Technologies

NASA Leans Into Solar Eclipse With 3 Rocket Launches: Here’s What’s Up With That

The space agency isn’t letting today’s solar eclipse go to waste.

We’re just hours away from North America’s last total solar eclipse until 2044, and as we prepare to look to the sky, NASA is preparing to launch three rockets.

Before, during and after the eclipse on Monday, NASA will fire three sounding rockets to determine how the total eclipse could affect radio communications on Earth. The findings could pave the way for NASA to develop new technologies to protect radio communications during both brief and extended periods when solar behavior disrupts particles on Earth.

Stargazers from Mexico to the US and Canada are standing by for the last total solar eclipse to pass over the contiguous US for the next 20 years. The duration of totality, or the time during which the moon completely shrouds the sun from view, will last 4 minutes and 27 seconds. The eclipse will reach Texas at approximately 1:10 p.m. ET and Maine by 2:22 p.m. ET. By 4:17 p.m. ET, it will move beyond the eastern North American border.

Firing rockets during an eclipse may sound like it comes straight from a sci-fi movie, but it’s a technique that’s been used for years to measure scientific data and theories. Indeed, eclipses provide critical, if short-lived, opportunities for scientists to gather information on a variety of topic areas to test whether their concepts are accurate.

Arguably the most important finding during an eclipse occurred in May 1919, when scientists discovered during a total eclipse that some stars appeared to be in the wrong place, according to NASA. The finding provided critical evidence to support Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and the idea that the sun or other large celestial objects have so much gravity that they can bend light and distort spacetime.

NASA’s rocket launches on Monday won’t necessarily have that same gravitas, but science works in increments. The launches will be streamed live, so you can see what happens. Here’s how.

Why is NASA firing rockets during the eclipse?

The space agency is firing three sounding rockets, or rockets carrying scientific instruments, into the ionosphere, the region of the Earth’s atmosphere between the lower atmosphere, where we live, and space.

The ionosphere is scientifically important because it’s made up of particles that become ionized, or electrically charged, when they interact with the sun’s radiation. According to NASA, the ionosphere thins at night and thickens when the sun’s rays are hitting it. The ionosphere can be unpredictable, since it’s highly sensitive to disruption.

«Earth’s terrestrial weather and space weather can impact these particles, making it a dynamic region and difficult to know what the ionosphere will be like at a given time,» NASA says.

Another thing: the ionosphere affects communication, and especially high-frequency communication like radio waves. That could, for instance, create disturbances in communications with pilots in the air or with government agencies doing research. But radio waves traveling to and from satellites aren’t just of concern to aviators and scientists. They’re also vital elements of daily life, from satellite internet services like SpaceX’s Starlink to the GPS signals that underlie all manner of financial transactions and that help you get where you’re going.

From a site in Virginia, NASA’s three rockets will be launched into the ionosphere 45 minutes apart: before the eclipse starts; when the eclipse is ongoing; and after the eclipse has reached its peak. The rockets will reach a maximum altitude of 260 miles, allowing them to spend plenty of time in the ionosphere, which spans 55 miles to 310 miles above the Earth’s surface.

Each of the rockets is carrying four two-liter soda bottle-sized instruments that will be ejected during flight to evaluate any ionosphere disturbances, or perturbations, during the eclipse.

«Gathering the data on these perturbations will help scientists validate and improve current models that help predict potential disturbances to our communications, especially high frequency communication,» NASA says.

Has NASA fired rockets at an eclipse before?

This isn’t the first time NASA has fired rockets during an eclipse. In October, NASA fired the same three rockets from its White Sands Test Facility in North Mexico during an annular solar eclipse. The agency said that it was able to recover the rockets and refurbish them, allowing them to be used in Monday’s mission.

Thanks to that mission, scientists were able to see ionosphere disturbances after it fired the second and third rockets, during and after the eclipse, respectively. NASA didn’t see any ionosphere disturbance during the first launch.

However, this time around, the rockets are equipped with additional instruments, allowing them to capture more information than they did last year, NASA says.

When is NASA firing its rockets?

NASA plans to launch all three rockets from its Wallops Island facility in Virginia. The first rocket will launch at approximately 2:40 p.m. ET, with the second rocket launching at approximately 3:25 p.m. ET. NASA plans to launch the final rocket by 4:05 p.m. ET.

As always, timing on the launches depends on a variety of factors, including on-the-ground conditions, and may be subject to change. But since the eclipse isn’t waiting for NASA to be ready to fire rockets, expect the space agency to try to keep a tight schedule to ensure it doesn’t miss its window to capture data.

How can I watch NASA fire rockets at the eclipse?

If you’re interested in watching NASA’s rocket-firing mission, the agency will livestream it from its official Wallops Island YouTube page. It’ll also be featured during NASA’s official solar eclipse broadcast

The rocket-only livestream will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET. NASA will start airing its solar eclipse coverage at 1 p.m. ET.

Technologies

I Never Fly Without This Genius Bluetooth Dongle. Here’s Why

Twelve South’s AirFly Pro has totally transformed how I watch in-flight entertainment. No more awful airline earbuds.

If you fly often, you already know the routine. You settle into your seat, start messing with the in-flight entertainment screen, then remember that your AirPods won’t connect. That means reaching for the airline’s wired headphones that feel flimsy, let in every engine roar and make everything sound muffled. Just the worst.

This is one of the most frustrating parts of flying, especially on long trips when decent audio can make all the difference. Between the engine noise, crying babies and that one guy snoring in 14C, you need a better option. The good news is I’ve found a simple device that fixes the problem completely and makes flying feel a lot more like streaming at home.

The AirFly Pro has become a must-pack item in my travel bag. It’s a simple Bluetooth dongle that lets me connect my wireless earbuds (like my AirPods Pro) directly to the airplane’s entertainment system, no adapters or wired workarounds required. Since I started using it, I’ve stopped dreading in-flight audio and finally get to enjoy movies the way they were meant to be heard. If you fly often, this little gadget could completely change how you travel.

The AirFly Pro lets me enjoy in-flight entertainment

The AirFly Pro from Twelve South is a minimally designed dongle that lets me connect to the 3.5mm headphone jack in my airplane seat to listen to in-flight entertainment on my noise-canceling earbuds. All I have to do is pair the AirFly Pro with whichever Bluetooth headphones I’m using, like my AirPods Pro, plug the AirFly Pro into the display in front of me, and I’m all set. I don’t even need to use my phone to connect the two devices.

There are four versions of the AirFly: the AirFly SE, which sells for $35 on Amazon

and connects to just one set of headphones, the AirFly Pro at $55, the Pro V2 at $60, which is the newest version of the AirFly Pro, and the Pro Deluxe at $70, which comes with an international headphone adapter and a suede travel case.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

I use the AirFly Pro, which has been a game-changer for me on flights. I’ve never had to worry about battery life since the AirFly Pro lasts for more than 25 hours and can fully charge in 3 hours. I can also pair two separate pairs of headphones to a single AirFly Pro, in case I’m with someone else on a flight and want to watch the same movie or show. And if that’s not enough, the AirFly Pro also doubles as an audio transmitter, so I can turn any speaker with a headphone jack, like my old car stereo, into a Bluetooth speaker.

The AirFly Pro makes a great gift for any traveler

The AirFly Pro is the perfect present to give to someone who’s planning to travel this year. Besides my Anker MagSafe battery pack, the AirFly Pro really has become my most treasured travel accessory when I fly, which is why I consider it to be one of those can’t-go-wrong gifts. For more travel gear, here are our favorite tech essentials to travel with and our favorite travel pillows.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

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Technologies

The Perseids Meteor Shower Brings Bright Fireballs to the Skies, Starting This Week

At its peak, you may see as many as 100 meteors per hour if you’re in a place where it’s dark enough.

Skygazers have a lot to look forward to over the next month. A couple of dueling meteor showers will grace the skies later in July, and they will be joined by perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Perseids are known for their bright fireballs and plentiful meteors. The show starts on Thursday, July 17, and will run through Aug. 23.

The reason the Perseids meteor shower is so popular is twofold. First, it takes place in the summer, so going outside and watching it is less uncomfortable than other large meteor showers like Quadrantids, which takes place in wintery January.

The other reason is that it’s one of the most active meteor showers of the year. During its peak, the meteor shower is known to spit as many as 100 meteors on average, according to the American Meteor Society. These not only include your typical shooting stars, but also a higher chance for fireballs, which are meteors that explode as they enter orbit. Per NASA, fireballs tend to last longer than standard shooting stars and can come in a variety of different colors.

Perseids come to Earth courtesy of the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth’s orbit around the sun brings it through Swift-Tuttle’s tail every year. The comet itself takes 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last perihelion — the point at which it’s the closest to the sun — was in 1992. It won’t be back until the year 2125. Until then, it leaves behind an excellent tail of dust and debris to feed us yearly meteor showers.

How to watch the Perseids meteor shower

The best time to view the Perseids is during its peak, which occurs on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. During this time, the shower will produce anywhere from 25 to 100 meteors per hour on average. However, since the shower officially lasts for over a month, you have a chance to see a shooting star on any given evening, provided that you’re far enough away from light pollution.

Thus, if you’re planning on watching this year’s Perseids during their peak, you’ll want to get out of the city and suburbs as far as possible. According to Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, folks in the city might see one or two meteors from the meteor shower per hour, which is pocket change compared to what those outside city limits might see.

Regardless, once you’ve arrived at wherever you want to watch the meteors, you’ll want to direct your attention to the radiant, or the point at which the meteors will appear to originate. Like all meteors, Perseids are named after the constellation from which they appear. In this case, it’s Perseus.

Per Stellarium’s free sky map, Perseus will rise from the northeastern horizon across the continental US on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. It’ll then rise into the eastern sky, where it’ll remain until after sunrise. So, in short, point yourself due east and you should be OK. Binoculars may help, but we recommend against telescopes since they’ll restrict your view of the sky to a very small portion, which may hinder your meteor-sighting efforts.

The American Meteor Society also notes that the moon may give viewers some difficulty. Perseids’ peak occurs just three days after August’s full moon, so the moon will still be mostly full. Thus, it is highly probable that light pollution from the moon may reduce the number of visible meteors by a hefty margin, depending on how things go.

Technologies

I Watched a $30,000, 116-Inch TV. Now I Need a Bigger Living Room

I spent a couple of hours with the Hisense 116UX TV, which has an RGB mini-LED backlight and a superfast 165Hz panel. Also, it’s big.

The whole TV industry is moving towards bigger and bigger screens, and the new Hisense 116UX takes the concept to a room-filling extreme. This is a 116-inch 4K TV that costs as much as a decent new car. But it’s not just any 116-inch, $30,000 TV. Hisense built some sophisticated tech under the hood, and I got some hands-on time with it.

I can confirm that this is a truly massive screen. Like, absolutely huge. A real unit. To give you an idea of how big it is, I’m 6 feet tall and I could not touch one end and the other at the same time. I can also confirm that I kinda want one.

Read more: Best TVs of 2025

Unique tech, meet gigantic TV

First announced at CES, this Hisense 116UX is a different type of TV than the $20,000, 115-inch TCL we looked at last year. That was a «hang out with your buddies and watch the game» kind of TV. This Hisense is not just an inch larger diagonally and 10 grand more expensive, it’s squarely aimed at the (very) well-heeled video quality aficionado.

The LCD-based Hisense 116UX uses the company’s proprietary RGB, mini-LED backlight combined with quantum dots and 3,584 local dimming zones. As the name «RGB» suggests, each individual backlight is broken up into a trio of red, green and blue mini-LEDs. Representatives for the company said these zones can also be divided further through software, and that at full pelt the screen is capable of 8,000 nits peak brightness.

The TV is set for gaming on with a native 165Hz Panel and support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Auto Low Latency Mode.

Though it lacks the level of anti-glare tech found on high-end Samsungs like the S95F I reviewed recently, Hisense’s TV has the company’s own Anti-Reflection Pro to ward off (though not completely obscure) reflected light.

Like most TVs from companies not called LG or Samsung, the 116UX runs on the Google TV operating system. If you have a Google smart home or Android phone it should integrate really well as a result.

And similar to recent Samsung remotes, 116UX comes with a suitably large remote control with a little photoelectric panel for charging with your overhead lights. Maybe it also charges from reflected light of the huge panel? It’s certainly bright enough.

The TV was the room

I spent a couple of hours with the Hisense 116UX, in Hisense’s New York demo room, which was only just big enough to fit the TV. I was reminded of Magritte’s painting of a massive apple in a small room. I watched some movie scenes, including scenes from Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and Oppenheimer.

Apart from the size, I came away with the impression that this TV is great for HDR movies, as exemplified by its surprisingly deft handling of Oppenheimer. In the test scene I used, the Hisense was able to both bring out bright pinpricks of light while also able to show the hills and sky without banding.

Spider-Man showed how bright and colorful this TV could get. The huge screen was also able to keep up with the movie’s frenetic action scenes without smearing.

I tested its light output using a Konica Minolta LS-100 light meter, which registered an impressive 7,923 nits — pretty much exactly what Hinsense claimed. It’s also double the 65-inch Hisense U8Q, the brightest TV I’ve ever measured at CNET, and roughly four times brighter than the 65-inch LG G5, the brightest OLED TV.

While I didn’t test the TV’s gaming prowess, I have no doubt it would be a real blast to rid Mars of a new demonic scourge on a screen that truly is larger than life.

I listened to the 116UX for a little bit but it sounded disappointedly «like a TV,» with boomy lower mids and a vocal forwardness. If you can afford a TV like this, you can afford a sound system to go with it, and I will (maybe) come with you to help you buy it.

A big price tag to match

Is this the holy grail of TVs? For some, perhaps. Would I have one in my home? Yes, but only if I could find a rich benefactor to buy it for me — along with a bigger apartment. For its $30,000 price tag you could buy a hell of a lot of a lot of movie tickets instead. Like around 2,000 of them. But that’s hardly the point. This is currently the best (and only) 116-inch TV available, and if you really want to make your living room seem small, the Hisense 116UX is more practical and fun than a monster-sized piece of fruit.