The House Oversight Committee will investigate the FCC’s decision to deny the Elon Musk-owned Starlink $885.5 million in federal subsidies through the Rural Digital Opportunity fund in 2022.
Last week, Musk claimed the satellite internet company “would probably have saved lives” in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina if the FCC didn’t “illegally” revoke Starlink’s funding.
Hurricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm and is quickly making its way toward the western coast of Florida, threatening communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
Liftoff of its uncrewed NS-27 mission is now scheduled for 12PM ET. Starting 15 minutes before liftoff, you can catch the livestream on Blue Origin’s website.
NS-27 will be the first flight for the company’s new RSS Kármán Line crew capsule, and includes 12 payloads, including LIDAR sensors for its Lunar lander program.
Update: The launch has been cancelled due vehicle issues.
[Blue Origin]
This morning, the European Space Agency launched its Hera mission, which will revisit Didymos, the asteroid system that NASA’s Dart operation punched in 2022.
Major tech firms, in search of carbon pollution-free electricity for data centers, are helping to revive nuclear energy in the US.
Key sites for producing high-purity quartz used in chipmaking “only sustained minor damage,” according to an initial assessment by Sibelco, one of the mining companies in Spruce Pine, NC. But power outages are still a big problem for its operations after the devastating storm.
The Quartz Corp, meanwhile, says “damage is mostly concentrated around ancillary units,” and that it’s confident it can “avoid” supply disruptions.
[www.sibelco.com]
Turns out it’s pretty neat. After a decade of work, scientists have mapped out all 140,000 neurons of Drosophila melanogaster — or a fruit fly. The pictures are pretty sick, and scientists hope to use the fly brain map to figure out how bigger brains might work.
[The New York Times]
