In a major setback for United Launch Alliance, the company’s new heavy-lift Vulcan rocket carrying 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites malfunctioned during the climb to space on Sunday, dooming the payload and throwing a costly wrench into both companies’ launch schedules. “Based on data received by our Launch Director, we confirm that the Vulcan vehicle…
After a 22-hour stay in space, a SpaceX Starship rocket plunged back to Earth Saturday, enduring the blazing heat of reentry while homing in on its Texas Gulf Coast launch site, flipping vertical at the last moment and settling into the grasp of two huge mechanical arms on its launch gantry. Throngs of SpaceX employees…
Omicron isn’t causing Americans to cancel plans this holiday season, which looks to be a social one, in part because the vaccinated are at least somewhat confident they’re protected from the virus and its variants. That doesn’t mean they’re shrugging off the threat, though, but rather that they believe there are ways to mitigate it. …
Japan launched an ambitious $350 million mission to Mars on Monday to study the red planet’s two moons in unprecedented detail, dropping a small rover on the largest — Phobos — before the mothership touches down to robotically collect soil samples for return to Earth. The primary goal of the Martian Moons Exploration mission, or…
Houston — Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled what he described as a “flying” car, equipped with thrusters, during a livestreamed event at his SpaceX rocket company’s facility on Thursday. Technical and regulatory challenges have so far prevented the much-hyped flying car sector from getting off the ground. Musk revealed Tesla‘s new Roadster sports car during a…
A year ago, there weren’t many voters talking about data centers. Now, the massive facilities being built to satisfy the enormous computing needs of the AI boom have become one of the most explosive issues of the 2026 midterms, and their construction is opening a divide between the Trump administration and Republicans running in state…
NASA is working with Boeing to launch an unpiloted Starliner capsule in the December-to-January time frame to test upgrades and improvements ordered in the wake of a 2024 mission that suffered multiple propulsion system failures, stranding two astronauts on the space station for more than nine months. If the unpiloted test flight goes well, NASA…
