SpaceX is planning to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday. CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday night it "remains go." If it is successful it will be the biggest, and most powerful rocket to go into space over thirty years. Phil Plait, author of The Bad Astronomy blog, explains challenges facing Tuesday's lift-off.
"This is the most powerful rocket that will have been launched since the Saturn 5," says Plait. "In this case we are having a new generation of rocket that will be able to hopefully take people to Mars."
Tesla's roadster will be in the cargo when this rocket goes to space, along with what Elon Musk is describing as a Starman pressure suit. "It's a publicity stunt," says Plait. "You need to launch something in there. There's got to be some mass in there to test the rocket, and he chose this for sentimental reasons."
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni introduce Phia, a fashion tech startup that helps users find price comparisons and discover alternative options for apparel
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Microsoft says users of its Azure cloud portal may be not be able to access Office 365, Minecraft or other services due to issues with its global content delivery network services. The tech company posted a note to its Azure status page that its teams are currently deploying a fix to address the outage.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
