This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
03.05.2024 - 11:13 / wccftech.com / Ramish Zafar
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
More than a year after NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket took to the skies with the Orion spacecraft on board to start the Artemis 1 mission and the Artemis program, a report from the NASA inspector general's office shares new images of ship's heat shield. Soon after Orion landed on Earth, NASA revealed during a press conference that teams had discovered unexpected damage to the ship's heat shield. This was followed up by a few updates, the latest of which came last week when, during a meeting, a NASA official shared that his agency was still working to determine the reasons behind the damage.
The November 2022 Artemis 1 mission was a test flight that aimed to test Orion's performance during lift-off, the trip to the Moon, the return to Earth and performance in the atmosphere. The ship met most of its test objectives, and managers kept a close eye on its heat shield during return. This was because the heat shield cannot be tested on Earth, and its performance could only be verified after it had endured the extreme temperatures that a ship faces during reentry.
After Orion's return, NASA shared during a press conference that it was surprised by some of the findings on the heat shield. The shield uses a polymer resin called AVOCAT which is cut into smaller pieces and assembled on the ship's bottom. It is designed to burn during reentry through a process called ablation, and NASA's Orion program manager, Howard Hu, shared during the conference that instead of ablating, some pieces of the shield were "coming off" instead.
Now, fresh images of the Orion's heat shield shared in a NASA OIG report show just how significant the damage was. In the images, the ship's heat shield is charred black after withstanding the significant stressors of re entry. While this is nominal, as the shields of other ships, such as SpaceX's Dragon, are also similarly charred, the images for Orion also show at least four cavities on the shield.
According to the OIG, NASA engineers have determined that the cavities are due to the upper layer of the heat shield "breaking off the spacecraft in fragments that created a trail of debris rather than melting away as designed." This layer is expected to uniformly burn off during reentry, and the OIG warns that the presence of cavities "creates a risk that the heat shield may not sufficiently protect the capsule’s systems and crew from the extreme heat of reentry on future missions.
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
By Max A. Cherney and Jeffrey Dastin
By Max A. Cherney and Jeffrey Dastin
The developer of Marvel Rivals has apologized for having a clause in its content creator contract that blocked streamers from criticizing the game.
After SpaceX shipped its IFT-4 booster to the launch pad and static fired a new Starship for the first time earlier this week, Elon Musk has confirmed the fourth Starship test flight's delay on X. After the previous Starship test took place in March, SpaceX was quick to give a launch date, which would have meant a rapid drop in the turnaround time for the world's largest rocket since IFT-2 flew after a considerable delay. IFT-2 was followed by the third test four months later, and a May launch would have cut this time in half.
It sounds like Korean developer Shift Up may revert its controversial Stellar Blade outfit changes, as it’s told fans to “stay tuned for updates” and thanked players for their “passion and feedback”. For those out of the loop, a petition went viral this weekend after gamers noticed some alterations to a couple of the release’s costumes, incorporated by the release’s day one patch.
A player-run troupe of actors will be performing an adaptation of Richard III in Fallout 76, featuring a "ghoul" in the lead role. They're partly inspired by the recent Fallout TV show, which puts a jaded cowboy ghoul in a pivotal role and has lead to an increase in players of the online multiplayer RPG. This production will likely be more faithful to the bard than to Amazon Prime. It will open with the lines: "Now is the nuclear winter of our discontent."
Microsoft has announced an Xbox Games Showcase and a “Redacted” Direct for June.
Many players are planning to buy their Legendary upgrade or a weapon next week. To upgrade it all the way to max item level, you'll need up to 4,700 Flightstones — start stocking up! Don't forget that the Flightstone cap is only 2,000 so for some specs, so you will likely need on average the Flightstone cap to upgrade your weapon to maximum on your first character.
Many players are planning to buy their Legendary upgrade or a weapon next week. To upgrade it all the way to max item level, you'll need up to 5,000 Flighstones — start stocking up! Don't forget that the Flightstone cap is only 2,000 so for some specs, so you will likely need on average the Flightstone cap to upgrade your weapon to maximum on your first character.
Publisher Apogee Entertainment and developer Fuzzy Sock Studios announced Rising Heat, a shoot ’em up / roguelike action game for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.