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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Wyoming’s Sacred Landscapes: A Journey Through Native...
The peaks of the Wind River Range rise and fall like the rhythm of a heartbeat against the vast Wyoming sky. Below, elk and bison roam the sagebrush-covered foothills. This landscape has served as a sacred backdrop for native Plains tribes for centuries—or, some say, since the dawn of humanity. Thousands of years before the Oregon Trail, before shoot-outs and saloons, and before Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch scrambled to their hideout in the hills, a resilient, close-knit...

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The Gasworks Museum in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland
The Carrickfergus Gasworks first opened in 1855. It was used to burn coal to make electricity to help power the street lamps around the town and further afield. The Gasworks utilized small furnaces known as retorts to process the coal and produce gas, which was then purified and piped around the region. The Gasworks in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was made up of three rooms filled to the brim with these retorts. It boasts Western Europe’s largest set of retorts...

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Little Ellingham Clock Tower in Little Ellingham,...
Rising out atop the trees as you drive through the sleepy Norfolk village of Little Ellingham, this utterly unique building is not what you expect to see as you appear out the end of a country road. Yet there it is, sitting on the grounds of the village’s grand Victorian hall. Built in 1855, this one-of-a-kind folly was built alongside the hall itself, and consists of a red-trimmed brick tower topped with a white wooden cupola and three clock faces...

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Mission Point Lighthouse in Traverse City,...
Michigan is home to some 129 lighthouses, more than any other state in the country, and the one at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula—located on the 45th parallel looking out across Grand Traverse Bay’s azure waters—is as idyllic as they get. Meander up route M-37, past the many riesling, pinot gris, and cab franc vineyards that make this one of the most celebrated AVAs in the Midwest, until the state highway essentially dead ends into the lake.  This...

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Kanda Myojin Shrine in Tokyo, Japan
Situated on one of the most expensive real estates in Tokyo, this Shinto shrine dates back to the eighth century, making it the oldest in the city. It also has become deeply associated with the famed Akihabara Electronic Town district nearby. The shrine was first built near what is now the Otemachi district. Due to the expanding Edo Castle, the shrine had to be moved to the former Kanda ward in 1603. It stood there for a little over...

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Concrete Hippos of Glenrothes in Glenrothes, Scotland
Following World War II, Scotland planned five totally new towns in an attempt to relieve congestion and over-crowding in many parts of central Scotland. In 1968, one of these towns, Glenrothes, became the first new town anywhere in the world to take on a dedicated town artist. As a result of this choice, Glenrothes has an eclectic and somewhat bizzare collection of over 170 art works, all set within its carefully planned urban landscape. Wandering the lanes and backstreets of...

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Creek Street District in Ketchikan, Alaska
Creek Street is one of the most popular attractions in Ketchikan, Alaska, and right away, visitors get a sense of its kitschy history. You’ll note that everything is on stilts; legend has it that because prostitution was illegal on land, those stilts were the result of resourceful Alaskans finding a way to make it work. Creek Street was Ketchikan’s red-light district up until the late 1920s. A century ago, it was filled with bootleggers, fishermen, and brothels. The main attraction...

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Winter Hill Gang Headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts
Today, the structure at 12-14 Marshall Street in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, houses a church. But it was once the central headquarters of the Winter Hill Gang and the site of grisly acts of violence. In the 1960s and 1970s, the back room of Marshall Motors was where Howard T. Winter, John Matorano, and Whitey Bulger—who was once the second most wanted man in America after Osama Bin Laden—held court and presided over their empire. Their...

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Third Man Records in Nashville, Tennessee
In 2001, Jack White, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The White Stripes, founded a record label in Detroit, Michigan known as Third Man Records. In 2009, White opened his first physical location for the label, in a run-down neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, known as Pie Town.  Today the Nashville location hosts a record store, offices, a distribution center, recording and photo studios, as well as a live music venue called The Blue Room. The record store...

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Shaolin Monastery in Zhengzhou, China
Those who grew up in the United States in the mid-1970s probably watched, or were at least familiar with, the television series Kung Fu. It starred David Carradine as a monk and kung fu expert traveling in the Old West in search of his brother. The show featured frequent flashbacks to his training at the Shaolin Monastery in China. Although the story was completely fictional, the Shaolin Monastery is a real place, believed to date back to the fifth...

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Greenbrier Ghost of Sam Black Church in...
One of the best ghost stories in history took place in this southeast county of Greenbrier, West Virginia. According to legend, in 1897, young bride Zona Heaster Shue was found dead in her home, lying at the bottom of the stairs.  Initially, townspeople assumed she had died of natural causes, until Zona’s mother, Mary, reported multiple visits from Zona’s ghost saying that, actually, she had died at the hands of her enraged husband, Edward.  At the Greenbrier County Courthouse,...

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Nankoma Island in Salima, Malawi
A few miles south of Senga Bay, along the western shore of Lake Malawi, lie the Marelli Islands—an uninhabited exclave of Lake Malawi National Park. Blue Zebra, the only resort allowed on the island, offers visitors the opportunity to experience the extraordinary biodiversity of Lake Malawi up close.  Lake Malawi, once known as Lake Nyasa, is the planet’s ninth-largest lake. Containing more species of fish than any other lake in the world, Lake Malawi is a paradise for snorkelers,...

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Alderson’s Store in Alderson, West Virginia
Vintage hats and necklaces, glassware, local handmade crafts, trains, clocks, books, and more pack the shelves at Alderson’s, one of the oldest stores in West Virginia. Established in 1887 as J.M. Alderson General Merchandise, the shop was the go-to for sundries and other necessities of the time.  Sarah Alderson, the present-day proprietor, is a direct descendant of Elder John Alderson, who founded the town itself in 1777. In 1930, the store burned down and was eventually rebuilt in its...

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Cathedral Café in Fayetteville, West Virginia
For over 120 years, a church in historic downtown Fayetteville, West Virginia, has connected its community. Though it’s no longer used for worship, the Cathedral Café keeps tradition alive today as a popular breakfast, lunch, and coffee spot.  Colorful stained-glass windows and vintage pendant lighting preserve the original ambiance. On one wall, hundreds of books fill the shelves, and are available to browse or buy (children’s books are free).  The all-day breakfast menu is full of sweet and savory...

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Bridge Walk in Lansing, West Virginia
West Virginia is home to one of the longest bridges in the world. Spanning over 3,000 feet long and rising 876 feet high, the New River Gorge Bridge was built out of pure steel. Finalized in 1977 after four years of construction, the feat’s final cost came to $37 million. The privately owned Bridge Walk offers tours for those who are brave enough to cross the 24-inch wide maintenance catwalk. For the ultra brave, grab your headlamp and go...

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