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SpaceX to launch Maxar WorldView Legion 1 & 2 mission for leading resolution and accuracy SatNews – SatNews

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the WorldView Legion 1 & 2 mission on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 6:30PM (UTC). WorldView Legion is a constellation of Earth observation satellites built and operated by Maxar. Constellation is planned to consist of 6 satellites in both polar and mid-inclination orbits, providing 30 cm-class resolution.

These are the first two of six planned WorldView Legion satellites, which will enhance Maxar Intelligences constellation by delivering industry-leading resolution and accuracy. When all six WorldView Legion satellites are launched, it will triple Maxar Intelligences capacity to collect 30 cm-class and multispectral imagery. The full Maxar constellation of 10 electro-optical satellites will image the most rapidly changing areas on Earth as frequently as every 20 to 30 minutes, from sunup to sundown.

WorldView Legion will extend the quality and capability of our industry-leading constellation, redefining Earth observation constellation performance and providing customers with unprecedented access to timely, actionable insights that help drive mission success, said Dan Smoot, Maxar Intelligence CEO.

These Maxar Space Systems-built satellites are the first Maxar 500 series buses to complete production at the companys satellite manufacturing locations in Palo Alto and San Jose, California. The Maxar 500 series bus is a mid-size platform that can be tailored for multiple missions and orbits. As part of the WorldView Legion program, Maxar invested to create a bus with better stability, agility and pointing accuracy; future Maxar 500 customers can benefit from this technology for their missions.

WorldView Legion and the Maxar 500 series platform is the culmination of decades of experience in building satellites for customer missions, said Chris Johnson, Maxar Space Systems CEO. We are excited to reach this important program milestone and look forward to continued partnership on the program.

The launch of the first two WorldView Legion satellites will be broadcast on spacex.com and on x.com/spacex.

Space Launch Complex 4E has witnessed the launch of 141 rockets, including 141 orbital launch attempts, while Vandenberg SFB, California, has been the site for 752 rocket launches. The launch cost is $52 Million.

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SpaceX to launch Maxar WorldView Legion 1 & 2 mission for leading resolution and accuracy SatNews - SatNews

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster on record-breaking 20th flight Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster, B1062, lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the Starlink 6-49 mission. This marked the first time a booster launch and landed for a 20th time. Image: Adam Bernstein

Update 10:13 p.m. EDT: SpaceX successfully launched and landed its booster, B1062, for a 20th time.

SpaceX shattered multiple records Friday night as it launched 23 satellites for the companys Starlink internet service from Cape Canaveral. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted offf from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 9:40 p.m. EDT (0140 UTC).

It was the first time a Falcon 9 first-stage booster flew for a 20th time and it came just two days, 20 hours since another Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaverals pad 40. That smashes the previous record for the shortest time between launches by 21 hours 24 minutes.

Meteorologists with the 45th Weather Squadron predicted near-prefect conditions for launch. They forecast a less than five-percent chance of a weather rule violation during the four-hour launch window, with liftoff winds being the only concern.

This particular Falcon 9 rocket has the tail number 1062 in the SpaceX flight and entered service in November 2020 carrying a GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force. It has flown astronauts into space twice on the Inspiration 4 and Axiom 1 commercial missions. It has also flown 12 previous Starlink delivery missions.

The Falcon 9 soared to the south-east, targeting an orbit inclined at 43 degrees to the equator. After separating from the second stage about two and a half minutes into flight, the first stage booster headed downrange for a landing on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic, east of the Bahamas.

Attaining a new milestone of 20 launches with a single booster in [less than] four years represents a formidable accomplishment. However, ensuring this feat was achieved safely and reliably has posed a monumental challenge, said Jon Edwards, SpaceXs vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, in a social media post. This achievement not only speaks to the remarkable capabilities of the Falcon 9 but also highlights the extraordinary competence and constant vigilance of the Falcon team. Bravo!

Two burns of the rockets second stage will put the 23 second-generation Starlink satellites into orbit, with deployment occurring about one hour, five minutes after launch.

SpaceX reported it has 2.3 million subscribers in more than 70 countries for its Starlink internet service. Since 2019 the company has launched 6,189 satellites according to statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who maintains a space flight database. Of those satellites 5,787 remain in orbit and 5,5721 appear to be working normally, according to McDowells latest update on April 10, 2024.

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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster on record-breaking 20th flight Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s most-flown reusable rocket will go for its 20th launch tonight – Ars Technica

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Enlarge / File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket rolling out of its hangar at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

For the first time, SpaceX will launch one of its reusable Falcon 9 boosters for a 20th time Friday night on a flight to deliver 23 more Starlink Internet satellites to orbit.

This milestone mission is scheduled to lift off at 9:22 pm EDT Friday (01:22 UTC Saturday) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Forecasters from the US Space Force predict "excellent" weather for the primetime launch.

Falcon 9 will blaze a familiar trail into space, following the same profile as dozens of past Starlink missions.

The rocket's first-stage booster will shut off its nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines about two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, reaching a top speed of more than 5,000 mph (8,000 km per hour). The first stage will detach from the Falcon 9's upper stage, which will continue firing into orbit. The 15-story-tall Falcon 9 booster, meanwhile, will follow an arcing trajectory before braking for a vertical landing on a drone ship floating in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas.

The 23 flat-packed Starlink spacecraft will deploy from the upper stage a little more than an hour after liftoff, bringing the total number of Starlinks in low-Earth orbit to more than 5,800 spacecraft.

Pretty much every day, SpaceX is either launching a rocket or rolling one out of the hangar to the launch pad. At this pace, SpaceX isredefining what is routine in the space industry, but the rapid-fire launch rate also means the company is continually breaking records, mostly its own.

Friday night's launch will break another one of those records. This first-stage booster, designated by the tail number B1062, has flown 19 times since its first flight in November 2020. The booster will now be the first in SpaceX's inventory to go for a 20th flight, breaking a tie with three other rockets as the company's fleet leader.

When SpaceX debuted the latest version of its Falcon 9 rocket, the Falcon 9 Block 5, officials said the reusable first stage could fly 10 times with minimal refurbishment and perhaps additional flights with a more extensive overhaul. Now, SpaceX is certifying Falcon 9 boosters for 40 flights.

This particular rocket has not undergone any extended maintenance or long-term grounding. It has flown an average of once every two months since debuting three-and-a-half years ago. So the 20-flight milestone SpaceX will achieve Friday night means this rocket has doubled its original design life and, at the same time, has reached the halfway point of its extended service life.

In its career, this booster has launched eight people and 530 spacecraft, mostly Starlinks. The rocket's first two flights launched GPS navigation satellites for the US military, then it launched two commercial human spaceflight missions with Dragon crew capsules. These were the all-private Inspiration4 mission and Axiom Mission 1, the first fully commercial crew flight to the International Space Station.

Remarkably, this will be the sixth Falcon 9 launch in less than eight days, more flights than SpaceX's main US rival, United Launch Alliance, has launched in 17 months.

It will be the 38th Falcon 9 launch of the year and the 111th flight of a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocketthe 114th launch by SpaceX overallin the last 365 days. More than a third of SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy missions, a number that will stand at 332 after Friday night's flight, have launched in the past year.

This month, for the first time, SpaceX demonstrated it could launch two Falcon 9 rockets in less than five days from the company's launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. SpaceX has also cut the turnaround time between Falcon 9 rockets at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The company's most-used launch pad, SLC-40, can handle two Falcon 9 flights in less than four days.

It's not just launch pad turnaround. SpaceX uses its drone shipstwo based in Florida and one in Californiafor most Falcon 9 landings. In order to meet the appetite for Falcon 9 launches, SpaceX is getting rockets back to port and re-deploying drone ships back to sea at a faster rate.

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SpaceX's most-flown reusable rocket will go for its 20th launch tonight - Ars Technica

SpaceX launches Space Force weather satellite designed to take over for a program with roots to the 1960s … – Spaceflight Now

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The Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) space vehicle was successfully encapsulated April 8, 2024, ahead of its scheduled launch as the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-62 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., marking a major milestone on its upcoming launch into low Earth orbit. Image: SpaceX

SpaceX launched a military weather satellite designed to replace aging satellites from a program dating back to the 1960s. The United States Space Force-62 (USSF-62) mission featured the launch of the first Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) spacecraft.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened at 7:25 a.m. PDT (10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 UTC), which was the opening of a 10-minute launch window.

The booster supporting this National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission, B1082 in the SpaceX fleet, made its third flight after previously launching the Starlink 7-9 and 7-14 missions this year.

Were absolutely thrilled be out here on the Central Coast, with a superb team primed and ready to launch the USSF-62 satellite. It has an important mission ahead of it and were excited for flight-proven Falcon 9 to deliver the satellite to orbit, said Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader for the Space System Commands Launch Execution Delta, in a statement. And on this mission, were using a first-stage booster whose history is purely commercial.

About eight minutes after liftoff, B1082 touched down at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). This was the 17th land landing in California and the 295th booster landing for SpaceX.

A significant milestone for the company on the USSF-62 mission was the use of flight-proven payload fairings, which will be a first for an NSSL mission. They previously flew on the USSF-52 mission, which featured the launch of the X-37B spaceplane from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in December 2023.

With each national security launch, we add to Americas capabilities and improve its deterrence in the face of growing threats, Horne stated.

USSF-62 was one of three missions granted to SpaceX in May 2022 as part of the NSSL Phase 2 Order Year 3 award, which collectively are valued at $309.7 million. SpaceX launched USSF-124 in February 2024 and will likely launch the SDA-Tranche 1 satellites later this year.

Ball Aerospace, the manufacturer of the WSF-M, said the spacecrafts primary payload is a passive microwave radiometer, which has been demonstrated on previous spacecraft. It also boasts a 1.8 meter antenna, which combined with the primary instrument allow the spacecraft to address so-called space-based environmental monitoring (SBEM) gaps.

Its capabilities will provide valuable information for protecting the assets of the United States and its allies, primarily in ocean settings.

The WSF-M satellite is a strategic solution tailored to address three high-priority Department of Defense SBEM gaps specifically, ocean surface vector winds, tropical cyclone intensity, and energetic charged particles in low Earth orbit, said David Betz, WSF-M program manager, SSC Space Sensing, in a statement. Beyond these primary capabilities, our instruments also provide vital data on sea ice characterization, soil moisture, and snow depth.

The spacecraft is based on the Ball Configurable Platform and includes a Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) sensor and an Energetic Charged Particle sensor. Ball Aerospace has been involved with other, similar spacecraft, including the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi-NPP) and the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1).

According to a public FY2024 Department of Defense budget document, the WSF-M system will consist of two spacecraft. Once the first is on orbit, it will assess the level of Ocean Surface Vector Wind (OSVW) measurement uncertainty and Tropical Cyclone Intensity (TCI) latency.

The first seeds of the program were planted back in October 2012 during whats called the Materiel Solution Analysis phase. That resulted in the Department of the Air Force issuing a request for proposals from companies in January 2017.

In November 2017, the Space and Missile Systems Center (now Space Systems Command) awarded a $93.7 million firm-fixed-price contract to Ball Aerospace for the WSF-M project with an expected completion date of Nov. 15, 2019.

This is an exciting win for us, and were looking forward to expanding our work with the Air Force and continuing to support warfighters and allies around the world, said Rob Strain, the then president, Ball Aerospace, in a 2017 statement. WSF-M extends Balls legacy of providing precise measurements from space to enable more accurate weather forecasting.

Roughly a year later, Ball received a $255.4 million contract modification, which provides for the exercise of an option for development and fabrication of the [WSF-M] Space Vehicle 1. This new contract also pushed out the expected completion date to Jan. 15, 2023.

In May 2020, the U.S. Space Forces SMSC noted the completion of the WSF-M systems critical design review that April, which opened the door to the beginning of fabrication.

Over the following year, the spacecraft went through a series of tests, running both the software and hardware through its paces. The primary bus structure was completed by August 2021 and by October 2022, the spacecraft entered its integration readiness review (IRR) and test readiness review (TRR).

Before that though, in May 2022, Ball was awarded a $16.6 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract modification, which was for the exercise of an option for integration, test and operational work of the spacecraft. That brought the cumulative face value of the contract to about $417.4 million.

Shortly before the end of that year, in November 2022, Ball received a $78.3 firm-fixed-price contract modification to develop the second WSF-M spacecraft. That work is expected to be completed by Nov. 15, 2027, which would set up a launch opportunity no earlier than January 2028.

It was finally delivered from Balls facilities in Boulder, Colorado, to Vandenberg Space Force Base for pre-launch processing in February 2024.

This delivery represents a major milestone for the WSF-M program and is a critical step towards putting the first WSF-M satellite on-orbit for the warfighter, said Col. Daniel Visosky, senior materiel leader, SSCs Space Sensing Environmental and Tactical Surveillance program office, in a statement.It represents a long-term collaboration and unity-of-effort between the Space Force and our combined teams at Ball Aerospace, support contractors and government personnel.

This first WSF-M satellite, and eventually the second, will take the place of the legacy Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, which have roots going back in the 1960s. The program features two primary satellites, which operate in sun-synchronous LEO polar orbits at about 450 nautical miles in altitude.

Originally known as the Defense Satellite Applications Program (DASP), the first of these legacy satellites launched in 1962 and they were classified under the purview of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the Corona Program. The DMSP was declassified in 1972 to allow data to be used by non-governmental scientists and civilians.

According to a Space Force historical accounting, a tri-agency organizational agreement was forged between the DoD, the Department of Commerce and NASA following President Bill Clintons directive for the DOC and the DoD to converge their separate polar-orbiting weather satellite programs. Funding responsibility stayed with the DoD, but by June 1998, the operational responsibility of the DMSP transferred to the Department of Commerce.

Satellite operations for the DMSP then became the responsibility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO).

The program was not without issue over the years. In 2004, the DMSP-F11 satellite, launched in 1991 and retired in 1995, disintegrated and created dozens of pieces of orbital debris. In 2015, a faulty battery was blamed for a similar disintegration of DMSP-F13, which resulted in 147 pieces of debris.

That year, Congress ordered an end to the DMSP program and the yet-to-launch F20 satellite was to be scrapped.

In February 2016, the DMSP-F19 had its planned five-year mission cut short less than two years after launch. The satellite suffered a power anomaly that caused engineers to lose control of it. The spacecraft was declared lost in March.

The DMSP-F17 satellite, launched in 2006, was then relocated to the primary position vacated by F19. According to the Observing Systems Capability Analysis and Review (OSCAR), a tool developed by the World Meteorological Organization, there are three DMSP satellites still in service: F16, F17 and F18. They launched in 2003, 2006 and 2009 respectively.

The latter two have expected end-of-life dates of 2025, with F16 intended to conclude its mission in December 2023, according to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). However, that expiration has been extended as the WSF-M replacements are still on the way.

Its unclear if F17 and F18 can hang on until the second WSF-M spacecraft is completed and launched in 2028.

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SpaceX launches Space Force weather satellite designed to take over for a program with roots to the 1960s ... - Spaceflight Now

Rookie Robotics Team from Small UWS High School Joining the Giants in Robotics Competition – westsiderag.com

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Sonia Benowitz is second from left. Credit: Annabelle Malschlin.

By Lisa Kava

Students from the newly formed robotics team at West End Secondary School (WESS), on West 61st Street, are competing in the New York City regionals of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) from April 5-7. The event will take place at the Armory Track and Field Center in Washington Heights.

Founded in 2015, WESS has 500 students in its public high school. How did its novice robotics team secure a spot at FRC, alongside larger, well-established schools known for their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs, such as The Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant HIgh School?

The story starts in September 2023 when Upper West Sider Sonia Benowitz, 14, entered 9th grade at WESS. She had loved building LEGO robots in WESSs middle school robotics club, the community of the club and working with friends towards a common goal, she told West Side Rag in a phone interview. But a club did not exist for high school students. So she created one.

First, she approached her school principal who was supportive, she said. Benowitz then asked her middle school robotics coach, Noah Tom-Wong, to help run the club. Together with math teacher Evan Wheeler, who signed on as faculty leader, they began to spread the word. Soon the club had 25 members from 9th through 12th grade.

With Tom-Wongs guidance, the club members gathered wood, metal, and other supplies, ordering from vendors and robotics companies. They began to build a fully functional robot that could perform various tasks through remote wireless control. For example, one task is that the robot will use its arms that we built to pick up disks shaped like frisbees, Benowitz said, then throw the disks into a goal area.

Tom-Wong suggested the club enter the FIRST Robotics Competition, in which he had competed as a student at Stuyvesant High School. He volunteers frequently at FRC competitions. Robotics provides students [with] an incredibly unique environment where they can exert energy safely and with great impact, he told the Rag. The nature of the competition not only makes students good at STEM, but also [at] STEM communication.

But the $6,000 registration fee for the competition was not in the school budget. Thats when Samantha Alvarez Benowitz, Sonias mom, got involved. Researching, she learned about a rookie grant from NASA through its Robotics Alliance Project. The WESS team applied and got it. According to Alvarez Benowitz, they were the only school in New York City selected to receive the NASA grant, and one of five schools in New York state,

On the application we had to describe who was on our team, so I did a demographic survey and found that close to 70% of our team members are from historically underrepresented groups in STEM, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and students with disabilities, Sonia Benowitz said. They also wanted to know how we would get and pay for the supplies we needed to build the robot. The team has been fundraising through bake sales and other school functions. They also applied for grants, receiving $2,500 from the Gene Hass Foundation, an automotive company that sponsors STEM education.

At the competition the WESS team will be paired with two other teams to form a three-team alliance. Each team has its own robot which will be programmed to perform different tasks. The robots are judged and awarded points. We have to prepare our robot to complete as many tasks as possible, but also to complete tasks as well as possible, Benowitz explained. The WESS robot has been programmed to drive up a ramp onto a platform, like a car on a road, Alvarez Benowitz added. The ramp and platform are part of an existing set that all the teams use.

Working collaboratively is crucial, according to Tom-Wong. The work that comes out of these robotics teams can be very complex, he said. Its not unusual at competitions to see students from multiple teams working together to fix one teams problem. The top five teams will compete in the championships in Houston at the end of April.

Benowitz is excited about the competition. Our team has been working towards this moment for months, and we have all put in a lot of time and effort to get here. She is also a little nervous. I hope that our robot wont have any problems or break in the middle of a match.

Tom-Wong credits the rookie team for its perseverance. The group had to work with less stock and fewer tools [than most teams]. We also do not have the experience that the veteran teams have, he told the Rag. He is hopeful that WESS students will remain active in robotics in future years. Ultimately this group is unique in that they are pioneering the robotics program at WESS. They are laying the groundwork for a place where students can push themselves to learn and develop.

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Rookie Robotics Team from Small UWS High School Joining the Giants in Robotics Competition - westsiderag.com

Notus robotics team is headed to 2024 FIRST Championship – KTVB.com

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Notus Jr/Sr High School robotics team of five students is headed to the 2024 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas.

BOISE, Idaho A small robotics team from Notus Jr/Sr High School is living the classic underdog story after they qualified to compete at a world championship.

The team of five students will be heading to Houston, Texas to participate in the 2024 FIRST Championship. On Friday, KTVB spoke to the team advisor, Nick Forbes, who said this is the first year the program was introduced to the Notus. But that hasn't stopped them.

In March of 2024,team 9726 received the Rookie of the Year All-Star Award after competing in Boise. A few days later, they were invited to compete on the world stage.

According to the FIRST website, with every new season the game changes, and students will need to build a robot to achieve the goal. This year's game is called 'CRESCENDO.'

While FIRST's rules recommend a team should consist of 10 students, team 9726 won with half that. But, a student told KTVB it hasn't been without some challenges.

"It was entirely made from duct tape, zip ties, and just things that we had to find around," Ezekiel said. "There were sometimes things that we had to improvise through 3-D printings and other things. We're very proud of the work we've done."

He said their robot mainly plays defense, utilizing a wall, which helped them secure a spot at worlds.

The world championships in Houston kicks off on April 16.

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Notus robotics team is headed to 2024 FIRST Championship - KTVB.com

4 Reasons to Start Using Claude 3 Instead of ChatGPT – MUO – MakeUseOf

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Key Takeaways

In the AI chatbot space, ChatGPT has been the undisputed leader since its launch in November 2022. However, with the release of Claude 3, it is increasingly looking like ChatGPT might be losing that title. Here are four reasons you should consider switching from ChatGPT to Claude.

Besides occasional science homework, programming tasks, and fun games, one of the most popular use cases of AI chatbots is creative writing. Most users use AI chatbots to help draft an email, cover letter, resume, article, or song lyricsbasically one creative write-up or another. While ChatGPT has clearly been the favored option owing mostly to its brand name and publicity, Claude has consistently delivered top-notch results even in earlier iterations of the AI chatbots. But it's not just about providing top-notch results. Claude, especially backed by the latest Claude 3 model, outperforms ChatGPT in a wide range of creative writing tasks.

As someone who has consistently used both chatbots since their launch, Claude, although not necessarily the overall better model, is significantly better at creating write-ups that better mimic human "creativity and imperfections." Putting both chatbots to the test, ChatGPT's write-ups, although grammatically correct, were full of tell-tale signs of an AI-written piece. Claude's write-ups read more naturally and sound human. Although not perfect, they are likely to be more engaging and creative.

Too frequently, ChatGPT falls victim to the use of so many clichs and predictable word choices. Ask ChatGPT to write about some business topics, and there's a good chance you will see words like "In today's business environment," "In recent history," and "In the fast-paced digital landscape" in the starting paragraphs.

Putting our theory to the test, it was just as predicted. ChatGPT (GPT-3.5 and GPT-4) used clich intros in five out of five trials. Here are the first three samples:

Claude, on the other hand, produced varying results four times out of five trials, avoiding the cliche on the first trial:

Besides clich, ChatGPT, more than Claude, tends to fall victim to the sporadic use of joining words like "in conclusion," "as a result," and a tendency for unnecessary emphasis where emphatic words like "undisputed, critical, unquestionable, must" etc., are used.

But besides these flaws, how do write-ups from each chatbot sound from a holistic point of view?

To top off the comparison, I asked both chatbots to produce rhyming rap lyrics on the theme "coconut to wealth." Claude seems the better option, but I'll let you be the judge.

Here's ChatGPT's take:

And here's Claude's take:

Early adopters of ChatGPT probably have a deep-rooted preference for the AI chatbot, but when it comes to creative writing, ChatGPT has some serious catching up to do in many areas.

Besides Google's Gemini AI chatbot, there are hardly any major AI chatbots in the market that offer Claude's multimodal features for free. With the free version of ChatGPT, all you get is text generation abilities, and that's it. No file uploads for analysis, no image processing, nothing else! On the other hand, Claude offers these premium features on its free tier. So, you can use image prompting or upload files for analysis on the chatbot for free if you use the free beta version of the bot.

Context window is the limit of text data an AI chatbot can process at a go. Think of it as how many things you can keep in your memory (and be able to recall) at a time.

Depending on the version of ChatGPT you use, you should get anywhere between 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k, and 128k context windows. For clarity, a 4k context window can accommodate around 3,000 words, while a 32k window can accommodate around 24,000 words. With the ChatGPT free tier, you get the lowest limits of the context window options (4k or 8k), meaning a few pages of text. You can access the 16k and possibly 32k options on ChatGPT Plus or Team plans, while the 128k context window seems to be an exclusive reserve of the ChatGPT Enterprise plans.

Whereas Claude has a 200k context window on its free and premium plansa significant improvement from ChatGPT's 4k or 8k window.

Why does this even matter? Well, the larger the context window, the more text data you can process at a time without the AI chatbot making things up. Claude's 200k context window is equivalent to around 150,000 words. Yep, it means you'll theoretically be able to process 150,000 words simultaneously with Claude, while ChatGPT could cap you out at 24,000 words even on its premium tier. You see? The difference is like night and dayat least in theory.

Rate limits can be a pain. You're in the middle of an interesting prompting session, you get an alert that you've reached your limit and have to wait (sometimes hours!) to get a reset. It's a huge joy killer and can set your work back hours. However, this happens both on ChatGPT and Claude, so it's an even ground on that point.

ChatGPT offers 40 messages every three hours on the Plus plan, while Claude offers 100 messages per eight hours. If you're not lost in the optics and do the math, ChatGPT's message limits are slightly better than Claude's. But there's more to it.

OpenAI dynamically throttles your usage limits. This means the limit you see isn't what you'll always get. It depends on the demand, as per OpenAI. On the other hand, despite having slightly lower usage limits, Claude can actually be more liberal with the limits depending on how much text you use per message.

So, if, for instance, you send around 2,000 words (around 200 English sentences of 1525 words each), you should be able to get "at least" the 100 messages per 8-hour limit. Two thousand words per prompt is a generous number; only a few people get that wordy when doing basic prompting. If you use a lower number of words per prompt, you should be able to get a larger number of messages per hour theoretically.

So, while ChatGPT might seem more generous on the outside if you use both chatbots daily, Claude seems to be the more generous option, although not necessarily at all times.

While early adopters may have a sentimental attachment to ChatGPT, it's becoming increasingly clear that Claude is a force to be reckoned with. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, it will be fascinating to see how these titans of conversational AI push each other to new heights, ultimately benefiting users with ever-improving and more capable chatbots. The future of AI-powered interactions has never been more exciting.

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4 Reasons to Start Using Claude 3 Instead of ChatGPT - MUO - MakeUseOf

Quertaro to host the Aerospace Innovation and Entrepreneurship Congress – MEXICONOW

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QUERETARO - The Aeronautical University of Queretaro (UNAQ) is organizing the First Aerospace Innovation and Entrepreneurship Congress (INNAE).

This event will bring together scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry leaders with the objective of exploring the frontiers of knowledge and creating strategic alliances that will drive the advancement of aeronautics and space exploration.

Likewise, the first edition of the INNAE Congress is an opportunity for interaction and exchange of knowledge between different profiles in the aerospace field.

It is worth mentioning that participants will be able to contribute with academic articles, research posters or innovative projects in different thematic areas.

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Quertaro to host the Aerospace Innovation and Entrepreneurship Congress - MEXICONOW

Scientists Discover Bizarre and Ancient Fossilized Forest – Futurism

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Calling Dr. Seuss. Strange New World

In a picturesque corner of England, along dramatic sandstone cliffs, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff have uncovered a wondrous discovery: 390-million-year-old fossilized remains of the oldest forest ever found.

Tantalizingly, this forest is unlike anything you could see in today's natural environment. As detailed in a new paper in the Journal of Geological Study, the trees which look like giant 13-foot thistles are considered some of the first to appear in our planet's long history.

Another notable feature about these trees, known as Calamophyton,is that they had hollow trunks and were composed of smaller, multiple trunk-like strands ringing the hollow. The smaller trees would expand and eventually grow so thick and big that the entire structure would split apart.

"This was a pretty weird forest not like any forest you would see today, said Cambridge Earth Sciences professor and the paper's first author Neil Davies in a statement. "There wasnt any undergrowth to speak of and grass hadnt yet appeared, but there were lots of twigs dropped by these densely-packed trees, which had a big effect on the landscape."

Researchers found the ancient forest in South West England, specifically on the coast of Devon and Somerset counties. Fossilized remains includelogs, branches, stumps and other traces of these prototype trees.

The forest grew in the pivotal Devonian Period, approximately 359 to 419 million years ago, which was a remarkable time in Earth's history that saw the establishment of the first land animals and the first plants to reproduce by seeds.

The discovery adds further understanding to how the first forests shaped the land, the researchers explained. Shed branches from these trees helped build up sediment over the years and which in turn impacted the course of ancient rivers.

"The Devonian period fundamentally changed life on Earth," said Davies. "It also changed how water and land interacted with each other, since trees and other plants helped stabilize sediment through their root systems, but little is known about the very earliest forests."

More on fossils: Amazing Fossil Froze Dinosaur in Death Match With Prehistoric Monster

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Scientists Discover Bizarre and Ancient Fossilized Forest - Futurism

As Space Exploration Expands, So Will Space Law – Science Friday

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Almost 70 years agoin the middle of the Cold Warthe United States and the Soviet Union kicked off the race to space, and that high-stakes sprint transformed humanitys relationship with space forever. Ultimately the USSR launched the first satellite, Sputnik, and the U.S. put the first humans on the moon.

Now were in a different space race. But this time, there are a lot more contenders. There are more satellites in orbit than ever before, NASA is trying to put humans on Mars, countries are still sending landers to the moon, and billionaires are using rockets as tourist vehicles. All this activity raises some serious questions: Who is in charge of space? And who makes the rules?

Journalist Khari Johnson explored these questions in a recent feature for Wired magazine, featuring experts at the forefront of these issues. Guest host Sophie Bushwick is joined by two of them: Dr. Timiebi Aganaba, assistant professor of space and society at Arizona State University, and Dr. Danielle Wood, assistant professor and director of the Space Enabled Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They discuss the role of space lawyers, what cases they may argue, and how the rules of spaceand the potential for conflictsare evolving.

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Free Speech Unmuted: Book Bansor Are They? – Reason

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You can watch on YouTube, or subscribe on any podcast platform. It's put together by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where I'll be starting as the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow in May.

The first episode (about 30 minutes) is about the First Amendment and public school libraries' removing books. Jane and I had a lot of fun recording this; hope you have fun watching or listening to it! And of course please spread it far and wide.

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Free Speech Unmuted: Book Bansor Are They? - Reason

Free Speech or Hate Speech? | GW Today | The George Washington University – GW Today

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What are the free speech rights of university students? That was the first question posed by moderator Jeffrey Rosen, GW Law professor and president of the National Constitution Center, to a panel of George Washington University faculty experts on the First Amendment.

The webinar, Free Speech v. Hate Speech: First Amendment Scholars Discuss Where to Draw the Line in the Context of Higher Education, was held as part of the universitys plan for strengthening the GW community in challenging times, with the goal of fostering civil conversations about complex issues and emphasizing university policies.

The incoming inaugural Burchfield Professor of First Amendment and Free Speech Law, Mary-Rose Papandrea, began by noting that the First Amendment applies to public and not private universities, but private universities often look to the First Amendment principles for guidance. Under the First Amendment, she explained, some categories of speech receive no First Amendment protection, such as incitement of unlawful conduct, threats of violence, or giving material support to terrorists. But offensive speech and bad words are not carved out from the First Amendment. In a public university setting, however, there is some leeway for penalizing speech that would be otherwise protected. She suggested classrooms provide the best example of this.

When I ask a student to tell me the holding of a case, I actually want the holding of the case, and there is a wrong answer, Papandrea said. And if the student doesnt give me the correct answer, that will result in a lower grade in the class. Outside in the town square you can engage in false speech, incorrect speech, or misrepresentations and cannot be, as a general matter, punished by the government.

Most of the tensions surrounding free speech on campuses today, she added, arise when universities attempt to regulate the speech of faculty and students outside of the classroom.

Universities are the quintessential marketplace of ideas, Papandrea said, and we should be really concerned when the university starts making viewpoint-based speech restrictions outside of the classroom.

First Amendment: Does everything go?

In the view of Mary Anne Franks, Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology and Civil Rights Law, free speech issues are clouded by unequal power relations, often resulting in protection of reckless speech for the majority but not for minorities. Franks proposes an alternative paradigm encouraging what she describes as fearless speech.

If we really want to talk about free speech, we actually need to get away from the First AmendmentI mean the kind of popularized version of the First Amendment which says everything goes, and you can never have any kind of intervention, Franks said.

People operating under this misconception, she added, argue that any kind of devaluation or nonplatforming constitutes censorship. That idea, she said, is pernicious.

When we think about what the First Amendment actually does, its not really telling us anything about free speech, Franks said. Its telling us about what the government cant do in certain contexts. And thats really useful to know, because the government has a lot of power that no individual has and because the kinds of measures it can take against you include the loss of your liberty. But I dont know that its such a good model for us as a private university. How much are we like a government? What we could be doing instead, and what I think successful universities do when they want to be marketplaces of ideas or spaces for intellectual, robust debate, is set standards. What are the good ideas? Whether an idea is controversial or noncontroversial is not the point.

Instead, Franks said, ideas should be well informed and argued eloquently. She argues in favor of a conscious curation of the best ideas that reflect the universitys values, expressed as persuasively as possible without threats of force or ad hominem attacks.

What is the kind of speech that a university could uniquely try to foster? she asked. What kind of space could it foster to become a forum where really difficult ideas get aired out in a way that is physically safe but also sophisticated? Im suggesting that we move toward fearless speech and critiques of current power structures, that we take notice of the fact that reality is a certain way. There are certain sensitivities to race and gender and class that we really need to have on our radar, if we want to make sure that people within the university space can speak equally.

Free speech at a private university

Dawn Nunziato, Pedas Family Professor of IP and Technology Law, agreed that the First Amendment is not necessarily the right one for every context.

At a private university like GW, we have the autonomy and the freedom and the duty to decide what kind of community we want to be, Nunziato said, and within certain bounds, what types of speech we want to protect and to not protect. Our speech policies are not governed by the First Amendment. So we dont need to protect hate speech in the same way that the First Amendment protects hate speech. We could draw the line very differently. And there are reasons why we should, and we should be very thoughtful about how we draw the line. We may choose to value inclusivity and belonging over the unfettered marketplace of ideas.

Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Nunziato noted, GW has a responsibility to provide an educational environment free of discrimination.

Robust discussion and respectful listening

The panels discussion touched on the recent congressional hearings at which the presidents of three elite universities were criticized for saying that whether speech could be considered hate speech depends on context.

After pointing out that she didnt view it as incorrect to say that the answer to questions of free speech v. hate speech can depend on context, Papandrea noted examples of speech that should be protected, such as an antisemitic line spoken by a character in a play meant to condemn antisemitism. The same line spoken by a student marching across campus could be viewed as creating a hostile environment.

Franks, too, was sympathetic to the trio of university presidents, who may have been reacting to the charge that universities are a woke paradise for snowflakes who require trigger warnings.

The most upsetting thing about the spectacle is not any of those presidents answers, Franks said. It was the fact that the spectacle was happening at alla real invocation and revitalization of a McCarthyesque kind of moment, with legislators who have made it clear that antisemitism and white supremacy are things that they either dont have a problem with or actively support. It was a really grotesque spectacle, she added, a bad faith attempt to attack diversity.

If we object to the First Amendments protection of vile speech in the public square, Nunziato said, we take that up with the Supreme Court, which defines the First Amendments protections. But whether vile speech should be restricted in the university environment is a different question, she added.

Balancing robust, sometimes caustic and heated discussion on issues of public importance against the legal obligations that we have to protect our community members from discriminatory harassment, Nunziato said, is an important part of what we do as a university.

Being part of a university community, Nunziato said, presents a unique opportunity to interact more thoughtfully than people do on social media.

Our University Yard and the quad are spaces where there may be protesters and counter-protesters, but we can be there together, Nunziato said, and engage in speech and counterspeech, unlike in some of the online environments where we have egregious problems of information silos and people going down rabbit holes. In the university environment, were all on our phones and on social media, but were also in spaces where we can engage with one another. Maybe were raising our voices, but we can listen to one another. One of the principles in our code of conduct is that members of the university community are urged to hear all sides of controversial issues.

In closing remarks, Rosen quoted Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who argued that the correct remedy for harmful speech is more speech, not enforced silence. Only an emergency can justify repression.

The concluding webinar, Rosen said, was a model of the kind of robust discussion and respectful listening that Brandeis advocated.

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Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of GOP states in major internet free speech case – Washington Examiner

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The Supreme Court appeared skeptical of arguments Monday by the states of Florida and Texas that they are justified in regulating social media content moderation in a landmark case with major implications for speech on the internet.

The court heard oral arguments for two major speech-related cases on Monday: NetChoice v. Moody and NetChoice v. Paxton. The technology industry group NetChoice sued the states of Texas and Florida over laws imposed by Republicans meant to hold social media platforms accountable for banning users based on viewpoint.

Floridas law would allow residents to take legal action and the state to fine companies if they remove political candidates from social media platforms. The Texas law would require platforms to be content-neutral and allow the states attorney general and residents to sue platforms for removing content or blocking accounts. The court pressed the states to provide a justification for restricting speech. The justices, though, also asked questions aimed at determining the extent of Big Techs power over speech on the internet.

NetChoice v. Moody

Florida Solicitor General Henry Whitaker was the first to appear before the court to argue in NetChoice v. Moody. He said that platforms had to be neutral when it comes to content moderation and that the law merely regulates the conduct of a platform rather than the content. He also alleged that platforms such as Facebook and Google need to be treated as common carriers. Being defined as a common carrier, a term initially used for public transportation services and utilities but expanded to include radio stations and telephone services, would subject platforms to additional restrictions, including anti-discrimination regulations.

Multiple members of the court appear skeptical of Floridas law, noting that it was very broad and affected more platforms than some claimed it would. [Floridas law is] covering almost everything, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. The one thing I know about the internet is that its variety is infinite.

Justice Samuel Alito noted there is also no list of platforms covered by Floridas statutes. This broadness makes it challenging to deal with the cases particulars, Justice Clarence Thomas argued. Were not talking about anything specific, Thomas said. Now were just speculating as to what the law means. The e-commerce platform Etsy was brought up multiple times by the court as an example of a platform that would be inadvertently affected by Floridas law.

Paul Clement, NetChoices representative, responded in his arguments by saying that Floridas law violated the First Amendment multiple times over. He also tried to create a distinction between content moderation decisions made by government entities versus private entities. There are things that if the government does, its a First Amendment problem, and if a private speaker does it, we recognize that as protected activity, Clement argued.

The Biden administrations Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar seemed to affirm Clements arguments, arguing in favor of NetChoice and limiting Floridas power over speech.

Netchoice v. Paxton

The court reconvened a short time after to hear arguments about Texass law. Clement returned to represent NetChoice, arguing that Texass law requiring neutrality on the platform would make social media less attractive to users and advertisers since it would require platforms to host both anti-suicide and pro-suicide content as well as pro-Semitic and antisemitic content.

He also emphasized to the justices that a social media company was more like a parade or newspaper than a common carrier, trying to focus on the state of speech on the platform.

Aaron Nielson, Texass solicitor general, emphasized that social media platforms are a lot like telegraphs and that this nature should be why the state should restrict the sorts of censorship that platforms allow.

Nielson was questioned multiple times about how the state would handle its viewpoint-neutral emphasis. When asked how platforms could regulate viewpoint-neutral approaches to subjects such as terrorism, Nielson said platforms could just remove it. Instead of saying that you can have anti-al Qaeda but not the pro-al Qaeda, if you just want to say, Nobody is talking about al Qaeda here, they can turn that off, Nielson argued.

Court conclusions

The court appeared divided on the extent to which content moderation was allowed. On one hand, they saw government-enforced moderation as questionable, mainly if it focused on content. On the other hand, they criticized the power exerted by Big Tech companies. Justice Neil Gorsuch brought up the example of private messaging services such as Gmail deciding to delete communications due to them violating certain viewpoint communications, a matter that multiple justices brought up before Clement.

The court appeared bothered by the two cases being facial challenges, a legal term for cases in which a party claims that a specific law is unconstitutional and should be voided. This approach offers little flexibility for the Supreme Court since the court could not limit the laws effect to only a specific form of speech but leave other parts of the law intact.

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Section 230, a part of the Communications Decency Act that protects platforms from being held accountable for content posted by third parties, was also brought up by the justices multiple times. The justices tried to weigh how that law would interact with the states attempts to block speech, as well as NetChoices arguments in favor of the platforms. Thomas argued that NetChoices argument that platforms had editorial control undermined its defense under Section 230.

The court is expected to release a decision on both cases sometime before July. The court will only be ruling on the preliminary injunction, which means that the decision will come quicker than other cases and that the decision will decide if the lower courts blocking of the laws will be upheld or overturned.

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Supreme Court Will Decide What Free Speech Means on Social Media – Gizmodo

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The Supreme Court is hearing two cases on Monday that could set new precedents around free speech on social media platforms. The cases challenge two similar laws from Florida and Texas, respectively, which aim to reduce Silicon Valley censorship on social media, much like Elon Musk has done at X in the last year.

Twitter Verification is a Hot Mess

After four hours of opening arguments, Supreme Court Justices seemed unlikely to completely strike down Texas and Floridas laws, according to Bloomberg. Justice Clarence Thomas said social media companies were engaging in censorship. However, Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether social media platforms are really a public square. If not, they wouldnt fall under the First Amendments protections.

At one point, the lawyer representing Texas shouted out, Sir, this is a Wendys. He was trying to prove a point about public squares and free speech, but it didnt make much sense.

The cases, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, both label social media platforms as a digital public square and would give states a say in how content is moderated. Both laws are concerned with conservative voices being silenced on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms, potentially infringing on the First Amendment.

Silencing conservative views is un-American, its un-Texan and its about to be illegal, said Texas Governor Greg Abbott on X in 2021, announcing one of the laws the Supreme Court is debating on Monday.

If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable, said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a 2021 press release, announcing his new law.

NetChoice, a coalition of techs biggest players, argues that these state laws infringe on a social media companys right to free speech. The cases have made their way to the United States highest court, and a decision could permanently change social media.

The laws could limit Facebooks ability to censor pro-Nazi content on its platform, for example. Social media companies have long been able to dictate what kind of content appears on their platform, but the topic has taken center stage in the last year. Musks X lost major advertisers following a rise in white supremacist content that appeared next to legacy brands, such as IBM and Apple.

NetChoice argues that social media networks are like newspapers, and they have a right to choose what appears on their pages, litigator Chris Marchese told The Verge. The New York Times is not required to let Donald Trump write an 0p-ed under the First Amendment, and NetChoice argues the same goes for social media.

NetChoices members include Google, Meta, TikTok, X, Amazon, Airbnb, and other Silicon Valley staples beyond social media platforms. The association was founded in 2001 to make the Internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.

Social and political issues have consumed technology companies in recent months. Googles new AI chatbot Gemini was accused of being racist against white people last week. In January, Mark Zuckerberg, sitting before Senate leaders, apologized to a room of parents who said Instagram contributed to their childrens suicides or exploitation.

Both of these laws were created shortly after Twitter, now X, banned Donald Trump in 2021. Since then, Musk has completely revamped the platform into a free speech absolutist site. Similar to Governors Abbot and DeSantis, Musk is also highly concerned with so-called liberal censorship on social media.

The Supreme Courts decision on these cases could have a meaningful impact on how controversy and discourse play out on social media. Congress has faced criticism for its limited role in regulating social media companies in the last two decades, but this decision could finally set some ground rules. Its unclear which way the Court will lean on these cases, as the issues have little precedent.

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NASA Invites Media to Speak with Artemis II Moon Crew, Recovery Team – NASA

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Media are invited to speak with the four Artemis II astronauts on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at Naval Base San Diego in California. The crew will fly around the Moon next year as part of NASAs Artemis campaign, marking the first astronauts to make the journey in more than 50 years.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense are conducting training with the crew in the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the procedures and hardware needed to retrieve NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen after their approximately 10-day, 685,000-mile journey beyond the lunar far side and back.

The flight is the first crewed mission under NASAs Artemis campaign and will test the agencys Orion spacecraft life support systems needed for future lunar missions.

Attendees will be able to view hardware associated with the training, including a test version of Orion aboard the USS San Diego, and speak with other personnel from the agency and the Defense Department who are responsible for bringing the crew and the capsule to safety after the mission.

Media interested in attending must RSVP by 4 p.m. PST, Monday, Feb. 26, to Naval Base San Diego Public Affairs atnbsd.pao@us.navy.mil or 619-556-7359. The exact time of the planned afternoon Feb. 28 event is subject to the conclusion of testing activities.

Under Artemis, NASA will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.

For more about NASAs Artemis II mission, visit:

Artemis II

-end-

Rachel Kraft Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

Madison Tuttle Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-298-5868 madison.e.tuttle@nasa.gov

Courtney Beasley Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 courtney.m.beasley@nasa.gov

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NASA Invites Media to Speak with Artemis II Moon Crew, Recovery Team - NASA

SpaceX, NASA ‘go’ to launch Crew-8 astronaut mission to ISS on March 1 – Space.com

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SpaceX and NASA are officially go to launch their next astronaut mission to International Space Station (ISS) this week, with its four-person crew arriving at their Florida launch site on Sunday (Feb. 25).

Called Crew-8, the upcoming SpaceX mission will launch four astronauts into orbit on the Dragon capsule Endeavour and Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is scheduled for March 1 at 12:04 a.m. EST (0504 GMT).

Related: 8 ways SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

"Even though we all go today, we're constantly paying attention to what the rocket and spacecraft are telling us so that we'll make sure that we launch when the crew and the spacecraft are ready to go, and we're ready to have a good flight to the station and a good return," Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations and a former astronaut, told reporters in a Sunday night teleconference.

SpaceX's Crew-8 mission for NASA will launch NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin on a six-month expedition to the ISS. They will relieve their Crew-7 predecessors, another four-astronaut team, who will return to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon a week after Crew-8 reaches the ISS.

Dominick will command the Crew-8 flight to the ISS with Barrett as pilot. Epps and Grekenkin are mission specialists. The mission is the first career spaceflight for all but Barrett on the Crew-8 team. NASA and SpaceX initially aimed to launch Crew-8 to the ISS on Feb. 22, but delayed it to March 1 to clear a path for a private moon launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from their same launch pad on Feb. 15.

The Crew-8 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday afternoon as they spend their final days on Earth ahead of launch. The quartet will perform a dress rehearsal for their launch overnight on Monday and Tuesday, with SpaceX expected to perform a so-called "hot-fire" test of the Falcon 9's first stage engines a day later.

Steve Stitch, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters Sunday that NASA and SpaceX are working through some final issues to clear ahead of the Crew-8 launch. Those include reviews of composite material fasteners on the Dragon/Falcon 9 launch vehicle for Crew-8 that are expected to be resolved before flight. Engineers are also reviewing some paint discoloration on Crew-7's Dragon capsule currently docked at the ISS, apparently due to residue tape on the capsule, to ensure it's not an issue for reentry and landing.

Crew-8 will mark the fifth flight of the Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, which first flew astronauts to the ISS in May 2020 on SpaceX's first-ever human spaceflight, Demo-2. SpaceX and NASA are currently working to certify the reusable Dragon capsules for up to 15 spaceflights, NASA officials said.

SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with multi-billion-dollar contracts to fly astronauts to and from the ISS for NASA. The other company, Boeing, aims to launch the first crewed flight on its Starliner spacecraft no earlier than April 22.

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SpaceX, NASA 'go' to launch Crew-8 astronaut mission to ISS on March 1 - Space.com

Astronauts, cosmonaut arrive at Kennedy Space Center ahead of NASA, SpaceX Crew-8 launch Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

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The four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission pose in front of the NASA Gulfstream plane at Space Floridas Launch and Landing Facility. (Left to right) Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin and NASA Astronauts Jeanette Epps, Matthew Dominick and Michael Barratt. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now

Set against a bright, blue Florida skyline, the three astronauts and one cosmonaut who make up the SpaceX Crew-8 mission touched down at NASAs Kennedy Space Center Sunday afternoon.

The crews Gulfstream cruised in for a landing at the Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility at about 1:45 p.m. (1845 UTC). They were greeted on the tarmac by, Jennifer Kunz, a KSC Associate Director, and Dana Hutcherson, Deputy Director Commercial Crew.

Coming out here to the Cape, every time, Im a kid in a candy store, said Matthew Dominick, a NASA astronaut and the commander of the Crew-8 mission.

While the upcoming mission will be the first spaceflight for Dominick, he worked for NASA for seven years leading up this launch.

Its an incredible time to be involved in spaceflight. Who wouldve though five or six years ago that this would be the fifth flight of Endeavour that we get to go on? Who wouldve though five or six years ago that the competition for launch or the constraint to launch would be a launch pad? Dominick said, referring to the recent launch of the IM-1 robotic mission to the Moon. We delayed our launch a few days because theres stiff competition to get out there to 39A. Its not a rocket constraint, its a pad constraint.

Hes leading a trio that include two additional NASA astronauts, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin. They will launch to the orbiting outpost no earlier than Friday, March 1 at 12:04 a.m. EST (0504 UTC).

Barratt is returning to launch at KSC for the first time since his final flight as a member of STS-133 in 2011. He said its remarkable to be back now in the era of the Commercial Crew Program and be preparing to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and inside a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

The fact that this spaceport is so busy, so vibrant is just an amazing thing, Barratt said. Its just an absolute pleasure to see Kennedy Space Center being the thriving spaceport that it is. Were very honored to be a part of that. I cannot wait to get back to that magnificent station, I cant wait to fly this new spaceship and I cant wait to to fly with this crew.

Like Dominick and Grebenkin, Epps will be making her first trip to space on this mission. Shes experienced pivots from flying on a Russian Soyuz to then Boeing Starliner and finally to her current assignment on Crew-8.

Its overwhelming to me how many people contributed to this. So, I just want to thank everyone whos been involved, Epps said. Im very grateful for this flight. Ive trained for Soyuz, Ive trained for Boeing, Ive trained for a lot of vehicles, but Im honored to fly with this crew on the Dragon Endeavour.

Endeavor will be making its 5th flight into space on this mission, marking its position as the flight leader in the SpaceX spacecraft fleet. Five missions is the most that NASA has certified a Dragon to fly to date.

A new Dragon spacecraft is expected to enter the fleet sometime in 2024.

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Why the Odysseus Moon Landing Is So Important – TIME

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Early this week, Facebook provided me with a sweet piece of serendipity when it served up a picture of the late Gene Cernan. I had taken and posted the picture in 2014, when Cernan, the last man on the moon, was being feted at the premiere of the documentary about his life, titled, straightforwardly, The Last Man On the Moon. I had gotten to know Gene well over the course of many years of reporting on the space program, and was keenly saddened when we lost him to cancer three years later.

But this week, on Feb. 22, Cernan made news in a bank-shot sort of way, when the Odysseus spacecraft touched down near the south lunar pole, marking the first time the U.S. had soft-landed metal on the moon since Cernan feathered his lunar module Challenger down to the surface of the Taurus-Littrow Valley on Dec. 11, 1972. The networks made much of that 52-year gulf in cosmic history, but Odysseus was significant for two other, more substantive reasons: it marked the first time a spacecraft built by a private company, not by a governmental space program, had managed a lunar landing, and it was the first time any ship had visited a spot so far in the moons south, down in a region where ice is preserved in permanently shadowed craters. Those deposits could be harvested to serve as drinking water, breathable oxygen, and even rocket fuel by future lunar astronauts.

Today, for the first time in more than a half century, the U.S. has returned to the moon, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a livestream that accompanied the landing. Today, for the first time in the history of humanity, a commercial company and an American company launched and led the voyage up there.

Nelsons enthusiasm was not misplaced. The six Apollo lunar landings might have been epochal events, but they were also abbreviated ones. The longest stay any of the crews logged on the surface was just three days by Cernan and his lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt. The shortest stay was less than 21 hours, by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission, the first lunar landing, in 1969. That so-called flags and footprints model was fine for the days when the U.S. lunar program was mostly about doing some basic spelunking and, not for nothing, beating the much-feared Soviet Union at planting a flag in the lunar regolith.

But the 21st-century moon program is different. Ever since NASA established its Artemis program in 2017, the space agency has made it clear that the new era of exploration will be much more ambitious. The goal is in part for American astronauts to establish at least a semi-permanent presence on the moon, with a mini-space station known as Gateway positioned in lunar orbit, allowing crews to shuttle to and from the surface. NASA also plans to create a south pole habitat that the crews could call home. And all of this will be done by a much more diverse corps of astronauts, with women and persons of color joining the all-white, all-male list of astronauts who traveled to the moon the first time around.

There is, however, a catch: money. In the glory days of Apollo, NASA funding represented 4% of the total federal budget; now its just 0.4%. That means taking the job of designing and building spacecraft off of the space agencys plate and outsourcing it to private industry, the way SpaceX now ferries crews to the International Space Station, charging NASA for the rides the way it charges satellite manufacturers and other private customers. The Commercial Crew Program, of which SpaceX is a part, was established in 2011, and has been a rousing success, so much so that, in 2018, NASA took things a step further, announcing the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, similarly outsourcing the delivery of equipment that astronaut-settlers will need.

CLPS, however, stumbled out of the gate. On Jan. 8 of this year, the Peregrine lander, built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, was launched to a similar lunar region that Odysseus targeted, carrying 20 payloads, including mini-rovers, a spectrometer designed to scour the soil for traces of water, and another to study the moons exceedingly tenuous atmosphere. Peregrine was not destined to make it out of Earths orbit, however, after an engine failure stranded itleaving the ship to plunge back into the atmosphere 10 days after launch.

There will be some failures, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told TIME before the Peregrine mission launched. But if even half of these missions succeed, it is still a wild, runaway success.

Odysseus landed in that second, happier column. Built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, the spacecraft carries six science instruments, including stereoscopic cameras, an autonomous navigation system, and a radio wave detector to help measure charged particles above the surfacecritical to determining the necessary sheathing in an eventual habitat. NASA has at least eight other CLPS missions planned, including two more by Intuitive Machines and another by Astrobotic, through 2026. After that, the program is expected to go on indefinitelysupplying lunar bases for as long as Artemis has astronauts on the moon.

Just when those explorers will arrive is unclear. The Artemis II mission, which was expected to take astronauts on a circumlunar journey in November of this year, has been postponed until September of 2025, due to R&D issues in both the Space Launch System moon rocket and the Orion spacecraft. Artemis III, set to be the first landing since the Apollo 17 astronauts trod the regolith, will likely not come until 2026 at the earliest.

That 52 year wait would not have sat well with that long-ago crew. In the same year in which they flew, the National Football Leagues Miami Dolphins made a less consequential history of their own, when they became the first and so far only team to go through an entire season undefeated. The surviving members of that legendary squad have waited out the seasons that have followed, pulling for their record to standand conceding relief when the final undefeated team at last records a loss. Cernan, for his part, wanted nothing to do with his own last man record. We leave here as we came and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind, he said before he climbed back up the ladder of his lunar module and left the moon behind. The success of Odysseus does not make the fulfillment of Cernans wish imminent, but it does nudge it closer.

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Why the Odysseus Moon Landing Is So Important - TIME

HHS Expands TEFCA by Adding Two Additional QHINs – HHS.gov

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Seven QHINs will now safely and securely exchange critical health information for patient care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), announced today that two additional organizationsCommonWell Health Alliance and Kno2have been designated as Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) capable of nationwide health data exchange governed by the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common AgreementSM (TEFCASM). ONC has led a multi-year, public-private process alongside its Recognized Coordinating Entity, The Sequoia Project, Inc., to implement TEFCA, which was envisioned by the 21st Century Cures Act to support nationwide interoperability. TEFCA became operational in December 2023 with the designation of the first five QHINseHealth Exchange, Epic Nexus, Health Gorilla, KONZA, and MedAllies.

CommonWell Health Alliance and Kno2 can immediately begin supporting the exchange of data under the Common Agreement's policies and technical requirements along with the other designated QHINs. QHINs are the pillars of TEFCA network-to-network exchange, providing shared services and governance to securely route queries, responses, and messages across networks for health care stakeholders including patients, providers, hospitals, health systems, payers, and public health agencies.

"These additional QHINs expand TEFCA's reach and provide additional connectivity choices for patients, health care providers, hospitals, public health agencies, health insurers, and other authorized health care professionals," said Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., national coordinator for health information technology. "On behalf of ONC, I want to congratulate CommonWell Health Alliance and Kno2 for their achievement."

"The designation of these two QHINs, which brings the total number of QHINs to seven, highlights the rapid expansion of TEFCA exchange and the support of more and more leaders around TEFCA exchange," said Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project and RCE lead.

Common Agreement Version 2.0, which is anticipated to include enhancements and updates to require support for Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) based transactions, is actively under development and scheduled to be adopted by QHINs within the first quarter of 2024.

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HHS Expands TEFCA by Adding Two Additional QHINs - HHS.gov