Blue Origin launches and lands rocket for third time

Blue Origin, a space exploration company created by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, successfully launched and landed a reusable rocket for the third time on Saturday. The launch took place from the company’s West Texas launch site.

On behalf of the University of Central Florida, an experiment involving the collision of marbles and dust was performed on the rocket with the goal being to learn how particles react when they collide with objects in the solar system.

Though no humans were on board the rocket, Bezos predicts that Blue Origin will launch flights with test crews next year and commercial flights with passengers in 2018, according to Reuters.

Overpass collapses in India

On Thursday, a highway overpass in Kolkata, India, collapsed, killing 27 people and injuring many more. The overpass had been under construction when it collapsed. Construction on the overpass began in 2007 and was predicted to end in 2009, according to the Savannah Morning News.

In an interview with CNN, K. Panduranga Rao, an executive for the company in charge of building the overpass, said that the collapse was “nothing but a God’s act” and that his company should not be held responsible. However, Indian police arrested at least four leaders of the company and charged them with attempted murder and mischief.

Syrian town recaptured from ISIS

The Syrian town of al-Qaryatain was recaptured from ISIS by Syrian government forces on Sunday. The city had been used by ISIS as a base.

The Syrian government’s advancements follow its recapture of Palmyra last week. The government was able to seize al-Qaryatain with the assistance of Russian airstrikes. Surveying the damage done to the city by ISIS, authorities noted that a historical monastery had been bulldozed. ISIS has aggressively destroyed relics as a way of erasing culture from areas it captures.

Amtrak train derails in Pennsylvania

In the latest of a series of train derailments, an Amtrak train derailed near Chester, Pennsylvania, after striking a backhoe, a type of construction vehicle, on Sunday. The incident killed two people and injured 35. Authorities are unsure why the backhoe was on the track when the train collided into it.

In an interview with Reuters, passenger Terri Dixon said, “There was a big bump, and a fireball. Everything happened so fast.”

Passenger Glenn Hills described the situation to CNN: “There was a lot of debris in the track, and we started driving through that,” Hills said. “I looked outside, and it looked like we were in this brown cloud.”

Following the incident, Amtrak suspended service from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware.