The week's good news: October 22, 2020

1.

Vivian "Millie" Bailey has had a lot of adventures during her 102 years of life, and on Sunday, she made another memory when she fulfilled her dream of going skydiving. "I just always thought it would be a thrill," Bailey told WJZ. The Howard County, Maryland, resident is a World War II veteran, having joined the U.S. Women's Army Auxiliary in 1942. Bailey received the American Theater Medal, Women's Army Corps Medal, and World War II Victory Medal, and was honorably discharged in 1946 as a first lieutenant. Bailey worked in the government, and has spent her retirement giving back, sending care packages to troops and raising money for local schools. "I try every day to do something for someone else," Bailey said. "There are a lot of things that I can look back on. I am thoroughly happy and feel blessed that I've been able to do whatever I've been able to do." [WJZ]

2.

Over the course of 24 hours, a stray kitten went from wandering around a Kentucky airport to living the good life with its new adopted family. Last Wednesday, members of the operations team at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport discovered the disheveled kitten on a terminal ramp, and quickly rescued it. They cleaned the kitten up and took care of it overnight, and the next morning, Wes England, a public safety officer at the airport, eagerly offered to provide the rescue a new home. It was love at first sight when England brought his new furry friend home — WLKY reports England's wife, Katrina, and kids Hailey, 14, and Gage, 4, already adore the kitten. In honor of its past life, England named the kitten Boeing, a.k.a. Bo. [WLKY]

3.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made history Tuesday when it briefly touched down on the asteroid Bennu, more than 200 million miles away from Earth. This was the first mission of its kind for NASA, with OSIRIS-REx launching in September 2016 and spending the last two years orbiting Bennu. The spacecraft has been sending back data and images, but its main reason for going to Bennu was so it could use its robotic arm to collect a sample. NASA says preliminary data shows the event went well, with the touchdown lasting less than a minute, but scientists won't know for sure if a sample was collected until all of the data is analyzed. OSIRIS-REx is set to start the trip back to Earth in 2021, arriving in 2023. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said this was "an incredible feat ... we've advanced both science and engineering and our prospects for future missions to study these mysterious ancient storytellers of the solar system. "

4.

It's not every day that a baby is born on Maine's Little Cranberry Island — but if one is, it's likely going to be a member of the Fernald family. On Sept. 26, Erin Fernald Gray and Aaron Gray welcomed their sixth child, Azalea Belle Gray, with Erin delivering the baby at their Little Cranberry Island home. Warren Fernald, Erin's grandfather, was the last person born on the tiny island, all the way back in 1927. "I think the connection with my grandfather is nice," Erin told Good Morning America. Little Cranberry is one of five islands that make up the town of Cranberry Isles, population 120. The town clerk, Denise McCormick, told GMA that Azalea "lives in a house full of love," and Erin said she believes her grandfather, a lobster fisherman who died in 2005, would "probably have some wisecrack" about his great-granddaughter being the one to take over his title. [Good Morning America]

5.

Archaeologists trying to improve access to an overlook onto Peru's ancient Nazca Lines, a UNESCO world heritage site since 1994, discovered a 120-foot-long geoglyph of a cat on the side of a hill, the country's culture ministry announced this week. "The figure was scarcely visible and was about to disappear because it's situated on quite a steep slope that's prone to the effects of natural erosion," the culture ministry said. "Over the past week, the geoglyph was cleaned and conserved, and shows a feline figure in profile, with its head facing the front." The cat drawing was estimated to have been created between 200 and 100 B.C., during the late Paracas era and before the time of the Nazca culture. The Nazca Lines are geometric shapes and animal drawings etched into the Peruvian desert 250 miles south of Lima, the capital. Other figures include a monkey, an orca, and a hummingbird. [The Guardian]