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☆ 3 suspicious objects have been downed across North America this week. Officials have no idea where 2 of the UAP came from and the pilots who shot them down can't agree on what they even look like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

US fighter aircraft shot down an object threatening airspace over Alaska yesterday. On Saturday, another unknown object, described as "cylindrical," was shot down over Canada. Here is what we know about the object shot down on Friday. The object shot down on Saturday was spotted in the Northern Canadian territory of Yukon. It is unclear if the object shot down off the Alaskan coast was of similar size or shape.

☆ BorgWarner sees EV business to grow at least 72% in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - BorgWarner Inc (BWA.N) said on Thursday it expects sales from its electric vehicle (EV) business to grow at least 72% in 2023 as the U.S. auto supplier increasingly shifts its focus toward EV makers. The company's sales were at $4.1 billion, compared with estimates of $3.90 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company's net income was $1.26 per share, compared with estimates of $1.08 per share. The Michigan-based company also expects net sales in the range of $16.7 billion to $17.5 billion for 2023, compared with estimates of $16.82 billion. It forecast adjusted net earnings of $4.50 to $5.00 per diluted share, compared with expectations of $4.92 per share.

☆ A secret Russian satellite has broken apart in orbit, creating a cloud of debris that could last a century
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A secretive Russian satellite broke apart in Earth's orbit, the US Space Force said on Monday. Kosmos 2499 launched secretly and made "suspicious" maneuvers to complete a mysterious mission. The 18th Space Defense Squadron said on Twitter Monday that it had confirmed a satellite called Kosmos 2499 had broken apart into 85 pieces. The bizarre behavior led to speculation that Russia was testing technology to follow or wreck other satellites, according to Space.com. The first secret satellite, Kosmos 2491, broke apart in 2019.

☆ A Swedish-made fighter jet could tip the scales against Russia in Ukraine, but it might not get there any time soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Sebastien Roblin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Ukraine's air force remains in the fight almost a year after Russia's shambolic invasion. Sooner or later, Ukraine must induct new jet fighters into service — and they sure aren't buying them from Russia. JAS-39 Gripen: background and capabilitiesA Swedish JAS 39 Gripen at Bobo, Norway in October 2018. A Hungarian Air Force JAS-39 Gripen in August 2010. JAS-39 Gripen vs. F-16A US Air Force F-16 takes off from Aviano Air Base in Italy in June 2020.

☆ Israeli drones use free-falling bombs, can carry up to a tonne
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TEL AVIV, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Israeli armed drones use gravity bombs that produce no noise or smoke as they fall, making them hard for enemies to anticipate or evade, and the largest model of the aircraft can carry up to a tonne of munitions, the military says. After more than two decades of secrecy, Israel in July went public with the existence of armed drones in its arsenal. The former, the officer said, "is the heaviest drone that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has, which can carry munitions, with an effective payload of around a tonne". The Israeli manufacturers do not publicise the armed capabilities of the drones, under what industry sources have described as a Defence Ministry secrecy policy. All the drone munitions are Israeli-made, the officer said, and "come down in free-fall, and can reach the speed of sound".

☆ Asteroid's sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth's surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land. But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. But with current capabilities, astronomers can't see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior. The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.

☆ A mailman, a NASA scientist and a park ranger: Some government employees shrug off TikTok bans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Jean-Pierre, who’s from Morristown, New Jersey, has attracted 215,500 followers on the video app where most days he posts from his mail truck during his lunch break. As of last month, all federal workers are banned from having TikTok on their work phones. In some places, using a personal device isn’t enough to get around TikTok restrictions. There’s no telling precisely how many federal workers use TikTok, but certain hashtags show the breadth of its popularity. The public relations staff at some federal agencies said they had no plans to interfere with what federal workers did on their own.

☆ An Asteroid Whizzed Past Earth Thursday
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Suryatapa Bhattacharya | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An asteroid the size of a big truck raced over Earth Thursday, just 2,200 miles above the planet’s surface, according to a NASA tracker, in what scientists had said would be one of the closest approaches ever recorded. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had predicted the asteroid, named 2023 BU, would travel over the Pacific Ocean west of southern Chile, Thursday afternoon Pacific time.

☆ NASA and DARPA plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket that could take humans to Mars in record time
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NASA aims to test a nuclear-powered rocket within five years, the agency said Tuesday. The space agency aims to put humans on Mars for the first time by the late 2030s. The agency is teaming up with the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to make a rocket that could reach Mars in record time. The agency aims to put humans on Mars, for the first time, by the late 2030s or early 2040s. Transit to Mars using a nuclear-powered rocket could take four months, a lot shorter than the usual nine months for older rocket models, Reuters reported.

☆ Asteroid coming exceedingly close to Earth, but will miss
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: 1 min

APE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will whip past Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest such encounters ever recorded. NASA insists it will be a near miss with no chance of the asteroid hitting Earth. NASA said Wednesday that this newly discovered asteroid will zoom 2,200 miles (3,600 kilometers) above the southern tip of South America. That’s 10 times closer than the bevy of communication satellites circling overhead. NASA’s impact hazard assessment system, called Scout, quickly ruled out a strike, said its developer, Davide Farnocchia, an engineer at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

☆ Asteroid 2023 BU to Whiz Past Earth in One of the Closest Ever Approaches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Suryatapa Bhattacharya | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An orbital diagram from the Center for Near Earth Object Studies’ close-approach viewer showing the asteroid 2023 BU’s trajectory in red. The orbit of geosynchronous satellites is shown in green. An asteroid the size of a big truck will fly by Earth on Thursday just 2,200 miles above the planet’s surface in one of the closest approaches ever recorded, scientists said. The asteroid, named 2023 BU, will travel over the Pacific Ocean west of southern Chile, Thursday afternoon Pacific time, according to Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

☆ U.S. to test nuclear-powered spacecraft by 2027
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The United States plans to test a spacecraft engine powered by nuclear fission by 2027 as part of a long-term NASA effort to demonstrate more efficient methods of propelling astronauts to Mars in the future, the space agency’s chief said on Tuesday. NASA will partner with the U.S. military's research and development agency, DARPA, to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion engine and launch it to space "as soon as 2027," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said during a conference in National Harbor, Maryland. NASA officials view nuclear thermal propulsion as crucial for sending humans beyond the moon and deeper into space. DARPA in 2021 awarded funds to General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin to study designs of nuclear reactors and spacecraft. By around March, the agency will pick a company to build the nuclear spacecraft for the 2027 demonstration, the program's manager Tabitha Dodson said in an interview.

☆ I used to work on Mars rovers and now I develop self-driving cars. Here's how I made the pivot from NASA's JPL to Amazon's Zoox.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The former supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab now works at AV startup Zoox. I figured after all the startups, why not work for a big company, and what better big company than NASA? ZooxThe AV space is the next frontier of robotics. What we're trying to do here in the AV space, it's extremely multidisciplinary. You're doing perception, you're doing planning, you're doing prediction, doing simulation.

☆ Why we love to anthropomorphize space-faring robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

We know Mars rovers are robots, but they feel like friends, or pets. "It's the way the rovers are designed," Abigail Freeman, the deputy project scientist of the Curiosity rover, told Insider. The first selfie NASA's Opportunity Mars rover snapped. Their ability to snap selfies on the Martian surface make them seem self-awareNASA's Curiosity Mars rover created this selfie in front of Mont Mercou. On February 12, 2019, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sent the last commands to ask NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars to call home.

☆ The Offshore Oil Business Is Gushing Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Bob Henderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The $1.2 billion Deepwater Titan sat idle in a Singaporean shipyard for five years, looking like an abandoned cruise ship with a derrick attached to its deck. Soon this vessel that spans nearly three football fields will depart for the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where its crew will be able to drill 8 miles below the seafloor in search of oil for Chevron Corp. The hunt for offshore petroleum is on again, fueled by a surge in global demand for energy, supply disruptions triggered by the war in Ukraine and crude prices that remain above prepandemic levels. Other giant rigs such as Titan that were dormant near the end of the last decade are also now operating in deep waters along the coast of Brazil, while rigs lacking propulsion are mining shallower waters in the Middle East after hitching rides to that part of the world on tugboats.

☆ I pilot NASA's first and only Mars helicopter. My job can be like a video game, but not the kind with a joystick.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Håvard Grip pilots NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which has flown 40 times on Mars. I'm the chief pilot for NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, in a close-up from the Perseverance rover's cameras. Members of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team stand next to the Collier Trophy. How we fly a helicopter on MarsMembers of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory react to data showing that the helicopter completed its second flight.

☆ NASA awards $425 mln to Boeing for fuel-efficient airliner research project
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - NASA said on Wednesday it awarded $425 million to Boeing Co (BA.N) for the agency's "Sustainable Flight Demonstrator" project as the Biden administration works to cut aviation sector emissions. Boeing will work with NASA to "build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft and validate technologies aimed at lowering emissions," the agency said. Over seven years, NASA will invest $425 million, while Boeing and its partners will contribute the remainder of the agreement funding, estimated at about $725 million. Single-aisle aircraft account for nearly half of worldwide aviation emissions. The White House is targeting 20% lower aviation emissions by 2030, as airlines facing pressure from environmental groups to lower their carbon footprint pledged to use more sustainable aviation fuel.

☆ Russia's troops are tied down in Ukraine, but some of its best subs are still holding the US 'at risk,' top US commanders say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

US military leaders have warned that Russia's Severodvinsk-class subs are operating near US coasts. Severodvinsk-class subs have a mix of stealth and striking power that worries US and NATO navies. Russia plans to build nine Severodvinsk-class subs, which it calls the Yasen class, and may add more in the future. In addition to nuclear propulsion, Severodvinsk-class subs have advanced quieting technology and are built with low-magnetic steel, making them harder to detect. They demonstrated it in the mid-2010s by firing Kalibr cruise missiles at ISIS targets in Syria, surprising some US officials.

☆ NASA awards $425 million to Boeing for fuel-efficient airliner research project
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

NASA has selected Boeing and its industry team to lead the development and flight testing of a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) demonstrator airplane. NASA said on Wednesday it awarded $425 million to Boeing for the agency's "Sustainable Flight Demonstrator" project as the Biden administration works to cut aviation sector emissions. Boeing will work with NASA to "build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft and validate technologies aimed at lowering emissions," the agency said. Over seven years, NASA will invest $425 million, while Boeing and its partners will contribute the remainder of the agreement funding, estimated at about $725 million. The "Transonic Truss-Braced Wing" demonstrator single-aisle airplane aims to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by up to 30%.

☆ As Russia's only aircraft carrier falls apart, some Russians want to undo a shady ship deal with China 25 years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Russia's sole aircraft carrier has been sidelined for years and may not see action again. A Russian lawmaker has proposed trying buying China's Liaoning aircraft carrier as a replacement. Liaoning began life as a Soviet carrier, but China acquired it in a shady sale in the late 1990s. Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning during a drill in the western Pacific in April 2018. A 40-year-old aircraft carrier in the Black Sea won't provide much value.

☆ Stellantis CEO delivers a technology statement with a Ram truck
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Joseph White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The electric "Ram 1500 Revolution," unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, is a one-of-a-kind show vehicle meant to whet appetites for a production model due in 2024. It will arrive after rivals' offerings in one of the most important segments of the North American electric vehicle market. The real electric Ram truck will launch more than two years after the smaller Rivian (RIVN.O) R1T electric pickup and Ford's (F.N) F-150 Lightning electric truck. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the long-delayed Cybertruck will launch this year from a factory in Texas. ($1 = 0.9479 euro)Reporting by Joe White in Las Vegas Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The first full-color image released from the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope is the sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever produced, according to NASA. Space Telescope Science Institut / NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERONASA released the first batch of images from the tennis court-sized observatory to much fanfare in July. The exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. Back to the moonFifty years after the final Apollo moon mission, NASA took key steps toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface. Chinese officials have also said they intend to use the space station for space tourism and commercial space initiatives.

☆ It should take another 300 years for NASA's Voyager 1 probe to reach the most distant region of our solar system. Until then, it's cruising through the void between the stars.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between stars, called interstellar space. Both plucky spacecraft continue to send data back from beyond the solar system — and their cosmic journeys are far from over. A diagram showing both of NASA's Voyager probes in interstellar space as of November 2018. An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. NASA/JPL-CaltechFor the last decade, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, which is full of gas, dust, and charged energetic particles.

☆ On Pluto you could throw a baseball over the Great Pyramid of Giza, a scientist's animation reveals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An astronomer's animation reveals how far the average person could throw a ball on different worlds. On Pluto, your baseball could clear the Great Pyramid of Giza. Watch a ball throw on each planet in our solar system, plus Pluto and the moon, below. At just two-thirds the diameter of our moon, Pluto has such weak gravity that your baseball could clear the 455-foot-tall Great Pyramid of Giza — with room to spare. The video plays out in "real time," showing how long each ball throw would take, O'Donoghue said.

☆ NASA Mars lander InSight falls silent after 4 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

It could be the end of the red dusty line for NASA’s InSight lander, which has fallen silent after four years on Mars. Ground controllers at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory knew the end was near, but NASA reported that InSight unexpectedly didn’t respond to communications from Earth on Sunday. “It’s assumed InSight may have reached the end of its operations,” NASA said late Monday, adding that its last communication was Thursday. InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and was the first spacecraft to document a marsquake. Just last week, scientists revealed that InSight scored another first, capturing a Martian dust devil not just in pictures, but sound.

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