On Monday, the UK saw the closure of its last operational coal power plant, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, which has been operating since 1968. The closure of the plant, which had a capacity of 2,000 megawatts, brought to an end to the history of the country’s coal use, which started with the opening of the first coal-fired power … Read more
US space officials do not like to talk about the perils of flying astronauts on the aging International Space Station, elements of which are now more than a quarter of a century old. However, a new report confirms that NASA managers responsible for operating the space station are seriously concerned about a small Russian part … Read more
For years, Tesla has proudly paraded its advanced driver assistance system, Full Self-Driving as being the real deal. It’s claimed the system can navigate traffic, manage highway driving and repeatedly claimed it’s the future of driving, despite the number of crashes, collisions and even deaths linked to the system mounting. Now, a new study has … Read more
Our planet is choking on plastics. Some of the worst offenders, which can take decades to degrade in landfills, are polypropylene—which is used for things such as food packaging and bumpers—and polyethylene, found in plastic bags, bottles, toys, and even mulch. Polypropylene and polyethylene can be recycled, but the process can be difficult and often … Read more
OpenAI truly does not want you to know what its latest AI model is “thinking.” Since the company launched its “Strawberry” AI model family last week, touting so-called reasoning abilities with o1-preview and o1-mini, OpenAI has been sending out warning emails and threats of bans to any user who tries to probe how the model … Read more
A white spacecraft, lightly toasted like a marshmallow and smelling of singed metal, fell out of the night sky early on Sunday morning and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico not all that far from Key West. The darkened waters there were carefully chosen from among dozens of potential landing spots near Florida. This … Read more
Until now, NASA has paid Boeing roughly $2.7 billion of the $4.6 billion total potential value of its commercial crew contract, according to Finch. The Starliner contract NASA awarded Boeing in 2014 originally had a maximum value of $4.2 billion, but contract modifications since 2014 have added $400 million to the deal. Most of the … Read more
Photo: NASA The Boeing Starliner has been, in technical terms, a bit of a clusterfuck. Its development was hamstrung by Boeing’s greed, and now the spaceship is stuck on the International Space Station unable to transport its astronauts home. The ship is now scheduled to undock and head home later this week, but a new … Read more
On Saturday NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed some strange noises emanating from a speaker inside the Starliner spacecraft. “I’ve got a question about Starliner,” Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “There’s a strange noise coming through the speaker … I don’t know what’s making it.” Wilmore said he was … Read more
Boeing’s Starliner mission has been an utter cock up for the aerospace company. Shortly after the craft launched to the International Space Station with two astronauts onboard, issues were found with the craft that mean Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will now be stuck in space until 2025. Now, it’s emerged that the harsh realities … Read more
