“Of course, when you work on a $10 billion telescope, conservatism is the order of the day,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said when asked about the incident during a Nov. 22 press conference about the upcoming launch of the agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
He said that, because JWST is so close to launch, it did not have sensors that had been in place when it was transported to French Guiana to measure the effect of the clamp release on the spacecraft, leaving only calculations estimating the force imparted on it. “For sheer caution, what we have done after these calculations is gone back to a small number of subsystems and just do the functional tests to make sure that, with all of that conservatism, to be sure that nothing happened.”
“It’s just the right thing to do right now, to do these tests, to make sure everything is as ready as we hope they are,” he said. “I hope that, in just a few days here, we will be in good shape.”
Boeing’s Starliner astronaut taxi won’t get off the ground this year after all.
Starliner was originally supposed to launch Aug. 3 on Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2), a critical uncrewed trial mission to the International Space Station for NASA. But prelaunch tests revealed 13 stuck valves in Starliner’s service module, pushing the liftoff back — all the way into next year, it now appears.
“Potential launch windows for OFT-2 continue to be assessed by NASA, Boeing, United Launch Alliance and the Eastern Range,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Friday (Oct. 8). “The team currently is working toward opportunities in the first half of 2022 pending hardware readiness, the rocket manifest and space station availability.”
In photos:Boeing’s Starliner OFT-2 mission in pictures
United Launch Alliance builds Starliner’s rocket ride, the powerful Atlas V. The Eastern Range is the U.S. Space Force entity that oversees launches from the East Coast. (OFT-2 will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.)
Boeing has made considerable progress on the valve issue to date, NASA officials said.
“Boeing has identified a most probable cause related to oxidizer and moisture interactions, and although some verification work remains underway, our confidence is high enough that we are commencing corrective and preventive actions,” NASA officials wrote in Friday’s update. “Additional spacecraft and component testing will be conducted in the coming weeks to further explore contributing factors and necessary system remediation before flight.”
In 2014, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program selected Boeing and SpaceX to provide astronaut transportation to and from the space station, awarding both companies multibillion-dollar contracts. SpaceX has already launched two operational missions to the orbiting lab with its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule and is gearing up for a third liftoff on Oct. 30. The company also launched a crewed test flight to the station called Demo-2 in May 2020.
Starliner has yet to carry astronauts, however, and cannot do so until it aces an uncrewed test flight to the space station.
As its name suggests, OFT-2 will be Boeing’s second crack at that crucial mission. On the first try, which launched in December 2019, Starliner suffered multiple glitches, got stranded in the wrong orbit for a meetup with the station and landed after circling Earth solo for three days.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
Inspiration4, SpaceX’s first all-civilian mission, will launch at least a day late.
The three-day mission will now launch from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 15 (1200 GMT Thursday, Sept. 16) due to a combination of weather conditions and technical requirements, Inspiration4 said Friday (Sept. 10) in a mission update.
Inspiration4 is a private mission to Earth orbit purchased by Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments. He’ll be joined on the flight by Hayley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski.
Live updates: SpaceX’s Inspiration4 private all-civilian orbital mission
Mission managers met Thursday (Sept. 9) to perform a standard flight readiness review before flight, along with receiving an initial weather briefing. The decision was made after looking at weather conditions at the launch site, ascent area and landing sites along with “the readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, associated ground systems, recovery assets and other key elements of SpaceX’s human spaceflight system,” the update stated.
The new date, the update added, “will allow additional time for final preparations, vehicle checkouts and data reviews. SpaceX and Inspiration4 will narrow down the launch window to five hours approximately three days before liftoff.”
There are a few other milestones that must be met before the crew of four rocket to Earth orbit. The Inspiration4 release indicated that more work on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is still a fairly new vehicle after its first crewed flight in 2020, is forthcoming. The spacecraft was successfully mated with its Falcon 9 rocket and is now expected to have “an integrated static fire test targeted for this weekend,” ahead of the launch.
The Crew Dragon being used is a vehicle named “Resilience,” which also flew on SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Resilience will make a solo journey this time, flying higher than the ISS this time before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The all-civilian crew has had six months of training since the names were announced in March.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow uson Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.
TOKYO (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach appeared in public on Tuesday for the first time since arriving in Tokyo last week and with the pandemic-postponed Olympics opening in just 10 days.
Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee’s five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days.
His first stop was the headquarters of the organizing committee to deliver a pep talk with the beleaguered games set to go ahead without fans in almost all venues.
Organizers and the IOC decided last week to ban fans from all but a handful of outlying venues, a move that came after the Japanese government instituted a state of emergency in Tokyo forced by rising coronavirus cases. The state of emergency went into force on Monday and runs through Aug. 22.
The state of emergency will be in effect throughout the entire duration of the Olympics, which open on July 23 and close on Aug. 8. Its main impact is to push bars and restaurants to close early and stop selling alcohol, a move aimed at cutting down circulation on crowed trains.
“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,” Bach said in his opening remarks to organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto and CEO Toshiro Muto. ”This is even more remarkable under the difficult circumstances we all have to face.”
Bach tripped over his words, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people.”
“Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people — Japanese people,” Bach said, catching his mistake quickly.
Bach’s comments in the briefing were interpreted from English to Japanese, but the slip was not included in the interpretations. Still, the Japanese media quickly reported it and there was backlash on social media.
Bach ended his speech with a Japanese phrase: “Gambari mashou,” which translates as “Let’s do our best.”
Bach’s visit on Tuesday coincided with the official opening of the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay. Organizers did not offer an immediate count of how many athletes were on hand.
Bach is scheduled to visit Hiroshima on Friday in an effort to tie the Olympics to the city’s effort to promote world peace. IOC Vice President John Coates is to visit Nagasaki the same day.
Japan’s Kyodo news has reported that a group in Hiroshima is opposing Bach’s visit.
A small group of protesters gathered on Saturday outside Bach’s hotel carrying placards that said he was unwelcome.
Organizers have been criticized for pressing ahead with the Olympics during the pandemic amid polls that show — depending on how the question is phrased — that 50%-80% of the public oppose the Olympics taking place.
The Olympics will involve 11,000 athletes entering Japan along with tens of thousands of others including officials, judges, media, and broadcasters.
Also on Tuesday, police in Tokyo said a group of four U.S. and British men working for a power company contracted to the Olympics were arrested on suspicion of using cocaine.
Aggreko Events Services Japan confirmed it employed the suspects and apologized for the trouble. NHK public television reported the four suspects entered Japan from February to May and were staying in Tokyo.
New virus cases in Tokyo were reported at 830, up from 593 one week ago. It is the 24th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previous.
The office of the Japanese prime minister said Tuesday that 18.5% of Japanese are fully vaccinated.
___
More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Mannarino was forced to retire against Roger Federer after slipping in the fourth set and injuring his knee, while Williams appeared to slip and hurt herself during a return in the first set against Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
After receiving medical attention, Williams then buckled at the baseline midway through a point and gingerly walked off the court in tears, later saying she had a right leg injury.
“Brutal for @serenawilliams but centre court is extremely slippy … Not easy to move out there,” tweeted two-time Wimbledon winner Andy Murray, who had played on the tournament’s main show court on Monday.
Federer, who reached the second round through Mannarino’s retirement, learned of Williams’ injury during his press conference.
“It feels a tad more slippery maybe under the roof, I don’t know if it’s a gut feel,” he told reporters.
“You do have to move very, very carefully out there, and if you push too hard in the wrong moments, you do go down … this is obviously terrible. I don’t think it plays very different but again I’m also moving carefully.”
Federer, who is bidding to win a ninth title at Wimbledon, will face two-time semifinalist Richard Gasquet in the second round.
Following the two incidents, which happened just an hour apart, the All England Lawn Tennis Club said in a statement to CNN: “The preparation of the grass courts has been to exactly the same meticulous standard as in previous years.
“Each grass court is checked by the Grand Slam Supervisors, Referee’s Office and Grounds team ahead of play commencing, and on both days of the Fortnight they have been happy with the conditions and cleared the courts for play.
“The weather conditions on the opening two days have been the wettest we have experienced in almost a decade, which has required the roof to be closed on Centre Court and No.1 Court for long periods.
“This is at a time when the grass plant is at its most lush and green, which does result in additional moisture on what is a natural surface.”
Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, videos and features
Kyrgios, a man never afraid to speak his mind on the tennis court, had a separate complaint about the grass.
During his match against Ugo Humbert, which was suspended with the score poised at 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-1 3-3, Kyrgios said into a courtside camera: “Guys, for you watching at home, it should be fast in here … They’ve made it slow. This isn’t grass anymore.”
Kyrgios’ match against Humbert will conclude on court number one on Wednesday.
As American Idol Season 19’s top 24 shows continued apace Monday, charming crooner Beane was paired with classical crossover superstar Josh Groban during the celebrity duets round, and it was a match made in theatrical pop heaven. The two belted “Angels” by British showman Robbie Williams, and while I would have preferred it if they’d performed Robbie’s bonkers rollerdisco banger “Rock DJ” instead, I did appreciate Beane’s more subtle attempt to flip the script of this historically conservative program. And so did Josh, who happily encouraged Beane to be himself onstage.
“I am so blessed. I have so many pillars: family, wonderful friends, my boyfriend, just stunning people that are constantly lifting you up,” gushed Beane, when Josh asked him if he had anyone in mind for his “Angels” dedication. While Beane hadn’t yet brought up his sexuality on the show, he had discussed it in a recent press interview, so his brief onscreen mention of a “boyfriend” almost seemed like an afterthought. But then as Beane prepared to perform, he told Josh, with a glint in his eye: “In a small moment of maybe defiance to the norm, I guess, I’m just going to switch the word ‘she’ out for ‘he.’ And we’re gonna let it rock.”
While a pronoun swap in a song might seem like no big deal, on a show like Idol it was still significant, even in 2021. It wasn’t until Season 13 that Idol even featured an openly gay contestant discussing her sexuality on the air: MK Nobilette, who memorably serenaded her girlfriend with John Legend’s “All of Me” and made it to 10th place. MK might have opened doors for other queer contestants like Season 16’s Jurnee and Ada Vox and Season 17’s Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and Uché, but before that, contestants either came out after their Idol runs (Clay Aiken being the most famous example of that), or simply avoided talking about their personal lives on the show. Adam Lambert addressed speculation that he was gay in a Rolling Stone cover story that ran one month after he placed second on Idol in 2009 (it was the top-selling Rolling Stone issue of that year) and no doubt kicked open doors as well… but as recently as 2016, that same magazine wrote: “Gay, lesbian, and transgender performers have won Grammys, Oscars, and topped the charts, but they will never win American Idol.” (Last year, Just Sam in fact became the series’ first queer champion, though she didn’t directly acknowledge her sexuality until she conducted an interview with the New York Post right after her win.)
Think you know American Idol? Test your at-home trivia chops in augmented reality with a round of ‘Guess the Idol’:
Anyway, my point is… even Beane singing, “He offers me protection” on Idol was a bold move, especially so early in the competition, on a night that determined who will advance to the top 16. But as he told On the Pulsehin, coming out improved his own songwriting, and in his original love songs inspired by his boyfriend, he always uses the pronouns “he” and “him.” So, there was no reason to assume that Beane had just covered the Jessica Simpson version of “Angels” instead of Robbie’s this Monday. As judge Lionel Richie told Beane: “You made us turn around on every note to say, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ And we noticed exactly what you were doing.”
And what Beane did was pretty awesome. “I’m going to take some of that Josh Groban spice and put it in the Beane soup, and we’re servin’ it up, honey!” he proclaimed. And, well, I was eating it up and hankering for more. Beane was already my favorite male contestant of Season 19, but when he held his own next to a stupendous master-class vocalist like Groban, I was even more enthusiastically on board.
I also really enjoyed Beane’s loungey, slowed-down solo performance of Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” — that was when I got my Beane rollerdisco fix, albeit more of a Couples’ Skate version — which he smoothly trilled while rocking some diamond-dust eye shadow (literal glints in his eyes!) and punk plaid pants, giving me all those Jake Shears/Neil Tennant/Brendon Urie vibes. Judge Katy Perry was impressed with Beane’s “thoughtful” arrangement on that left-field number, and she told him, “I would sign you. I think you have incredible artistic vision … I would invest in you any day!” Katy doesn’t have her own record label, yet, but hopefully someone will sign Beane after this, because he took a potentially viewer-alienating risk this Monday. But even if he doesn’t win Idol’s Hollywood Records contract this season, he performed this week on his own terms, and whenever and however his album does come out, I’ll be in line to buy it.
As for the rest of Monday, it was, like the previous evening’s episode, briskly paced — with 24 musical numbers crammed into two hours, as this second batch of 12 contestants performed one solo number and one celebrity duet each. Next week, eight singers — four from the bracket that competed on Easter Sunday, and four from Monday — will be eliminated, based on the first public vote of the season. And in the exasperated words of Lionel Richie: “All I want to know is, what is America going to do?” This show was arguably even more competitive than Sunday’s, and Beane was hardly the only standout. But let’s assess the other 11 performances and try to figure it all out.
Jason Warrior
Singing first is almost always the kiss of death on Idol, especially on a night packed with this many performances, but hopefully Jason did enough here to leave a lasting impression in voters’ minds. Katy even said these were the two best top 24 performances she’d seen so far, which was a high praise after Sunday’s excellent episode. Mr. Warrior certainly came out fighting on the Weeknd’s “Call Out My Name” as he fell to the floor and just wailed. (It was a mic-drop/knee-drop that reminded me of Bilal’s scene-stealing “Beautiful Ones” on the 2016 BET Awards’ Prince tribute, and I loved it.) This was a genius song choice, modern but with that old-school-entertainer vibe that Jason does so well. (“That was as much old-school as new-school as your school,” Lionel later raved.) Jason’s duet with PJ Morton on a Quiet Stormy remake of my favorite Bee Gees song, “How Deep Is Your Love,” also went deep. Jason was clearly going for it, knowing this might be his last shot after competing on The Voice and then alienating regular singing-show viewers with his bad attitude on The Four. And I was totally rooting for him, totally buying into his made-for-TV redemption storyline. “I love how you leave it out there every time. It’s just good old-fashioned gettin’ sweaty ‘n’ dirty and entertaining,” said judge Luke Bryan.
Madison Watkins
Madison is such a shining star, it’s puzzling to me that she has received such a severe edit this season. It was especially puzzling when Luke, after witnessing Madison’s vivacious version of Justin Bieber’s “Holy,” implied that her “striking” image and abilities as a “natural entertainer” had actually placed her at an disadvantage this season because they “overshadowed” her voice. That made zero sense on a show that constantly praises contestants for their charisma or “sparkle.” Anyway, Madison sparkled tonight, even when sharing the stage with her idol and hair twin, Tori Kelly, doing what Tori confessed was the toughest song in her catalog, Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You ‘Bout a Thing.” Madison admitted she was “terrified” to duet with Tori, and I did see some of that nervousness on her face — but I didn’t hear it in her voice. Katy even described their performance as “vocal Olympics,” and this time, Katy meant that in a good way. Madison is probably in danger due to her lack of previous screentime, but if she gets voted off, she can take solace in the fact that she’s already made it further on Idol than Tori ever did (Tori was cut by the judges on Season 9’s Green Mile episode) — and Tori has managed to do all right for herself.
Hannah Everhart
This country rebel started off strong on Chris Stapleton’s “I Was Wrong”… and then everything just went wrong. She was serving smoky Alannah Myles realness at first, but when went she went for that big power note, she missed it by a country mile. Ouch. Hannah stayed confident and didn’t let her mistake show on her face, but it certainly showed on the dismayed judges’ faces. (ABC, please give a raise to whichever camera person quickly cut to that Katy reaction shot.) Hannah fared better on her Jason Aldean duet of “She’s Country,” which could totally be her theme song. “She knows how to come in and take over a room,” Jason said of the inexperienced but swaggering performer. Katy noted that there were “a couple of things that didn’t hit the bullseye” during Hannah’s solo number, and Luke told Hannah, “Once your talent catches up with this little star that you are, it’s gonna be so fun to watch.” That sort of sounded like a preemptive goodbye, but Hannah might coast through on her personality and the loyalty of the country audience this week.
Mary Jo Young
Ed Sheeran’s “Castle on the Hill” was a smart song pick for this spitfire — youthful, hopeful, triumphant, contemporary — but I wish Mary Jo had taken a page from Jason Warrior’s playbook and gone for it and pushed it more. She approached the song too tentatively, so the chorus didn’t have the big payoff I was yearning for. Her inexperience also showed during her duet with Jewel on the mighty and melodramatic “Foolish Games”; this girl is so green, she didn’t even know what it meant to sing in “unison,” and Jewel actually seemed unimpressed during rehearsal. Onstage, Jewel completely drowned Mary Jo out, and their painful unison moment did not work at all, but Mary Jo had a couple standout moments at the end. The judges were much more impressed than Jewel was, with Luke telling Mary Jo, “You were your own artist doing it in your own style, and it really, really worked,” and Lionel stating, “You’re young, you’re fresh, and you represented your generation.” I still question whether this TikTok teen is ready for prime time, but she could be, if she gets the chance to learn and grow.
Chayce Beckham
Chayce’s solo cover of another Ed Sheeran tune, “Afterglow,” wasn’t all that exciting, but it was solid and self-assured and exuded a certain quiet strength. It was during his duet with Brandon Boyd on Incubus’s “Drive” that Chayce surprisingly stepped it up — way, way up. Sure, he didn’t have Brandon’s natural smolder and star quality, but his rough, husky vocals were the perfect complement to Brandon’s crisper, reedier tone, and the song fit him so well, it sounded like his original. I would even say his voice overpowered Brandon’s. Katy was thrilled, comparing Chayce to Alejandro Aranda and predicting Grammys in Chayce’s future. Lionel praised Chayce’s “magical” and “identifiable” rasp, and Luke even described Chayce as “Springsteen-cool.”
Colin Jamieson
This ex-boy band member was giving me Blake Lewis vibes on his effervescent reggae-pop cover of my all-time favorite Bruno Mars song, “Locked Out of Heaven,” but it was a total bummer that the band’s disjointed arrangement cut out the entire “your sex takes me to paradise” section (presumably because that lyric was too PG-13). This weird edit of the ramping-up pre-chorus threw off the energy of the song, and it seemed to momentarily throw Colin off his game. But he did put his teen-heartthrob experience to good use, vamping and ad-libbing and working the crowd like a readymade pop star, and he was also clearly at ease dueting with Tori Kelly on a soaring “Hollow.” Said Katy, “You look like you play 300 shows a year. I was like, ‘Am I at Warped Tour, bro?” Luke loved that Colin was “having fun in the moment” and Lionel loved how Colin “treated the stage like his living room,” but it was odd that none of the judges commented on Colin’s vocals — which were strong, especially considering how much he was moving around.
Liahona Olayan
I was digging Liahona’s tomboy swag, which reminded me of Season 15’s Avalon Young, on her cover of “Just Friends” by Audrey Mika. Liahona had definitely gotten her groove back after her losing her momentum earlier this season. As she prepared to duet with PJ Morton on “Say So,” she knew she had something prove because her previous duet in Hollywood Week had been such a disaster, and she knew it would be a challenge because melancholy, plaintive ballads are not in her comfort zone. But she seemed eager for her redemption and a chance to show she’s “not just a pop artist,” and she rose to the occasion. There were some moments when she seemed awkward and too inside her head, but as Luke put it, her voice was “radio-ready” with “harmonies in and out for days.” Lionel gushed on and on about “your phrases, your note placement, the interaction… and that fact that you are pulling it all off with a karate kick!” Katy believed Liahona “leaned in” and did what she needed to do.
Ava August
Ava is the youngest contestant of Season 19, something the judges and producers never let viewers forget. But in all fairness, it would be easy to forget that she’s only 15, especially after her next-level performances this week. Ava’s exquisite cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” — obviously a perfect song for her age, the times, and her singer-songwriter style — made it seem like she was the one who wrote it, and her storytelling delivery was just conversational enough without compromising her vocal range. She was giving me Folklore/Evermore/cottage-core vibes, and the judges, their shocked faces looked like living GIFs, were stage-whispering “wow-wow-wow-wow” throughout, right up until that heart-in-throat ending. Equally stunning was Ava’s Josh Groban duet on Joni Mitchell’s iconic “Both Sides, Now” — a tall order for a singer of any age, let alone one who’s hardly old enough to relate to the song’s reflective, stock-taking mood. But Ava sang like a woman, not a girl, who’s truly lived, and she earned comparisons to Judy Garland from Luke and the title of “Queen” from Katy. Just as Celine Dion once sang “The Prayer” with an 18-year-old Josh Groban at the 1999 Grammy Awards and a star was born, it felt like Josh was paying it forward by giving Ava this lovely, career-launching moment.
Caleb Kennedy
I wish Caleb, a self-admittedly shy 16-year-old who considers himself more of a songwriter than singer, wouldn’t always hide half of his face in the long shadow of a baseball-cap brim, which made it hard for me to connect with his workmanlike cover of the Allmans’ “Midnight Rider” this week. A confessional budding songwriting great like Caleb needs to burn holes through the camera lens when he performs (and needs to perform more originals, which is when he really comes to life). Luke said Caleb’s solo song was a better showcase than his “Flyover States” duet with Jason Aldean, but I thought Caleb brought good energy to that second performance, surprisingly because he was willing to ditch his “crutch” — his guitar, that is — and work the stage more. I think the more Caleb pushes himself out of his comfort zone, the more of a threat he will be in this competition. All the raw talent is there. As Katy noted, he is always “authentically himself,” and as Lionel put it, he is “possessed by a very old, seasoned country man.”
Hunter Metts
Season 15 winner Trent Harmon had his big breakthrough moment (and gave one of the best Idol performances of all time) with Sia’s “Chandelier,” and I wondered what an introspective troubadour like Hunter would be able to bring to such a huge, intense song. To be perfectly honest, I think the power ballad was way too big for him, even though I respected his Alison Krauss-esque bluegrass spin on it. His delicate voice and vulnerability are usually his greatest strengths, but he also seemed lost and overwhelmed during his duet with Jewel on “Who Will Save Your Soul”; Katy pointed out the “fear in his eyes.” This was disappointing, given Hunter’s immense potential. But the judges seemed confident that he would get another chance to show what he can really do, and I hope they were right. “The beauty of you is if you have a great night, an OK night, or not a great night, you still have such an undeniable-sounding voice that you can always count on,” Luke assured Hunter. “On a bad day you sound just like yourself, so you can’t mess this up,” added Lionel.
Casey Bishop
Someone who was definitely not overwhelmed or fearful this evening was this petite powerhouse, who had the judges and even her fellow contestants headbanging in earnest as she operatically wailed Paramore’s “Decode.” This was a powerful and believable rock performance, and most importantly, it felt youthful and relevant, not like a nostalgia exercise aimed at Gen X and Boomer viewers. And when this teen rock goddess dueted with Brandon Boyd on Incubus’s “Wish You Were Here,” Brandon almost seemed intimidated by her, calling her a “natural frontperson” and letting her own the centerstage. Katy thought Casey could have taken it even further and advised her to “make the stage her bitch” and “sing with teeth” next time. If Casey does push it further, I think she’ll push herself all the way to the end — and make the finale stage her bitch.
So now, it is prediction time. I think the contestants from this batch most likely to go home are Jason (mainly because of his “death spot” placement), Madison (because of her lack of screentime), Beane (because of homophobia, sadly), and either Mary Jo, Hannah, or Hunter (because they stumbled and struggled the most). But I don’t think anyone, except Ava and Casey, are totally safe. We’ll have to wait until this coming Sunday to learn the results from this week’s two-part top 24 round, but regardless of who advances to the top 16, with a talent-packed season like this one, we are in for a world of hurt and some emotional early goodbyes.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Spotify
Liam Gratton had the ride of his life on Canada’s Table Mountain over the weekend,
CTV News reported.
But the 12-year-old snowboarder hadn’t planned on it happening on his chairlift ride up the Saskatoon slopes, the station said.
What happened?
Liam told CTV that after a quick lift bar adjustment he simply “slipped off” the chair. His older brother Luke noted to the station that a safety bar was removed too early.
Image source: CTV News video screenshot
Either way, Liam was able to grab the edge of the chairlift before falling, CTV reported — and he was forced to continue hanging on through the trip up the slope.
Image source: CTV News video screenshot
Aaron Arcand and a friend saw the whole thing while riding the lift behind Liam, the station said: “Right in front of us all of a sudden we just saw the little boy there kind of looking on the side, and I think he got too close to the side and slipped.”
Like others witnessing the scary moment, all they could do was watch and shout encouragement to Liam.
“We couldn’t do anything, we just had to sit there,” Arcand told CTV. “I started telling that boy to ‘just hang on, don’t let go, just keep on hanging man, just don’t let go.’ It was intense, a shocked feeling.”
Arcand also pulled out his phone and recorded the ordeal, the station said.
Here’s the full clip:
Kid Hangs From Chairlift After Slipping From Seat at Saskatchewan Ski Resort
youtu.be
Fortunately Liam was able to hang on all the way to the top:
Image source: CTV News video screenshot
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Arcand added to CTV that once he got to the top, too, he checked on Liam and complimented him on his upper body strength.
So, how do we tell Mom?
Liam’s mother Kaelah Gratton told the station her sons informed her of Liam’s adventure when they got home — but that she didn’t quite understand. Then she saw the clip that was already quickly making the rounds on social media, and then she understood all too well.
“I watched it, and I watched it, and I just got sicker and sicker thinking about what would’ve happened if he would have fallen,” she told CTV.
Image source: CTV News video screenshot
Table Mountain’s general manager Lawrence Blouin told the station he’s relieved that Liam held on: “Thank God, because it could have been a very serious incident.”
function addMenuClickListener() {
var rebelMenu = document.getElementsByClassName('rebelbar__menu-toggle');
var menuClose = document.getElementsByClassName('hm__close');
var stickyMenu = document.getElementsByClassName('sticky-menu');
