orbital

The time is quickly nearing for SpaceX to perform the first fully integrated orbital flight test of Starship. Here’s how the historic launch will unfold and what you can expect from Elon Musk’s revolutionary megarocket.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewThe significance of this launch cannot be overstated given the importance of Starship to SpaceX, NASA, and the spaceflight industry as a whole. Standing 394 feet (120 meters) tall, Starship will instantly become the most powerful…

Last week, SpaceX announced it’s poised to launch the fully stacked Starship spacecraft for a first orbital flight test following a launch rehearsal this week and pending regulatory approval. Now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is confirming it’s ready, with launch “trending towards near the end of third week of April,” Musk wrote in a tweet on Monday.Starship is SpaceX’s long-awaited flagship spacecraft that’s designed to take astronauts and payloads to deep space — including the Moon and, of course, Mars. Most importantly, the…

The first quarter of 2023 has been a roller-coaster ride in the tech industry. We've witnessed the launch of several new exciting products from smartphones to laptops, saw the rise of AI-based chat services, Twitter's new rules got even more absurd, and we even saw a barrage of layoffs across tech companies, both big and small. There's a lot to unpack so in this podcast, we thought we'd start on a positive note and talk about some of the big smartphone launches in India, recent trends of customer behaviour, and how the…

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 concluded on Thursday, bringing the world's largest smartphone-centric event to an end. Many noteworthy handsets from companies like Xiaomi, Nokia and Tecno, were launched at the event, while other firms showed off prototypes of smartphones with miniaturised liquid cooling technology, as well as rollable displays that retract and extend at the push of a button. MWC 2023 also saw companies like Xiaomi and Oppo show off prototypes of AR glasses featuring compact designs.On this week's…

Rivada Space wants to build a constellation of 600 satellites. Illustration: Terran OrbitalSatellite manufacturer Terran Orbital has beenawarded a hefty contract by Rivada Space Networks to build 288 low Earth orbit satellites, and 12 spare satellites, for its communications constellation. Terran Orbital announced the deal this week, which makes it the main contractor for satellite communication company Rivada. “Our partnership will show why Terran Orbital continues to be a satellite manufacturer of choice for…

Xiaomi India is preparing for the launch of the Xiaomi 13 Pro in India next week, and the upcoming smartphone is set to become the first flagship phone from the company with Leica-tuned cameras to make its debut in the country. The company faced some headwinds in India last year, including increasing competition from other brands and scrutiny from government authorities in the country. This year, the company is all set to take on its rivals and plans to simplify its product portfolio in India, while making more products…

SpaceX performed a static fire test of the Starship rocket on February 9.Photo: SpaceXAfter completing a static fire test of Starship earlier this month, SpaceX has nowhere else to go but up. A company official says it’snow in a position to perform the first orbital flight test of its much-anticipated megarocket, pending a launch license.On Tuesday, a SpaceX official stated that Starship’s first orbital flight could take place in March. Speaking at the Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, Florida, SpaceX Senior…

The company's banner above the New York Stock Exchange on March 28, 2022.Terran OrbitalTerran Orbital shares surged in trading on Wednesday, after the company announced a $2.4 billion contract to build communications satellites for Rivada Space Networks.The spacecraft builder will design, manufacture and deploy 288 satellites for Rivada out of Terran's Tyvak subsidiary based in Irvine, California. It will also build 12 spare satellites, for a total contract of 300 satellites, and develop portions of the ground…

Purism has many drawbacks, but electronic music can sometimes seem diminished by vocalists cooing up top, as though some core fealty to the radical possibilities of electronics has been diluted. Not even Orbital – titans of the genre – are immune to the human-angle siren song. Optical Delusion, their 10th, is a powerful record, another sterling comeback on which brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll provide sylph-like forward momentum, creepy noises, old-school drum’n’bass and cathedral-like synth sounds.The human guests all…

iQoo Neo 7 5G made its debut in India on Thursday as the successor to last year's iQoo Neo 6. This smartphone sports a larger AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and is the first handset in India to be powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 8200 SoC. The iQoo Neo 7 5G also offers 120W fast charging support, and appears to offer great value for money, with one exception in the camera department — this phone doesn't feature an ultra-wide camera.On this week's episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, host Siddharth Suvarna…