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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.

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Molly Williams Mural in Tomar, Portugal

September 2, 2024

While the charming town of Tomar, Portugal may be better known for attractions like Convent of Christ and the Castle of Tomar, this historical town holds more hidden gems in less suspecting spots. On the local firefighting headquarters, onlookers can find an unsuspecting a mural celebrating the American heroine, Molly Williams. Williams was an enslaved person of the New York merchant Benjamin Aymar. In the harsh winter of 1818, she joined Ocean Engine Company #11 in Manhattan. Despite the lack of manual fire pumps,...

The Ancient, Astonishing History of Yerba Mate

August 30, 2024

The story of yerba mate, the potent, caffeinated elixir made from the shoots and leaves of a subtropical evergreen, runs from sacred ceremonies held centuries ago in what is now Paraguay to modern-day soccer players in Argentina, techno obsessives in Berlin, and dissidents in Syria. In The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History, Christine Folch traces the global evolution of a plant so valuable it was once used as a form of currency. As with other caffeine-rich plants,...

In This Beautiful Library, Bats Guard the...

August 30, 2024

Each week, Atlas Obscura is providing a new short excerpt from our upcoming book, Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders (September 17, 2024). The 60,000 books in the Joanine Library are all hundreds of years old. Keeping texts readable for that long, safe from mold and moisture and nibbling bugs, requires dedication. The library’s original architects designed 6-foot (1.8 meters) stone walls to keep out the elements. Employees dust all day, every day. And then...

Paul Bunyan Muffler Man in Cheshire, Connecticut

August 30, 2024

If you keep an eye out as you pass The House of Doors in Cheshire, Connecticut, you’ll spy a strapping, square-jawed depiction of Paul Bunyan looming incongruously over the landscape. This 26-foot-tall Muffler Man was erected to stand guard in front of a lumber business in the 1980s. In 2019, Paul Bunyan was temporarily removed for a minor refurbishment, then returned. His axe was replaced with an American flag due to a violation of town codes regarding its height, despite the...

Ilé in Los Angeles, California

August 30, 2024

Ilé offers diners an immersive culinary journey through West Africa with its contemporary three-course tasting menu and family-style concept. This is not your typical restaurant experience. Instead, guests are welcomed into Chef Tolu Eros’ personal apartment in Hollywood, making for an intimate dining atmosphere. Upon arrival at the apartment complex, guests are directed to the leasing office, where a concierge escorts them to Eros’ private residence. As you stand outside the discrete apartment door, the sounds of lively chatter,...

Heksensteen in Antwerp, Belgium

August 30, 2024

In the wake of the Christian Reformation in the 1500s, more than 40,000 people were executed on charges of witchcraft. If you look closely at the pavement in Antwerp, you’ll find a memorial to the victims hiding in plain sight. As Catholicism and Protestantism jockeyed for religious dominance, many cities chose sides and some chose differently from those around them, resulting in sanctions or worse. When in such a situation something or someone had to be blamed blamed for...

Gaylordsville Spite House in New Milford, Connecticut

August 30, 2024

This curious five-tiered structure, which resembles a wedding cake in house form, has an unusual history behind it. In 1961, Jan Pol, a junk dealer, built the house as a ‘monument to injustice’ at the intersection of South Kent and Riverview roads in Gaylordsville. A spite house is a building erected with the intention of annoying neighbors. Supposedly, Pol adopted a baby girl with his then wife, but the state took her away for bureaucratic reasons. As an act...

Can You Outsmart a Raccoon?

August 30, 2024

On a quiet evening in Laramie, Wyoming, what looks like a lone file cabinet sits near an abandoned barn. As the sun dips below the horizon, a commotion begins. Soon, there are paws scratching and teeth gnashing against aluminum and wood as fuzzy butts bump each other out of the way. Like desperate high school freshmen who’ve forgotten their locker codes, raccoons jostle and fiddle with various locks guarding cubbies full of delicious dog food and sardine treats. Other...

Queen Connie in Leicester, Vermont

August 30, 2024

While driving on US Highway 7 in Leicester, Vermont, you may do a double take. Standing in front of Pioneer Used Auto Sales stands the 19-foot concrete gorilla known as “Queen Connie.” Connie was built in 1987 by artist T.J. Neil to draw business to the car lot. This enormous primate was sculpted out of layers of concrete over steel rebar armature. She holds one arm aloft, balancing a VW Bug in the air. Her other arm is intentionally...

How Cherokee Trail of Tears Beans Connect...

August 29, 2024

When I grow pole beans, it’s rare they even make it to the kitchen. I wander by the planting box, in the morning to get the mail or at night coming back from a bar, and pause to pull green beans off the vine. I crunch them between my teeth, the snap and the juice, a true pleasure of summer, second only to plucking ripe cherry tomatoes straight from the vine and into my mouth. But when I grow...

Fort Forno in Bale, Croatia

August 29, 2024

Once an imposing coastal fortress, it is now an overlooked relic of Croatia’s naval history. Fort Forno was a commanding and formidable fortress, though years of disuse have left it in a dilapidated state. The fort was built in 1904. It stood 25 meters above sea level and was built using stone blocks from local quarries and a reinforced concrete structure. The architecture allowed it to blend with the natural surroundings as it was built directly into the rock,...

Alishan Sacred Tree Relics in Alishan, Taiwan

August 29, 2024

When the Japanese took control of Taiwan in 1895 and began logging the forests in the island’s interior, they discovered this 3,000-year-old cypress tree. They immediately set it apart as a sacred tree due to its size and age and preserved it, even as they logged most of the surrounding old-growth trees. Though the Japanese transferred control of the island to the Republic of China in 1945, the tree’s sacredness was respected by the island’s new leaders. In 1956,...

Mercado Abelardo L. Rodríguez Murals in Mexico...

August 29, 2024

Built in 1934 and named after the man who was president of the country at the time, the Abelardo L. Rodríguez Market was intended to represent a new ideal for a city market. It was designed by architect Antonio Muñoz, and features details of several architectural styles that were in vogue at the time, from Art Deco to Art Nouveau and Baroque. The market would become the city’s largest, part of the avant-garde ideals it strived for. Its stalls...

Palisades Sill in Eagle Nest, New Mexico

August 29, 2024

The route from Cimarron to Eagle Nest, New Mexico, has long been known for its beauty. The western half of the route is preserved as Cimarron Canyon State Park, and the crown jewel of the park is the Palisades Sill. The canyon was created by the Cimarron River, and this particular section of it is an intrusive area known as a sill. In particular, the rock seen here is monzonite, a form of igneous dacite rock created 40 million...

Hole of Horcum in Saltergate, England

August 29, 2024

Close to the A169 near Pickering in North Yorkshire, England, is a deep hole in the ground rumored to have been the work of a legendary giant named Wade. The Hole of Horcum is a geological feature formed by spring-sapping, in which upwelling water eats away at the ground, creating valleys. This 400-foot-deep natural cauldron, which measures about three-quarters of a mile across, has evolved over thousands of years since the last ice age. The widening of a narrow...

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