Science
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are grounded after an in-flight failure
![](https://upliftedstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/spacex_falcon_9_jul11.jpg)
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket experienced an engine failure after it launched late Thursday night from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission, Starlink Group 9-3, was carrying Starlink satellites and failed to reignite its upper second stage after developing a leak. “Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown,” Elon Musk said overnight, confirming that the engine experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
Falcon 9’s second stage performed its first burn nominally, however a liquid oxygen leak developed on the second stage. After a planned relight of the upper stage engine to raise perigee – or the lowest point of orbit – the Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn.
The company’s statement says it will do a full investigation into the incident in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the company said on its website. The Falcon 9 has been grounded by the FAA pending the results of the investigation, reports CNBC.
On Friday afternoon, the company said it had made contact with 10 satellites of the 20 that had been onboard but noted that the satellites are “in an enormously high-drag environment with their perigee, or lowest point of their elliptical orbit.” The maximum available thrust is “unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” SpaceX said, meaning that they will reenter the atmosphere and “fully demise.”
The satellites “do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety,” according to the company.
Science
Neon’s 2073 paints a bleak picture of the future in new trailer
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Director Asif Kapadia is best known for his documentaries chronicling the lives of entertainment icons whose work left indelible marks on the worlds of music and sports. But his next feature looks like a nightmarish vision of a future that feels all too possible.
Though 2073, Kapadia’s new film, features plenty of archival news footage from our present, it’s also a sci-fi thriller set in a distant future where years of climate-related disasters and the rise of authoritarianism have transformed the world into a dystopian hellscape. To people like Ghost (Samantha Morton) — a woman barely surviving in an apocalyptic San Francisco by keeping off the grid — it’s all too clear how societies across the globe descended into chaos. But rather than fully dramatize those moments in history, 2073 buttresses its story with real-world newsreels and interviews with journalists about how the gradual erosion of democracy in the past paves the way for a terrifying new world order.
Along with shots of various political strongmen like Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, Kim Jong Un, and Donald Trump, 2073’s trailer also emphasizes how Silicon Valley titans like Mark Zuckerberg play key roles in fostering the spread of fascism. And while the film doesn’t yet have a release date, as time-specific as 2073’s story seems to be, it probably won’t be long until it’s playing in theaters.
Science
EcoFlow launches four new batteries for phones, homes, and RVs
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EcoFlow just launched four new battery products designed to power everything from your home appliances in the event of a blackout to your Qi2-compatible phone to RVs.
Going from most powerful to least, there’s the second-generation Power Kit to power your off-grid vanlife fantasies, the midrange Delta 3 and compact River 3 solar generators, and the Rapid Qi2 wireless power banks for phones that can also charge your laptop in a pinch.
The Power Kit v2 is a follow-up to its original all-in-one power management system I reviewed 18 months ago. The kits are designed to power everything from an off-grid cabin to a small campervan, without the complexity of having to cobble together all the required components and wiring yourself. EcoFlow says the new 5kVA 48V Power Kits are improved for RVs, quieter — a recurring complaint with the original — and offer even more storage capacity. The expanded 45kWh battery limit is enough to boondock for a week or longer if your rig is big enough to store nine hulking 5kWh LFP batteries.
The Power Hub at the heart of the system can output up to 4000W (with 8000W surge), which is more than enough to power multiple appliances simultaneously like a high-pressure espresso machine, induction cooktop, and air conditioner. It also supports a variety of inputs that can be combined to quickly charge those batteries from sources like the vehicle’s primary (or secondary) alternator, shore power, and gobs of solar.
EcoFlow’s improved Power Kits can now monitor and provide the status of water tanks and temperature sensors when configured with a new Power Link information hub. This and other changes like a larger 10-inch dedicated console display and support for more fused AC and DC circuit branches should make EcoFlow’s plug-and-play Power Kits a more capable system for even the largest land yachts.
The Delta 3 series is a medium-size solar generator that comes slathered in ports, including a pair of 140W USB-C outputs. The base model has 1kWh of storage capacity and produces up to 1800W of output while accepting up to 500W of solar input. The Delta 3 Plus model can be expanded to 5kWh with stackable battery add-ons and supports 1,000W of solar input. The Delta 3 series runs at a very quiet 30dB when producing 600W or less.
EcoFlow says the Delta 3 series can power a typical fridge for “at least five hours” in the event of a blackout. It also has a 10ms cutover feature when used as a UPS for your PC or NAS that’ll receive an HID signal to save data before shutdown.
The River 3 series is a small solar generator available in two models. The base River 3 model has 245Wh of fixed capacity with support for 110W of solar input, while the more interesting River 3 Plus has expandable capacity which starts at 286Wh and up 220W of solar charging support. The based model can produce just 300W while the Plus model doubles that to 600W — enough to power things like small space heaters and drip coffee machines. Capacity for the Plus model can be expanded to 858Wh by adding two stackable batteries that quickly attach via pogo pins. The River 3 devices also have a 140W USB-C port and can serve as a UPS for your PC.
Last but not least, EcoFlow is expanding into power banks for the first time with the Rapid series of 15W Qi2 magnetic chargers with kickstands. They also feature a built-in USB-C PD 3.0 cable to charge laptops at up to 65W. It comes in 5,000mAh or 10,000mAh models, in a choice of silver, light blue, or black.
Unfortunately, the all-important pricing information won’t be available until the official release date of each product, per the following schedule for North America:
EcoFlow says the European releases are expected a bit later in Q4.
Science
Boeing’s Starliner started making a repeating ‘pulsing’ sound yesterday
![](https://upliftedstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/starliner_spacecraft_boeing.jpg)
US astronaut Barry Wilmore called NASA ground crew on Saturday, asking for help with a repetitive knocking sound that was coming from the Boeing Starliner craft. The interaction was captured by a NASA Space Flight forum member, who included a recording of it in a post that was spotted by Ars Technica.
In the recording, Wilmore asks NASA crew in Houston to configure their call so that he could show them the noise, which he says is coming from the speaker inside Starliner. Then, a repetitive clanging sound with slight there’s-something-on-the-wing vibes can be heard. The Earthside crew member describes it as sounding “almost like a sonar ping.”
The mysterious sound could very well have a very mundane explanation, like the very specific type of feedback loop one person on Reddit compared it to. At the very least, neither Wilmore nor the NASA ground team member he spoke with seemed particularly concerned (even if it does sort of resemble the unnerving Ganado theme from Resident Evil 4).
Boeing’s Starliner is currently scheduled to undock on September 6th for an automated, uncrewed return to Earth, leaving its original intended passengers, Wilmore and fellow astronaut Sunita Williams, behind on the ISS until early next year.
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