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In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we got to watch those two astronauts dock with the International Space Station.
And we also got to see SpaceX launch Starship for the fourth time ever — and then bring it back home.
I think I’m not alone in thinking that some of the most spectacular images in the history of rocketry were generated during that flight.
Of course, the mission isn’t over yet: After around a week aboard the station, the two astronauts will re-board Starliner and use it to get back home.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has successfully delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station, a key milestone in the aerospace giant’s quest to certify the capsule for regular crewed missions.
After taking some time to equalize pressure between Starliner and the station, the hatch opened at around 12:46 PM.
“Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said to Mission Control.
Welcome aboard Starliner crew!!
This mission is the critical final step before Starliner can be certified for regular astronaut transportation missions with NASA.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is officially on its way to the International Space Station, marking a historic first for the long-delayed astronaut transportation program.
If all goes to plan, Boeing will become NASA’s second astronaut transportation provider, joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Boeing did execute a successful uncrewed mission to the ISS in May 2022, but this is the first time the spacecraft has carried humans.
While Boeing has struggled, SpaceX has soared: Using its Crew Dragon capsule, SpaceX has been providing astronaut transportation to and from the ISS since 2020.
This is the last major step before Starliner can be certified as an operational crew system, and the first Starliner mission is expected to launch in 2025.
Numbers Station, a startup that is using large language models (LLMs) to power its data analytics platform, is launching its first cloud-based product today: the aptly named Numbers Station Cloud, which is now in early access.
With this service, virtually any user in an enterprise can analyze their internal data using Numbers Station’s chat interface.
As Numbers Station co-founder and CEO Chris Aberger told me, he’s somewhat tired of talking about how the service allows users to “chat with their data,” because there is so much noise around that.
Numbers Stations’ research shows that its approach results in significantly improved precision compared to more traditional text-to-SQL pipelines.
“Numbers Station is at the cutting edge of enterprise AI for structured data,” said Sharad Rastogi, the CEO of Work Dynamics Technology from Jones Lang LaSalle.
As crucial as the ocean is to countless industries, we lack the kind of systematic knowledge of it that we have of the surface.
This is partly due to the simple fact that the ocean is gigantic and there’s simply no way (or need) to monitor all of it.
Cheap solutions like buoys are great but limited to surface measurements, and are subject to the whims of weather and currents.
“There is such a clear need for safe, reliable and continuously updated data about water quality,” said Ester Strommen, CEO and co-founder of Syrenna.
Free-floating, free-divingI saw a prototype of the WaterDrone, as they call it, while visiting startups last spring in Oslo, where Syrenna is based.
Axiom Space is gearing up to launch its third fully private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
Per NASA rules, all private missions to the ISS must be led by a former NASA astronaut.
Houston-based Axiom’s first private mission launched in April 2022 and the second followed in May 2023.
But Axiom is not stopping at private astronaut missions — as if that wasn’t ambitious enough.
Instead, the company aims to eventually attach commercial modules to the ISS, that Axiom owns and operates, which would detach by the end of the decade to become a free-flying Axiom Space Station.
CES 2024 or bust, Superpedestrian e-scooters hit the auction block and Fisker struggles to meet sales goalsThe Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation.
I appreciated a bit of rest and recovery, just in time for CES 2024.
The Big Three U.S. automakers (Ford, GM and Stellantis) won’t have big splashy displays and announcements as in past years.
However, there will be plenty of automotive, and more broadly, transportation companies and startups in attendance.
Shell Ventures, InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and Revo Capital also participated.
Voyager Space’s recent funding announcement confirms that the private space station movement is continuing to gain momentum. With Starlab, Voyager hopes to establish itself as a leader in this burgeoning…
