SpaceX has plans to launch Falcon Heavy from California—if anyone wants it to

There’s no big rush to bring SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Department of the Air Force has approved SpaceX's plans to launch up to 100 missions per year from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This would continue the tectonic turnaround at the spaceport on California's Central Coast. Five years ago, Vandenberg hosted just a single orbital launch. This year's number stands at 51 orbital flights, or 53 launches if you count a pair of Minuteman missile tests, the most in a single calendar year at Vandenberg since the early 1970s.

Vandenberg is used for missions launching into polar orbits, paths oriented north-south that, over time, cover most of the Earth's surface area. These orbits are popular for Earth observation satellites.

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Microsoft is bringing Copilot AI controls to all Windows 11 PCs

For the past few years Microsoft has been pushing the idea of Copilot+ PCs as special systems that have NPU’s with enough AI processing performance to allow you to use certain AI features without a cloud connection. But now Microsoft has announce…

For the past few years Microsoft has been pushing the idea of Copilot+ PCs as special systems that have NPU’s with enough AI processing performance to allow you to use certain AI features without a cloud connection. But now Microsoft has announced plans to make every Windows 11 computer an AI PC that use the company’s […]

The post Microsoft is bringing Copilot AI controls to all Windows 11 PCs appeared first on Liliputing.

Antarctica is starting to look a lot like Greenland—and that isn’t good

Global warming is awakening sleeping giants of ice at the South Pole.

As recently as the 1990s, when the Greenland Ice Sheet and the rest of the Arctic region were measurably thawing under the climatic blowtorch of human-caused global warming, most of Antarctica’s vast ice cap still seemed securely frozen.

But not anymore. Physics is physics. As the planet heats up, more ice will melt at both poles, and recent research shows that Antarctica’s ice caps, glaciers, and floating ice shelves, as well as its sea ice, are just as vulnerable to warming as the Arctic.

Both satellite data and field observations in Antarctica reveal alarming signs of a Greenland-like meltdown, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers, and dwindling sea ice. Some scientists are sounding the alarm, warning that the rapid “Greenlandification” of Antarctica will have serious consequences, including an accelerated rise in sea levels and significant shifts in rainfall and drought patterns.

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Sonnensystem: Es stürmt mit 160 km/h auf dem Mars

Die Staubteufel auf dem Mars bewegen sich schneller über den Planeten als erwartet. Das haben ausgewertete Daten von zwei Esa-Raumsonden ergeben. (Mars, Raumfahrt)

Die Staubteufel auf dem Mars bewegen sich schneller über den Planeten als erwartet. Das haben ausgewertete Daten von zwei Esa-Raumsonden ergeben. (Mars, Raumfahrt)