AP Top Science News at 9:27 a.m. EDT
Federal agency says a second, if weaker, solar storm surge is likely Sunday
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Engadget'Extreme' geomagnetic storm may bless us with more aurora displays tonight and tomorrow
Tonight may offer another chance to catch the aurora if you have clear skies, according to the NOAA, and Sunday could bring yet more displays reaching as far as Alabama. The agency says the 'extreme' geomagnetic storm will continue through tomorrow.
- TechCrunch
SpaceX launches mammoth Starship rocket and brings it back for the first time
SpaceX has shown once again that subjecting rocket hardware to the real-world flight environment pays dividends. In its latest launch, the company achieved a key milestone in its Starship flight test campaign: returning the booster and the upper stage back to Earth in controlled ocean splashdowns. Bringing the two parts of the launch vehicle back — the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage, which is also called Starship — are essential to the company’s long-term plans to make Starship the first-ever fully reusable rocket.
- Autoblog
NASA wants to build a floating railway on the moon
NASA wants to build a floating railway on the surface of the moon. Called FLOAT, the technology relies on autonomous robots to move equipment.
- Yahoo News
Watch: Boeing Starliner launches 1st crewed space mission with NASA astronauts
Today's launch is significant because it could open doors for more private airline companies to collaborate with NASA.
- Engadget
NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has found the most distant galaxy ever observed
NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has found the most distant and oldest known galaxy. The “bright, massive and large” star system reportedly formed just 290 million years after the big bang.
- Engadget
Billionaire space tourist cancels lunar flight amid changing SpaceX priorities
Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire who signed up for a lunar orbit flight aboard SpaceX's Starship back in 2018, has cancelled his trip.
- Engadget
Boeing's first crewed Starliner mission is finally heading to the ISS
Boeing's first Starliner flight with a human crew onboard has successfully blasted off to space on top of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, almost a month after it was originally scheduled to launch.
- Engadget
Blue Origin successfully sends tourists to the edge of space again after a long hiatus
Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company successfully flew six paying customers to the edge of space and back this morning, breaking its nearly two-year-long hiatus from crewed missions. This was Blue Origin’s seventh trip with humans on board.
- TechCrunch
Blue Origin to resume crewed New Shepard launches on May 19
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will take a crew to suborbital space for the first time in nearly two years later this month, the company announced on Tuesday. The NS-25 mission will launch from Blue’s launch site in West Texas on May 19. The launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. The six-person crew includes Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate (but for whom this would be the first visit to space), along with investor Mason Angel, who founded the space- and defense-focused Industrious Ventures.
- TechCrunch
Astronauts fall over. Robotic limbs can help them back up.
Astronauts are no exception. You need to be in peak physical condition for space travel, but bulky space suits and lower gravity levels can be a recipe for disaster, causing them to trip over themselves. Engineers at MIT have developed an exoskeleton designed to help give astronauts more support and help right themselves after stumbling in the moon’s low gravity.
- TechCrunch
Intuitive Machines wants to help NASA return samples from Mars
Intuitive Machines is looking to help reshape the Mars Sample Return mission architecture with its own technology, based on architecture it has been developing for the moon, executives told investors during a quarterly earnings call Tuesday. “Intuitive Machines has engaged the agency and intends to provide a solution set based on technology architecture we have been developing for lunar material return,” Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus said. The Mars Sample Return (MSR) program is the agency’s $11 billion, 15-year mission to collect and return samples from the red planet, but NASA administrators finally admitted last month that the architecture had become too complex and too expensive.
- Engadget
Starliner’s first crew mission will now launch on June 1... maybe
NASA announced last night that the Starliner team is now targeting a June 1 launch as engineers continue to assess the vehicle in the wake of discovering a helium leak from the propulsion system earlier this month.
- TechCrunch
Japanese billionaire pulls plug on private 'dearMoon' lunar Starship mission
The Japanese billionaire who commissioned SpaceX for a private mission around the moon on a Starship rocket has abruptly canceled the project, citing ongoing uncertainties around when the launch vehicle will be ready to fly. “I signed the contract in 2018 based on the assumption that dearMoon would launch by the end of 2023,” Yusaku Maezawa, the backer of the project, said on X. “It’s a developmental project so it is what it is, but it is still uncertain as to when Starship can launch.”
- TechCrunch
This Week in AI: Can we (and could we ever) trust OpenAI?
This week in AI, OpenAI launched discounted plans for nonprofits and education customers and drew back the curtains on its most recent efforts to stop bad actors from abusing its AI tools. OpenAI removed one of the voices used by its AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT after users pointed out that it sounded eerily similar to Johansson's. Johansson later released a statement saying that she hired legal counsel to inquire about the voice and get exact details about how it was developed -- and that she'd refused repeated entreaties from OpenAI to license her voice for ChatGPT. Now, a piece in The Washington Post implies that OpenAI didn't in fact seek to clone Johansson's voice and that any similarities were accidental.
- TechCrunch
Women in AI: Arati Prabhakar thinks it's crucial to get AI 'right'
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. Arati Prabhakar is director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the science adviser to President Joe Biden. Previously, she served as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — the first woman to hold the position — and director of DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
- TechCrunch
Women in AI: Chinasa T. Okolo researches AI's impact on the Global South
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. Chinasa T. Okolo is a fellow at the Brookings Institution in the Center of Technology Innovation's Governance Studies program. Before that, she served on the ethics and social impact committee that helped develop Nigeria's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and has served as an AI policy and ethics adviser for various organizations, including the African Union Development Agency and the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute.
- TechCrunch
LatAm startups: Apply to Startup Battlefield 200
Startup Battlefield 200 (SB 200) is the leading global startup competition showcasing 200 of the most promising, impactful early-stage startups. TechCrunch vets all applicants and handpicks the participants.
- Yahoo Sports
Sparks rookie Cameron Brink: 'There's a privilege' for WNBA's younger white players
The Sparks rookie had plenty to say about her WNBA rookie class, headlined by Caitlin Clark.
- Yahoo Sports
Angel Reese's 'weak' ejection from Sky-Liberty game draws attention, offer from Bulls' Lonzo Ball
Reese was ejected after two very quick whistles from referee Charles Watson.
- Yahoo Sports
Larry Allen, Cowboys legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer, dies at 52
Allen was a seven-time first-team All-Pro and part of the Cowboys' Super Bowl XXX winning team.