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Boeing, NASA prepare for uncrewed Starliner return on Friday

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Boeing and NASA prepare to bring Starliner home without its crew on Friday

NASA officials expressed confidence that Starliner would return to Earth safely and successfully late Friday evening, but they’d enough concerns in regards to the spacecraft’s operation to say the journey ought to be made without humans on board.

The high-stakes mission is ready to officially end Friday, with Starliner attempting to separate at around 6:04 p.m. EST. If all goes in line with plan, the spacecraft will land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico about six hours later.

These final maneuvers will bring to an end the troubled first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner. It was to be the last certification mission before the vehicle began operating as a daily technique of transport for astronauts traveling to and from the International Space Station. But technical problems, including issues with several of the spacecraft’s engines and several other helium leaks within the propulsion systems, emerged shortly before the vehicle attempted to dock with the station on June 6.

The two astronauts on board, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, eventually safely entered the ISS. However, the issues ultimately prolonged the mission by several months as NASA and Boeing engineers worked to find out the reason behind the anomaly. After weeks of testing, each on the bottom using replica equipment and in orbit, NASA ultimately decided on August 24 that Starliner should return to Earth empty, and Wilmore and Williams would return home using a SpaceX capsule in February 2025.

The return trip can have one major difference from normal ISS return missions: Starliner will conduct what’s called an “explosive burn” to quickly climb up and away from the station. This maneuver — which is definitely 12 small burns, each with an orbital speed of just 0.1 meters per second — will cause the engines to pulse for a shorter time frame than they did on the approach to the station. Because of this, the explosive burn likely won’t cause the identical problems engineers observed early within the mission, and subsequently won’t pose a security risk to the ISS, Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said during a news conference.

“The reason we decided to do this separation burn is that it gets the vehicle away from the station faster,” he said. “Without a crew on board to take over if necessary, there are just a lot fewer variables we have to consider when doing the separation burn, and it allows us to get the vehicle on a trajectory to get home faster.”

The next critical maneuver will likely be a 60-second deorbit burn that may place Starliner in Earth’s atmosphere and on its approach to White Sands. The spacecraft will deploy parachutes and airbags to make a soft landing on the bottom.

“We expect good burn and we have plenty of supplies, and we are relying on that to ensure a safe entry,” he added.

NASA and Boeing will conduct several months of post-flight evaluation of the spacecraft’s performance, but Stich said the teams are already considering system modifications or additional testing to get the vehicle fully certified by the space agency.

But it’s unclear what the ultimate path to certifying the spacecraft will likely be — let alone how rather more it may cost Boeing, which has already incurred greater than $1.5 billion in costs related to the Starliner program. It’s also unclear whether Boeing might want to fly one other crewed test mission.

If NASA and Boeing’s joint flight control team determine to not do the undocking on Friday, there will likely be several other opportunities in the approaching days. Astronauts aboard the space station have modified the SpaceX Dragon vehicle currently tethered to the station, equipping it with temporary seats in case of an emergency.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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