SpaceX goes back to drawing board over its ambitious rocket for Mars
The Super Heavy booster will now feature three larger and stronger grid fins, replacing one key landing fin, to improve vehicle control and enable new catch mechanisms.
This redesign follows the most recent test flight in May, where the booster crashed into the Gulf of Mexico and the main Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean.
Elon Musk endorsed the simplification, stating, "Best part is no part," in reference to the design changes.
The next critical test flight, Flight 10, is anticipated as early as this weekend, with maritime warnings issued for 16 August, as SpaceX continues its ambitious plans for Mars missions.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists issue chilling warning about 'The Big One': Impending mega-earthquake on California's notorious San Andreas fault could be even BIGGER than we thought
It is predicted to be one of the most devastating earthquakes in history. And now scientists have issued a chilling warning about 'The Big One' – a mega–earthquake set to rock California 's notorious San Andreas fault. Experts from Caltech in Pasadena have studied a 7.7–magnitude earthquake that shook Myanmar in March along the Sagaing fault – a fault known for being eerily similar to San Andreas. That earthquake ended up rupturing a much longer section of the fault than scientists expected, killing thousands and causing widespread damage. According to the researchers, this suggests The Big One could also be even bigger than we originally thought. 'Future earthquakes might not simply repeat past known earthquakes,' said Jean–Philippe Avouac, co–author of the study. 'Successive ruptures of a given fault, even as simple as the Sagaing or the San Andreas faults, can be very different and can release even more than the deficit of slip since the last event. 'In addition, historical records are generally far too short for statistical models to represent the full range of possible earthquakes and eventual patterns in earthquake recurrence.' The devastating earthquake hit Myanmar on 28 March 2025, killing more than 2,000 people, and leaving 3,900 injured. The quake occurred when a section of the Sagaing fault ruptured, causing widespread damage along a swathe of territory down the middle of the country, including Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway and Bago regions and Shan State. In their new study, the Caltech team used satellite imagery of the Sagaing Fault's motion to understand exactly what happened – and whether a similar incident could happen in California. 'This earthquake turned out to be an ideal case to apply image correlation methods that were developed by our research group,' said Solène Antoine, first author of the study. 'They allow us to measure ground displacements at the fault, where the alternative method, radar interferometry, is blind due to phenomenon like decorrelation [a process to decouple signals] and limited sensitivity to north–south displacements.' Based on studies of previous tremors along the Sagaing fault, the researchers expected that the earthquake would occur on a 186–mile (300–kilometer) section of the fault, where no large earthquakes had occurred since 1839. The satellite images confirmed that this was the case – but that the fault actually slipped along a total of more than 310 miles (500km). In fact, the 310–mile section shifted by a whopping 9.8ft (three metres) after the quake. So, what does this mean for The Big One? Well, according to the researchers, it suggests The Big One won't look like anything we've seen before. Previous earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault include a 7.9–magnitude earthquake in 1857, which ruptured the fault from Monterey County all the way to Los Angeles County. Meanwhile, in 1906, an earthquake began just offshore of San Francisco, before rupturing in two directions, towards Humboldt County and Santa Cruz County. Instead, a future rupture could result in smaller, separate earthquakes. Or, it could be even bigger than those seen before – rupturing the fault all the way into San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial counties, and reaching a magnitude of 8. The researchers now hope to use their new models to better understand what The Big One will actually look like. 'Physics–based models provide an alternative approach with the advantage that they could, in principle, be tuned to observations and used for time–dependent forecast,' Professor Avouac added.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
This small walking style change can delay knee surgery for years, study finds
A small adjustment to one's walking style can ease osteoarthritis pain as effectively as medication and delay the need for knee surgery by years, according to a new study. Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, affects nearly a quarter of adults and is a leading cause of disability worldwide. It occurs when the cartilage cushioning the ends of bones wears down, leading to pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. There is currently no way to reverse this damage, with treatment largely limited to pain management through medication and, eventually, joint replacement. Now, researchers at the University of Utah say that gait retraining may offer a non-pharmacological alternative. In a year-long clinical trial, they found that making small adjustments to the angle of the foot while walking provided pain relief equivalent to medication. The study, published in The Lancet Rheumatology, also showed that gait retraining reduced knee cartilage degradation. 'We have known that for people with osteoarthritis, higher loads in their knee accelerate progression and that changing the foot angle can reduce knee load,' Scott Uhlrich, an author of the study, said. 'So the idea of a biomechanical intervention is not new but there have not been randomised, placebo-controlled studies to show that they're effective.' Researchers focused on patients with mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis in the medial compartment of the knee, the inner side of the joint, which typically bears more weight than the outer, lateral compartment. In this form of the disease, the optimal foot angle for reducing stress on the medial compartment varies from person to person, depending on their natural gait and how it shifts when they adopt the new walking pattern. 'We used a personalised approach to selecting each individual's new walking pattern, which improved how much individuals could offload their knee and likely contributed to the positive effect on pain and cartilage that we saw,' Dr Uhlrich said. During their first two visits, participants underwent a baseline MRI and practised walking on a pressure-sensitive treadmill while motion-capture cameras recorded their gait mechanics. Researchers then analysed the data to determine whether turning a participant's toe inward or outward would best reduce knee loading, and whether a 5-degree or 10-degree adjustment would be most effective. Those unlikely to benefit, such as participants whose knee loading did not decrease with any adjustment, were excluded. Of the 68 participants, half were randomly assigned to a dummy treatment group to control for the placebo effect. The intervention group was prescribed a specific foot angle change that maximally reduced their knee loading. Both groups took part in six weekly training sessions. Participants in the intervention group received real-time feedback via vibrations from a device worn on the shin, helping them maintain the prescribed foot angle. After training, they were encouraged to practise their new gait for at least 20 minutes a day until it became natural, supported by periodic check-in visits. One year later, participants reported on their knee pain and underwent a second MRI to quantitatively assess cartilage damage. Those in the intervention group experienced reduced pain and showed less cartilage degradation compared with the control group. 'With the MRIs, we also saw slower degradation of a marker of cartilage health in the intervention group, which was quite exciting,' Dr Uhlrich said. 'The reported decrease in pain over the placebo group was somewhere between what you'd expect from an over-the-counter medication, like ibuprofen, and a narcotic, like OxyContin.' One of the key advantages of the method, according to scientists, is the potential for participants to adhere to the intervention over long periods. 'Especially for people in their 30's, 40's, or 50's, osteoarthritis could mean decades of pain management before they're recommended for a joint replacement,' Dr Uhrlich said. 'This intervention could help fill that large treatment gap.' Researchers hope to streamline the gait retraining process before deploying the treatment clinically. 'We and others have developed technology that could be used to both personalise and deliver this intervention in a clinical setting using mobile sensors, like smartphone video and a 'smart shoe',' Dr Uhlrich said.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Firefly Aerospace eyes Japan rocket launches for Asia market
TOKYO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Firefly Aerospace (FLY.O), opens new tab is exploring an option to launch its Alpha rocket from Japan as the U.S. rocket maker expands its satellite launch services globally, a Japanese company operating a spaceport in the country's northern Hokkaido said on Monday. The plan could make Japan the second offshore launch site - and first in Asia - for Firefly, the Texas-based rival to Elon Musk's market leader SpaceX, which had its Nasdaq debut earlier this month and is preparing for an Alpha launch in Sweden. Space Cotan, operator of the Hokkaido Spaceport located about 820 km (510 mi) northeast of Tokyo, said it and Firefly signed a preliminary agreement to study the feasibility of launching the small-lift rocket Alpha from there. Launching Alpha from Japan "would allow us to serve the larger satellite industry in Asia and add resiliency for U.S. allies with a proven orbital launch vehicle," Adam Oakes, Firefly's vice president of launch, said in a statement published on Space Cotan's website. A feasibility study would be conducted to assess the regulatory hurdles, timeframe and investments for a launch pad for Alpha in Hokkaido, said Space Cotan spokesperson Ryota Ito. The plan would require a space technology safeguards agreement (TSA) between Washington and Tokyo that would allow American rocket launches in Japan, Ito added. The governments last year kicked off the negotiations but have not reached an agreement. A U.S.-Sweden TSA signed in June cleared the path for Firefly's launches from the Arctic. Four of Firefly's six Alpha flights since 2021 have ended in failure, most recently in April. While Japan's national space agency has launched rockets for decades, private rockets are nascent and most Japanese satellite operators rely on foreign options such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Rocket Lab's (RKLB.O), opens new tab Electron. Previously, U.S. company Virgin Orbit aimed to use Japan's southwest Oita Airport for launches but the plan was scrapped after the firm went bankrupt in 2023. Colorado-based Sierra Space has an ongoing plan to land its spaceplane on Oita beyond 2027. Taiwanese firm TiSpace last month conducted what could be the first foreign launch in Hokkaido, but the suborbital flight failed within a minute. Japan's government is targeting 30 launches of Japanese rockets a year by the early 2030s and subsidises domestic enterprises such as Space One and Toyota-backed Interstellar Technologies.
