It was a good-sized chunk of space rock, measuring almost 70 meters across, or about "half the size of the Great Pyramids of Egypt." (The article doesn't say which of the three Great Pyramids.)

It passed as close as about half the distance between the Earth and the Moon, which would be about 120,000 miles from Earth. A "close shave." According to this article in Esquire Middle East, it did not become known to NASA until it had already passed by the Earth. Talk about "a day late and umpteen million (or billion) dollars short." It flew past the Earth on September 17th.

How did it slip through NASA's asteroids tracking network?

It came from "behind." It came towards Earth from the direction of the Sun. NASA's asteroid spotting and tracking instruments were literally blinded to it by the light and heat (infrared) from the sun.

From Esquire Middle East:

quote With all of the fancy tools that scientists have to detect asteroids, NASA currently has no way of detecting asteroids that are close to the sun. However, there is a new telescope called the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope that is being launched in 2026 that will try to better detect these objects.

William Mullally for Esquire Middle East; undated but recent.
https://www.esquireme.com/b...it-until-a-day-later

Maybe something for the still relatively new U.S. Space Force "guardians" to contemplate. Thinking back to the old Air Force marching song:

quote Off we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun; Here they come zooming to meet our thunder, At ‘em now, Give 'em the gun!

The newly designed dress uniforms for the "guardians" of the U.S. Space Force, modeled by Lt. Col. Alison Gonzalez, on the right, and on the left--well, just "some guy." I actually saw his name and rank yesterday in some other report. The most distinctive feature are the silver closure buttons that are offset, over on the "Space Guardians" right side, instead of down the center, and diagonally aligned.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 10-05-2021).]

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I don't know if I like these uniforms. They are definitely different, so I kind of dig it, but they're the dress uniforms which are usually a pain in the ass. I assume she has a silver oakleaf on her shoulder since we're calling her a Lt. Col. so the other guy looks like he's probably a Major (looks like a gold oak leaf). But I don't know how I feel about the uniforms yet...

Having a name tab on class A's just below decorations just looks weird to me.

The uniform style does remind me of the (infamous), General George Patton proposal for a U.S. armored corps uniform....replete with gold football helmet.

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 10-05-2021).]