Month: September 2023

Enlarge / SHANGHAI, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 - A light box advertising Huawei Mate 60 mobile phone is seen in front of the Apple store on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China, September 13, 2023. (credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty)

In March, Tim Cook was among the first batch of foreign executives to land in Beijing to court high-level officials after the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions, with Apple’s chief lauding how the company and China had grown together in a “symbiotic relationship.”

Six months on, that relationship is under strain. Apple is facing new competitive pressures in a country that is not only its largest manufacturing hub but also its biggest international market, responsible for nearly 20 percent of sales in its last quarter.

A share sell-off cut almost $200 billion from Apple’s market capitalization this month after news that various government agencies had imposed bans on the use of Apple products in government departments and state-owned enterprises. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday denied any formal prohibition but alluded to iPhone-related “security incidents” and told smartphone makers to comply with the law.

Enlarge / Stoke Space's Hopper 2 takes to the skies on Sunday in Moses Lake, Washington. (credit: Stoke Space)

At an airfield in Eastern Washington on Sunday, the small launch company Stoke Space flew its upper stage for the first time.

The flight was, admittedly, rather modest. The second-stage rocket only ascended to about 30 feet (9 meters) and traveled just several feet down range. The entire flight was over in 15 seconds.

And yet this was a momentous step for Stoke Space, which is less than 4 years old and has only about 90 employees. The test successfully demonstrated the performance of the company's oxygen-hydrogen engine, which is based on a ring of 30 thrusters; the ability to throttle this engine and its thrust vector control system; as well as the vehicle's avionics, software, and ground systems.

Enlarge / Stoke Space's Hopper 2 takes to the skies on Sunday in Moses Lake, Washington. (credit: Stoke Space)

At an airfield in Eastern Washington on Sunday, the small launch company Stoke Space flew its upper stage for the first time.

The flight was, admittedly, rather modest. The second-stage rocket only ascended to about 30 feet (9 meters) and traveled just several feet down range. The entire flight was over in 15 seconds.

And yet this was a momentous step for Stoke Space, which is less than 4 years old and has only about 90 employees. The test successfully demonstrated the performance of the company's oxygen-hydrogen engine, which is based on a ring of 30 thrusters; the ability to throttle this engine and its thrust vector control system; as well as the vehicle's avionics, software, and ground systems.

Enlarge / Planetary vampire Perseverance takes a selfie with two sample drill holes. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

It’s easy to take it for granted, but we’re driving around on freakin’ Mars right now.

We’ve done this a few times before, sure, but it remains one of humankind’s most impressive technological feats. The latest rover to continue our presence on the Red Planet is Perseverance, the star of the Mars 2020 mission that launched in July of that year and landed in February of 2021.

It’s now been busy roving for over two years. News of what we’re discovering—beyond the stream of photos—tends to come in discrete bits that can be hard to connect into a bigger picture if you aren’t following closely. Consider this your wide-angle recap.