SpaceX’s Crew Dragon makes historic landing in Atlantic Ocean

After docking at the International Space Station, the unmanned capsule executed a fiery and carefully choreographed return to Earth.

NASA
  • Crew Dragon has successfully completed its six-day mission designed to test whether the capsule is fit to transport humans to the ISS.
  • SpaceX and NASA collaborated on the mission, which signals an end of U.S. reliance on Russian spacecraft to transport astronauts to the space station.
  • Boeing also is working with NASA to execute missions to the space station, and plans to conduct similar tests in the coming months.
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Technology & Innovation

Elon Musk tweets photos of SpaceX’s milestone test of Raptor rocket engine

A recent test shows SpaceX's Raptor engine is powerful enough to lift Starship and Super Heavy into space.

Elon Musk via Twitter
  • SpaceX plans to use its new Raptor engines to power Starship and Super Heavy, two craft that would be used on a future Mars journey.
  • The company has been testing its Raptor engines in Texas this week, though Thursday's announcement is the first time the engine has been shown able to produce the force necessary to lift Super Heavy and Starship.
  • Raptor is powered by methane, a fuel source that SpaceX chose because the company hopes to someday generate it on Mars.
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Technology & Innovation

Elon Musk interview reveals whether he prefers Nikola Tesla to Thomas Edison

In 2008, Elon Musk explained which of history's tech geniuses was his role model.

  • In 2008, Elon Musk told an interviewer about his role models.
  • His father had less of an influence than has been reported.
  • Musk was a fan of both Edison and Tesla but preferred Edison.
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Technology & Innovation

Greece aims to modernize its islands with Tesla Powerpacks, microgrids

Is Tesla a car manufacturer or an energy company?

media.giphy.com
  • The Greek government is considering collaborating with Tesla to modernize the electric grids on its many islands.
  • The project(s) would involve microgrids connected to Tesla's energy storage systems.
  • Tesla has helped to make energy storage technology better and more affordable in recent years.
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Technology & Innovation

No Planet B can 'ever' be made as comfortable as Earth, says British astronomer Martin Rees

The end of the world is the main focus of his new book.

KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images
  • Everybody from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking has said we should colonize a 'Planet B' due to the threat to our existence. Martin Brees, the UK's Astronomer Royal, has another perspective on it.
  • "I think we have to accept that there's no planet B, which can ever be made as comfortable as the Earth," he recently told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
  • In a time of ever-worsening climate change that threatens the very existence of human beings, his focus is on maintaining and fixing the planet we now live on, but still with an eye toward the stars.
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