Technology
Boeing, NASA prepare for uncrewed Starliner return 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.
Technology
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is leaving PhonePe’s board
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stepped down three-quarters from PhonePe’s board after making an identical move on the e-commerce giant.
Bengaluru-based PhonePe said it has appointed Manish Sabharwal, executive director at recruitment and human resources firm Teamlease, as an independent director and chairman of the audit committee.
Bansal played a key role in Flipkart’s acquisition of PhonePe in 2016 and has since served on the fintech’s board. The Walmart-backed startup, which operates India’s hottest mobile payment app, spun off from Flipkart in 2022 and was valued at $12 billion in funding rounds that raised about $850 million last 12 months.
Bansal still holds about 1% of PhonePe. Neither party explained why they were leaving the board.
“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Binny Bansal for being one of the first and staunchest supporters of PhonePe,” Sameer Nigam, co-founder and CEO of PhonePe, said in a press release. His lively involvement, strategic advice and private mentoring have profoundly enriched our discussions. We will miss Binny!”
Technology
The company is currently developing washing machines for humans
Forget about cold baths. Washing machines for people may soon be a brand new solution.
According to at least one Japanese the oldest newspapersOsaka-based shower head maker Science has developed a cockpit-shaped device that fills with water when a bather sits on a seat in the center and measures an individual’s heart rate and other biological data using sensors to make sure the temperature is good. “It also projects images onto the inside of the transparent cover to make the person feel refreshed,” the power says.
The device, dubbed “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (the human washing machine of the longer term), may never go on sale. Indeed, for now the company’s plans are limited to the Osaka trade fair in April, where as much as eight people will have the option to experience a 15-minute “wash and dry” every day after first booking.
Apparently a version for home use is within the works.
Technology
Zepto raises another $350 million amid retail upheaval in India
Zepto has secured $350 million in latest financing, its third round of financing in six months, because the Indian high-speed trading startup strengthens its position against competitors ahead of a planned public offering next yr.
Indian family offices, high-net-worth individuals and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, maintaining Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal co-founder Raamdeo Agrawal, family offices Mankind Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka, Cello, Haldiram’s, Sekhsaria and Kalyan, in addition to stars Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar are amongst those backing the brand new enterprise, which is India’s largest fully national primary round.
The funding push comes as Zepto rushes so as to add Indian investors to its capitalization table, with foreign ownership now exceeding two-thirds. TechCrunch first reported on the brand new round’s deliberations last month. The Mumbai-based startup has raised over $1.35 billion since June.
Fast commerce sales – delivering groceries and other items to customers’ doors in 10 minutes – will exceed $6 billion this yr in India. Morgan Stanley predicts that this market shall be value $42 billion by 2030, accounting for 18.4% of total e-commerce and a pair of.5% of retail sales. These strong growth prospects have forced established players including Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa to cut back delivery times as they lose touch with specialized delivery apps.
While high-speed commerce has not taken off in many of the world, the model seems to work particularly well in India, where unorganized retail stores are ever-present.
High-speed trading platforms are creating “parallel trading for consumers seeking convenience” in India, Morgan Stanley wrote in a note this month.
Zepto and its rivals – Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy-owned Instamart and Tata-owned BigBasket – currently operate on lower margins than traditional retail, and Morgan Stanley expects market leaders to realize contribution margins of 7-8% and adjusted EBITDA margins to greater than 5% by 2030. (Zepto currently spends about 35 million dollars monthly).
An investor presentation reviewed by TechCrunch shows that Zepto, which handles greater than 7 million total orders every day in greater than 17 cities, is heading in the right direction to realize annual sales of $2 billion. It anticipates 150% growth over the following 12 months, CEO Aadit Palicha told investors in August. The startup plans to go public in India next yr.
However, the rapid growth of high-speed trading has had a devastating impact on the mom-and-pop stores that dot hundreds of Indian cities, towns and villages.
According to the All India Federation of Consumer Products Distributors, about 200,000 local stores closed last yr, with 90,000 in major cities where high-speed trading is more prevalent.
The federation has warned that without regulatory intervention, more local shops shall be vulnerable to closure as fast trading platforms prioritize growth over sustainable practices.
Zepto said it has created job opportunities for tons of of hundreds of gig employees. “From day one, our vision has been to play a small role in nation building, create millions of jobs and offer better services to Indian consumers,” Palicha said in an announcement.
Regulatory challenges arise. Unless an e-commerce company is a majority shareholder of an Indian company or person, current regulations prevent it from operating on a listing model. Fast trading corporations don’t currently follow these rules.
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