October 2014

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Serena Williams won the WTA Championships, the final women tennis tournament, defeating the Romanian Simona Halep in the final 6-3 6-0. The American confirms she’s the no. 1 in women tennis winning this title for the fifth time.

Images showing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft leaving the International Space Station (Images NASA)

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A few hours ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft ended its CRS-4 (Cargo Resupply Service 4) mission for NASA splashing down without problems in the Pacific Ocean about 500 km (about 300 miles) off the coast of California. The Dragon left the International Space Station yesterday morning, American time.

Shortly after splashing down, the Dragon was recovered from the SpaceX boats that will transport it to the coast. The cargo brought back to Earth will be delivered to NASA in the coming hours. The Dragon spacecraft had reached the International Space Station on September 23, 2014.

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Next Tuesday, October 28, the NBA championship 2014/2015 will start. This season sees the return of the Charlotte Hornets, who take the name of the first city’s team after New Orleans changed its nickname to Pelicans.

The hunt for the San Antonio Spurs is starting. Will LeBron James win the title again after going back to the Cleveland Cavaliers?

The Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission at its beginning with a Long March 3C/E blasting off (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing. All rights reserved)

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It was night in China when the Chang’e-5 T1 started successfully. A Long March 3C/E rocket blasted off from the Xichang satellite launch center and successfully sent an experimental spacecraft on a trip around the Moon. The mission is expected to last just over eight days to test some technologies needed in 2017, when China will send a robotic spacecraft to the Moon to collect samples to be returned to Earth.

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The novella “Turquoise Days” by Alastair Reynolds was published for the first time in 2002.

Turquoise is one of the worlds where the Pattern Jugglers live. They’re sea creatures with mental abilities still only partially understood. On the planet there’s also a human colony studying this species but someone someone become victim and their memories are recorded by them. Naqi and her sister Mina live on Turquoise one day Mina dies swimming with the Pattern Jugglers and is absorbed by them.

Two years later, an interstellar starship arrives in the Turquoise system, the first after many years. It also brings a group of scientists who want to study the Pattern Jugglers of the planet. Naqi becomes suspicious towards them when they ask to have access to an important research station and soon realizes that they’re hiding something.