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Dear readers: Let us know what you’d like to see more of on Ars

Take a few minutes to comment and help us guide future coverage.

Since 1998, Ars has covered desktop computing, IT, gaming, and personal gadgets. Over the years, the remit has broadened to increase focus on science, space, policy, culture, automobiles, AI, and more.

You can expect our coverage in those areas to continue, but it's important for Ars to ensure our editors stay on top of what our readers are most interested in. As we plan our approach for the coming months, we'd like to hear from you about what you'd like to see more of at Ars.

For example, do you want to see more focus on reviews of consumer technology? Is there a hunger for closer coverage of applications, toolkits, and issues relevant to professional software developers? Should we invest more effort in covering the latest AAA games on Steam? Are Ars readers excited to read more about 3D printing or drones?

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Rocket Report: SpaceX’s 500th Falcon launch; why did UK’s Reaction Engines fail?

SpaceX’s rockets make a lot more noise, but the machinations of Texas’ newest city are underway.

Welcome to Edition 7.47 of the Rocket Report! Let's hope not, but the quarrel between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk may be remembered as "Black Thursday" for the US space program. A simmering disagreement over Trump's signature "One Big Beautiful Bill" coursing its way through Congress erupted into public view, with two of the most powerful Americans trading insults and threats on social media. Trump suggested the government should terminate "Elon's governmental contracts and subsidies." Musk responded with a post saying SpaceX will begin decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft used to transport crew and cargo to the International Space Station. This could go a number of ways, but it's hard to think anything good will come of it.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Blue Origin flies aces suborbital space shot. Blue Origin, the space company founded and owned by Jeff Bezos, launched six people to the edge of space Saturday, May 31, from Bezos' ranch in West Texas, CBS News reports. A hydrogen-fueled New Shepard booster propelled a crew capsule, equipped with the largest windows of any operational spaceship, to an altitude of nearly 65 miles (105 kilometers), just above the internationally recognized boundary between the discernible atmosphere and space, before beginning the descent to landing. The passengers included three Americans—Aymette Medina Jorge, Gretchen Green, and Paul Jeris—along with Canadian Jesse Williams, New Zealand's Mark Rocket, and Panamanian Jaime Alemán, who served as his country's ambassador to the United States.

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Google’s nightmare: How a search spinoff could remake the web

Google has shaped the Internet as we know it, and unleashing its index could change everything.

Google wasn't around for the advent of the World Wide Web, but it successfully remade the web on its own terms. Today, any website that wants to be findable has to play by Google's rules, and after years of search dominance, the company has lost a major antitrust case that could reshape both it and the web.

The closing arguments in the case just wrapped up last week, and Google could be facing serious consequences when the ruling comes down in August. Losing Chrome would certainly change things for Google, but the Department of Justice is pursuing other remedies that could have even more lasting impacts. During his testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai seemed genuinely alarmed at the prospect of being forced to license Google's search index and algorithm, the so-called data remedies in the case. He claimed this would be no better than a spinoff of Google Search. The company's statements have sometimes derisively referred to this process as "white labeling" Google Search.

But does a white label Google Search sound so bad? Google has built an unrivaled index of the web, but the way it shows results has become increasingly frustrating. A handful of smaller players in search have tried to offer alternatives to Google's search tools. They all have different approaches to retrieving information for you, but they agree that spinning off Google Search could change the web again. Whether or not those changes are positive depends on who you ask.

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