Month: May 2021

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  This is the F-150 Lightning Pro, the version of Ford's new electric pickup aimed at the work market. [credit: Ford ]

Last week, Ford revealed the F-150 Lightning, its long-awaited electric pickup truck. At the start of the new work week, the automaker offered up some information about the entry-level versions of the F-150 Lighting, which it is targeting at the commercial market. This version will be called the F-150 Lightning Pro.

The standard-range F-150 Lightning Pro can travel approximately 230 miles on a single charge, and as we found out last week, will cost $39,974 before incentives or tax credits.

What we didn't know was how much of a premium Ford would charge for the extended range version. This model is capable of about 300 miles on a single charge, and will be supplied with an 240 V, 80 A charger (called the Charge Station Pro) that can fill the battery to 100 percent in eight hours. As it turns out, the electric pickup with the bigger battery will go on sale at $49,974 before incentives and tax credits.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

The Russian-language online news channel was best known for its priestly presenters and conspiratorial musings about the global financial system plotting against Moscow—suspicions it viewed as confirmed last July when the Google-owned streaming service took the channel down over what it claimed was a US sanctions breach.

Now Tsargrad is poised to strike back after a landmark court ruling that could put Google’s entire Russian business in jeopardy as Moscow steps up attempts to force western technology companies to comply with its laws.

A Moscow court last month ordered Google to reinstate Tsargrad’s YouTube channel globally on the grounds the ban had unfairly discriminated against its owner, Konstantin Malofeev.

Enlarge / VSS Unity in space over New Mexico. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

On Saturday Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft flew above 80 km for the third time, completing a much-anticipated return to space following more than two years of downtime. The flight, which crested at an altitude of 89.2 km, was piloted by CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay.

"We will immediately begin processing the data gained from this successful test flight, and we look forward to sharing news on our next planned milestone," said Michael Colglazier, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic, after the mission.

The flight was significant for Virgin Galactic, as the last time VSS Unity successfully carried out a powered spaceflight came in February 2019. Since that time the company has undertaken a lot of work to prepare for commercial flights on its suborbital space plane. This includes moving its flight operations to New Mexico and at least beginning to upgrade the interior of its cabin for tourist flights. Although Virgin Galactic has not released photos of the spacecraft's interior, some changes can be seen here.