orbital

Sony is launching its new PlayStation Plus in India next week. The update brings the service in four tiers, namely Essential, Extra, Deluxe, and Premium. While the Essential is the base version, Deluxe and Premium are the top tiers — depending on which market you are in. The new PlayStation Plus is aimed to help Sony increase its revenues. It is also to better compete against Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass — a similar multi-tier service specifically designed for gamers on Xbox.On this week's episode of Gadgets 360 podcast…

Whenever you ask Glastonbury veterans for some of their favourite memories, one name comes up time and again, particularly among gnarled-looking ravers: Orbital.Their 1994 set is seen by many as the moment when Glastonbury fully grasped dance music. Rave culture was in the bones of the hippies who attended the festival (or snuck in at least), and Underworld’s Experimental Sound Field in 1992 brought repetitive beats into the overall musical mix – but this Orbital set was a mainstream moment, hosted for 40,000 people at…

SpaceX moved closer to trying to blast its massive Starship vehicle into orbit, after U.S. aviation regulators concluded that the company’s plans wouldn’t have a major environmental impact near its South Texas launch site. The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision is a win for the Elon Musk -led company as it works to show the rocket system can work as expected. SpaceX has said that Starship, which consists of a vessel that goes by that name and the…

Starship is designed to carry astronauts and cargo to the Moon, and maybe even further destinations like Mars.Photo: SpaceXYesterday, Elon Musk said Starship will be ready for its first orbital launch next month, followed by monthly liftoffs from the company’s south Texas base. It’s an ambitious timeline, but the private space company has not yet secured permission to launch the heavy rocket, as it must meet a number of outstanding regulatory requirements.“Starship will be ready to fly next month,” Musk wrote on Twitter.…

A SpaceX Crew Dragon during the Crew-2 mission in November 2021.Photo: SpaceXThe partnership between NASA and SpaceX is poised to get even stronger, as the space agency recently announced its intention to purchase five additional Crew Dragon flights to the International Space Station.NASA announced its intent to purchase the extra Crew Dragon missions in a procurement notice released on June 1. The pending contract extension with SpaceX was in part prompted by Boeing’s inability to deliver its own commercial crew vehicle,…

Apple hosted the WWDC 2022 keynote this week where it announced iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13 Ventura, and watchOS 9 as expected. Alongside showcasing its new software developments, Apple used the WWDC stage to unveil a new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro as two of its new hardware offerings. Both new MacBook models are powered by the company's M2 chip. Between the two models, the new MacBook Air — aka MacBook Air (2022) — carries an all-new design that brings it closer to the MacBook Pro family.Gadgets 360 podcast…

Nowadays, you can find flagship phones that are priced at over Rs. 1 lakh. But at the same time, there are some models that appear to have a list of high-end features under the Rs. 50,000 price segment. The smartphone market in India has not just grown in units sold, but also in terms of pricing. These phones can be termed "value flagship phones". But are they worth picking against the premium phones — the iPhone 13 and the Galaxy S series — available in the country? We try to find out.On this week's episode of Gadgets…

Astroscale is set to develop ELSA-M. The company’s previous debris removal spacecraft, ELSA-d, is shown here.Illustration: AstroscaleThe European Space Agency is joining forces with Astroscale, an orbital debris removal company, to thin the massive cloud of space debris orbiting Earth. This effort will pave the way for communications company OneWeb to continue building its telecommunication network.The European Space Agency revealed in a press release today that Astroscale, a company focusing on space debris removal, will…

The new Boeing Starliner capsule was due to descend back to Earth on Wednesday from its first uncrewed journey to the International Space Station (ISS), completing a high-stakes test flight as NASA's next vehicle for carrying humans to orbit.Less than a week after its launch from the Cape Canaveral US Space Force Base in Florida, the CST-100 Starliner was scheduled to autonomously undock from the space station at 2:36 p.m. EDT (12:06am IST on Thursday) to embark on a five-hour-plus return flight.If all goes as planned,…

Finding the best pair of headphones these days has become a tough job — thanks to a large number of new entrants in the market. Existing brands and known names including Audio-Technica and Sony are also bringing their new models on a regular basis to stay relevant among customers. The headphones market has additionally been expanded with new form-factors and technologies. Similarly, the swift growth of smartphones — and the disappearance of the 3.5mm jack — has made truly wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds the leading category…