There was an “anomaly” today during testing of a SpaceX rocket at Cape Canaveral… the kind of “anomaly” that creates a spectacular fireball, goes “BOOM,” and leaves a smoke plume in the sky. Happily, nobody was hurt during the incident. However, one very expensive piece of high-profile technology went BOOM along with. [More]
satellites
Virgin America Souping Up WiFi System So Passengers Can Stream Video
By 7.8.15
A growing number of planes now allow passengers to connect to onboard WiFi networks (usually for a fee), but the connection is often sluggish and sometimes unreliable; it’s rarely good enough to stream video dependably. Virgin America hopes its upgraded inflight WiFi will solve that problem. [More]
Heads Up, A German Satellite Could Bonk Someone On The Head This Weekend
By 10.20.11
The sky could fall sometime within the next few days. German authorities say the broken-down ROSAT satellite, which once mapped stars and studied X-rays, will plunge into the Americas sometime between Friday and Tuesday. They’ve lost communication with the device so there’s no way of knowing exactly when or where it will hit. [More]
Satellite Failure Knocks Out Dish's HD Channels Nationwide
By 9.14.11
A satellite system malfunction forced Dish Network customers to go without HD programming Tuesday night, forcing those affected to suffer the indignity of having to watch Sons of Anarchy in standard definition. The problem affected satellite location 129, which includes many HD channels, such as Comedy Central, FX, Cartoon Network and ESPN 2, and was expected to be fixed this morning. [More]
