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L.L. Bean has just added a third shift at its factory in Brunswick, Maine, in an attempt to keep up with demand for its iconic boot.

Orders have quadrupled in the past few years as the boots have become more popular among a younger, more urban crowd.

The company says it saw the trend coming and tried to prepare, but orders outpaced projections. They expect to sell 450,000 pairs of boots in 2014.

People hoping to have the boots in time for Christmas are likely going to be disappointed. The bootsare back ordered through February and even March.

"I've been told it's a good problem to have but I"m disappointed that customers not getting what they want as quickly as they want," said Senior Manufacturing Manager Royce Haines.

Customers like, Mary Clifford, tried to order boots on line, but they were back ordered until January.

"I was very surprised this is what they are known for and at Christmas time you can't get them when you need them," said Clifford.

People who do have boots are trying to capitalize on the shortage and are selling them on Ebay at a much higher cost.

L.L. Bean says it has hired dozens of new boot makers, but it takes up to six months to train someone to make a boot.

The company has also spent a million dollars on new equipment to try and keep pace with demand.

Some customers are having luck at the retail stores. They have a separate inventory, and while sizes are limited, those stores have boots on the shelves.

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See photos from around LA of the SpaceX rocket launch - NBC Southern California

SpaceX is facing fresh allegations from the National Labor Relations Board that it retaliated against workers who debated hours, pay and conditions.

When SpaceX employees gathered to hash out the work environment at their facility, the company interfered with, restrained and coerced them, the NLRB said in a Thursday filing. The filing also claims that SpaceX discouraged the employees from contacting the NLRB for assistance.

The employees who continued to meet to discuss their wages and conditions were fired, according to the labor board.

The filing is the latest in an unfolding labor battle between Elon Musks SpaceX and the NLRB.

In January, the board accused SpaceX of retaliating against a group of employees who disseminated a letter criticizing the companys work environment.

In early March, another scandal erupted at the company when a former employee came forward alleging that SpaceX fostered an environment of sexual harassment. Michelle Dopak claimed that her manager pressured her into a sexual relationship and eventually offered her $100,000 to get an abortion after she became pregnant.

SpaceX has responded dramatically, accusing the NRLB of operating unconstitutionally. The company and others under siege by the NLRB have sued the board, alleging that it is violating their right to a trial by jury.

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NRLB: SpaceX retaliated against employees who raised concerns about wages, working conditions - Washington Times

Following a successful launch of NASAs SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the agency are on the way to the International Space Station, including studies of technologies to measure sea ice and plant growth in space.

SpaceXs Dragon resupply spacecraft, carrying more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the orbiting laboratory, launched on the companys Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to autonomously dock at the space station on Saturday, March 23, at approximately 7:30 a.m. and remain at the orbital outpost for about a month.

Live coverage of the arrival will begin at 5:30 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, and on the agencys website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms.

The Dragon will deliver a new set of sensors for Astrobee robots to support automated 3D sensing, mapping, and situational awareness functions. These systems could support future Gateway and lunar surface missions by providing automated maintenance and surface scanning using rovers. Additionally, the spacecraft will deliver BurstCube, a small satellite that is designed to study gamma-ray bursts that occur when two neutron stars collide. This satellite could widen our coverage of the gamma-ray sky, improving our chances of studying bursts both with light and gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, detected by ground-based observatories.

Finally, the spacecraft also will deliver sampling hardware for Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space (GEARS), an initiative that will test different locations of the space station for antibiotic-resistant microbes. In-flight gene sequencing could show how these bacteria adapt to the space environment, providing knowledge that informs measures to protect astronauts on future long-duration missions.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances from this scientific research will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon through NASAs Artemis campaign, in advance of the first crewed mission to Mars.

Get breaking news, images and features from the space station on Instagram, Facebook, and X.

Learn more about NASA commercial resupply services missions at:

https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/commercial-resupply/

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Josh Finch / Julian Coltre / Claire OShea Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / claire.a.oshea@nasa.gov

Stephanie Plucinsky / Steven Siceloff Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-876-2468 stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov / steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

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NASA Science, Hardware Aboard SpaceX's 30th Resupply Launch to Station - NASA

A SpaceX Starlink launch lit up skies across the U.S. West Coast on Monday evening (March 18), leaving a dazzling trail seen for hundreds of miles.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California's central coast Monday at 10:28 p.m. EDT (7:28 p.m. local time; 0228 GMT on March 19). The launch vehicle carried a batch of 22 Starlink satellites to add to SpaceX's ever-expanding wireless internet megaconstellation.

In what's come to be known as the "jellyfish" effect, the dusk launch provided ideal conditions for the setting sun to light up the rocket's expanding engine plume against the darkening sky, as the vehicle climbed high into Earth's atmosphere.

Related: SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites from California in dusky evening liftoff (video)

The launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base is notorious for its overcast and extremely foggy conditions, so Monday's clear skies were a relatively rare treat for onlookers.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX shared photos of the launch.

Many X users responded to SpaceX's post, sharing their photos of the Falcon 9 jellyfish, which could be seen in neighboring states. "I can see it from my rooftop in Arizona," wrote Brandon D. Schilling (@BrandoSchil).

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Observers at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles were also treated to the sky site, as the Falcon 9's trail stretched above the busy city low on the horizon.

Monday's launch was the 10th mission for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, which landed downrange on SpaceX's droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean shortly after liftoff. The rocket's second stage continued to orbit, successfully deploying the 22-satellite payload in low Earth orbit (LEO).

SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation currently consists ofmore than 5,500 satellites, and continues to grow. A recent test launch of the company's giant Starship vehicle included a payload bay door designed to deploy SpaceX's next-generation Starlink satellites, expected to add thousands more to the network once in operation.

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SpaceX's evening Starlink launch wows West Coast skywatchers (photos) - Space.com

SpaceX just tested a new astronaut ride one that takes folks down to the ground rather than high above it.

That ride is a deployable slide installed atop the tower at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), a pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It's designed to get astronauts off the tower in a hurry in the event of an emergency before liftoff.

We just got to see the slide in action, thanks to a video SpaceX posted on X on Tuesday (March 19). The 24-second video provides an astronaut's-eye view of the slide experience, which though serious business wouldn't be out of place at an amusement park.

"Even though its meant to be used for emergencies, it looks like a lot of fun!" SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via X on Tuesday, in a post responding to the slide video.

Related: SpaceX to launch 30th cargo mission to the ISS for NASA this week

The recent slide test is part of SpaceX's effort to certify SLC-40 for astronaut launches. SpaceX has launched 13 crewed missions to date, all of them from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which is next door to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

To evacuate from Pad 39A's launch tower, astronauts jump into baskets that slide down wires to terra firma. The SLC-40 system is different, as the new video shows: It's an enclosed chute that deploys from the top of the tower when needed, riding already-emplaced cables to the ground.

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

SpaceX has launched many (uncrewed) missions from SLC-40 over the years. And another one will lift off on Thursday (March 21), if all goes according to plan.

A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station from the pad on Thursday at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT). You can watch the action here on Space.com when the time comes.

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Whee! Zip down from the launch tower in SpaceX's new emergency-escape slide (video) - Space.com