Crews from the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron recently flew several missions into Tropical Storm Bertha from an airport in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. The “Hurricane Hunters” flew their first low-level flight into the storm last week to gather data on which way the storm’s winds were rotating, they then flew another six-hour sortie in the unit’s WC-130J to determine the center of the low-pressure storm. The 53rd WRS provided near real-time data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center, to help determine the storm’s trajectory, Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd WRS chief meteorologist said. As of early Tuesday, according to NHC projections, the storm had veered north, headed into the Atlantic, and was downgraded to a Tropical Storm.
Celebrating 100 Years of Liquid-Fueled Rockets
March 11, 2026
March 16, 2026, marks 100 years since Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. Over the past century, new and ever more capable liquid-fueled rockets have literally propelled humanity into space. Why liquid-fueled rockets?