On Friday, four astronauts were brought home by SpaceX with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The crew consisted of three U.S. astronauts and one German. Within 24 hours of leaving the International Space Station, they were bogging off the coast of Florida near Tampa. NASA demanded them back in Houston later in the morning. Before saying their goodbyes to the seven astronauts remaining aboard the station, NASA's Raja Chari, NASA's Tom Marshburn, NASA's Kayla Barron and ESA's Matthias Maurer embraced each other. Mr Maurer said, “It’s the end of a six-month mission, but I t
On Monday, the US government allocated more than $3 billion in infrastructure funding to finance electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing. The US Department of Energy will allocate these funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed by President Biden last year. By 2030, Biden wants half of all new vehicles to be electronic, with an aim to boost unionized manufacturing jobs in important election battleground states, fend off Chinese competition in a fast-growing market, and cut climate-changing carbon emissions. Moreover, the administration is positioning the measures a
On Friday, a Singaporean Research scientist Wang Weimin wins a $100 k prize in a challenge to develop the best artificial intelligence (AI) model for detecting Deepfakes or digitally altered video clips. Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence to simulate the likeness and voice of another person by generating highly realistic images and audio. In addition to creating entertainment content and Internet memes, it has also been used to disseminate misinformation. In a five-month challenge, Wang's model was 98.53 per cent accurate and beat 469 other teams around the world. The mode
Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute developed a novel silver-based coating for implants that can reduce infection caused in patients sometimes. The silver coating can be applied to devices like stents or catheters and is described as a “silver bullet”. The term is used to address the problem of bacteria caused for patients with medical device implants that often complicate conditions. Professor at UBC’s Department of Pathology and laboratory medicine, Dr Kizhakkedathu said, “This is a highly effective coat
On Wednesday, four astronauts were launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station from NASA in less than two days of completing a flight chartered by millionaires. It was expected that astronauts would reach the space station on Wednesday night, 16 hours after the predawn launch from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators. NASA’s space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said, “This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we’ve had in a really, really long time. Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was”. Jessica Watkins became the
On Monday, the social media giant “Twitter” confirmed its sale to the Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk. With the deal to shut on $44 billion to be completed by this year, Twitter will become a privately held company. Musk Tweeted, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans”. The
On Thursday, Bharti Group-backed Satcom company OneWeb inks a pact with ISRO’s commercial arm New Space India Limited (NSIL) to boost satellite-based internet service. The launch is aimed to build a global network to provide high-speed, low-latency connectivity to “everyone, everywhere”. As a result of the subsequent launches, OneWeb will now have 428 satellites orbiting in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) which is 66% of the planned fleet. The pact was signed to complete its satellite launch programme to provide global internet connectivity. The first launch with NSIL is scheduled this
NASA will launch the Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than April 23. It released a statement, “NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 5:26 a.m. EDT [9:26 a.m. GMT] Saturday, April 23, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida”. The crew will consist of NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. It will head to the ISS on the Falcon 9 rocket bearing the Crew Dragon capsule
The International Space Station (ISS) will be busier than usual this week when four new crew from Houston-based startup Axiom Space take to the skies. They will be the first all-private astronaut team to visit the orbiting outpost. A spokesperson for Axiom said on Monday that SpaceX would have more time to complete prelaunch processing work after the launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday. Several industry players are hailing the launch as a turning point in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures known collectively as the low-Earth orbit economy, or LEO economy for sho
On Thursday, in Kennedy space centre, Florida, the massive 322-foot-tall (98 meters) stack along with NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rolled out for its debut. The Artemis I mission moves a step closer to its lunar launch which officially began at 5:47 p.m. On Thursday afternoon, a mobile launcher carrying the integrated stack began a slow climb to launch position. It took almost 11 hours to cover the 4 miles (6.4 kilometres) from the assembly building to the launchpad on one of the giant NASA crawlers of the Apollo era. On Friday, the stack reached the pad at 4