First SpaceX Dragon Capsule is Taking its Final Flight

Last night, SpaceX launched its first generation Dragon capsule on its twentieth and final resupply run to the International Space Station.

The launch marks the Dragon’s last mission as the capsule makes way for SpaceX’s

  updated and improved Dragon 2 capsule, which will begin making resupply runs to the space station in October.

Alongside cargo to resupply the ISS, the Dragon will be bringing along payloads for experimental research aboard the space station. Including an Adidas experiment to see how it can manufacture midsoles in space; a project from the faucet maker, Delta, to see how water droplets form in zero gravity; and Emulate is sending up an organ-on-a-chip to examine how microgravity affects intestinal immune cells and how heart tissue can be cultured in space.

It’s been twelve years since SpaceX first won a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the space station, and over that time, the space industry has changed dramatically.

The company’s technical innovations around manufacturing and reusing rocket components revolutionized the space industry and created an environment where entrepreneurs believed in the possibility of competing with industry giants like Aerojet Rocketdyne, 

Since SpaceX  first emerged to challenge those longtime government contractors, which had a lock on government space missions, a wave of commercial activity has emerged around the International Space Station, supporting the creation of new industries.

Earlier this week, Axiom Space announced that it would be using SpaceX to ferry the first entirely private crew of passengers to the International Space Station for a ten-day trip (albeit at a cost of $55 million). Axiom’s vision of building a private orbiting space station off of the existing International Space Station is a bold step forward for the commercialization of space — and one which would be less likely if not for SpaceX’s work and the success of the first Dragon.

NASA engineers stare at the sun to see shockwaves from supersonic flight

Be
fore the eclipse this summer, NASA warned us over and over again not to stare directly at the sun — but now they’re doing just that. Its researchers have reinvented a photography technique more than a century old, using the sun itself as a backdrop in order to capture the shockwave produced by a new supersonic jet.

Schlieren imaging was invented by a German physicist in the 19th century as a way to capture objects moving at supersonic speeds; it basically works by tracking tiny distortions to a uniform background illumination that are produced when the air is disturbed by a passing object.

The results are striking and you’ve likely seen them before. But traditional Schlieren imaging is limited in its range and scale; NASA’s Background Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects (BOSCO) allows the sun itself to be used as the background, and, not only that, it’s reliable enough to be used from a chaser plane 10,000 feet up.

Another Schlieren photo from NASA that uses the edge of the sun as its uniform background; BOSCO uses the disc itself

Previous background-oriented Schlieren imaging efforts for viewing the distortion patterns of planes in flight have been shot top-down with a featureless landscape as their background, or bottom-up using the edge of the sun (as you see above). But BOSCO aims its telescopic camera directly at the disc of the sun, capturing the aircraft as it causes a partial, highly local eclipse.

In order not to be completely blown out, the camera system uses a “hydrogen alpha filter,” which only lets in a very specific wavelength of light, which is produced by the sun in a nice granular pattern.

You can see it in action in this video, which does double duty to remind you that much science is done in circumstances that are decidedly less than glorious but nevertheless awesome:

How cool is that? (Although I do have to say that aesthetically speaking, the smooth gradients of film photography better suit this type of imagery.)

Don’t try this at home

They’re not just doing this for fun, though. BOSCO is part of NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology program, which aims (as you might have guessed already) to create a supersonic aircraft that doesn’t create that vexing sonic boom wherever it goes. Such a craft could help bring back consumer supersonic flight, and would even be able to do overland routes.

The future Low Boom aircraft would likely fly at around 60,000 feet, though, but since it would be difficult for a ground-based system to capture good shots of a plane flying that high, the team needed to create something that create this kind of imagery from the air.

So the latest development is the deployment of a new, miniaturized BOSCO that can fit into the wing pod of a chaser aircraft. This lets the researchers capture images from as close as 10,000 feet, while the target plane is actually flying at the target altitude.

“The main objective here was to see what the image looks like at close range, including what kind of shockwave structure we can make out,” said BOSCO principal investigator Mike Hill in a NASA news release. “We needed to use our new compact camera system in order to get an idea of the quality of the images of those shockwaves using a smaller system.”

The new setup is what was being tested in the video above; the flight you see was at 20,000 feet, but subsequent ones were at 15,000 and 10,000 feet, proving that the technique works at the range likely to be encountered during an air-to-air shoot.

Of course, getting a clear shot of one supersonic jet from the wing of a second is a major challenge in and of itself — but at least they know the camera works.

Adidas shifts away from making its own wearable tech

Wearables are hard. Some of the biggest names in technology have tried and failed to find success in the space, and even those that have become synonymous with the category have struggled to keep up. Adidas is only the latest company to learn this lesson the hard way.

As first reported late last week, the shoe maker is shuttering its digital sports organization and reshuffling the remainder of its digital efforts. We’ve since confirmed the restructuring with a spokesperson for the company, who offered up a fairly corporate-speak heavy take on the news.

“To further drive our digital transformation and win the consumer in this dynamic business environment, we’ve redefined our strategic approach toward digital, sharpening our focus on digital experiences,” the company said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “We will discontinue running a stand-alone digital sports organization and consolidate the adidas app eco-system, focusing our efforts on two powerful brand platforms: Runtastic and the adidas App. We are integrating digital across all areas of our business and will continue to grow our digital expertise in a more integrated way.”

Late last year, the company appeared to have abandoned its dreams of a standalone sport watch, telling Wareable at the time, “We’re not going to see a new running watch from Adidas for a while.” As promised, additional devices were planned, including the Chameleon fitness tracker, which was more in line with a screenless Fitbit device. Adidas isn’t weighing in on specifics here, but this move does appear to, at best, put those sorts of products in limbo, moving forward.

Of course, earlier this year, the company was announced as a partner for Fitbit’s new Ionic smartwatch. While that device arrived to mixed reviews, that sort of deal is beneficial to both parties. It gives Fitbit another high-profile partner for the device, brings another SKU to the market and provides Adidas with a platform for the digital services it’s still focused on growing.

It’s the kind of partnership that’s proven fruitful for Nike in the past, with longstanding partnerships with companies like Apple. As for what the refocusing will mean for the employees currently working on the wearable side of things at Adidas, a spokesperson for the company told Women’s Wear Daily, “I don’t know that ‘layoff’ is the right word[…]hopefully finding them other places in the organization.”

Amazon’s latest Echos show the smart home space hitting its stride

Amazon’s Echo lineup got a refresh earlier this year that included a brand new version of its basic Echo, well as an Echo Plus with integrated smart home hub, and the stalwart Echo Dot – unchanged, but still a compelling device at its price point.

The new lineup of devices also made its way to more markets this year, including an expansion to Canada just this month, which is why I now have a host of Echo hardware kitting out my apartment. The major accomplishment of this refresh, I think, is that it feels less like a new generation of gadget, and more like a coming of age for a modern-day appliance – a whole new category of must-have home furnishings.

Amazon clearly wants to encourage this impression – the new Amazon Echo comes in a host of fabric-covered finishes, and it’s hard to imagine the upholstery look’s connection to furnishings is unintentional. Part of it is about fitting into the decor so that these smart speakers can stand free and clear and unhidden on shelves, tables and surfaces without offending any sensibilities. But it’s also about turning a gadget into something far more approachable, and far more mainstream.

As far as I’m concerned, Amazon has accomplished its task. The Echo (and Echo Plus, and Echo Dot), have all become as key a home device as a light switch, or a couch, or a microwave. The latest generation just firms up that presence with needed improvements in key areas, including in sound reproduction (the new Echo is better than its predecessor, for sure, and the Echo Plus seems to sound a bit better as well despite having apparently similar hardware).

I now use the Echos around the house to control my Hue lights (I don’t remember the last time I flicked a switch), turn on and control the home theater system, check and change the temperature using my Nest thermostat, check news and weather and set kitchen timers. It’s second-nature at this point, and doing the same things, the old, manual way feels hopelessly backwards – even if the actual convenience difference is arguably trivial.

Aspects of the new Echo lineup are questionable, like the integrated smart home hub in the Echo Plus which only supports one of the two major standards for wireless connected home devices. But they don’t detract from the experience – and the ultimate impression that Echo is a home companion that’s destined to become more and more a default option that people live with as reliably as th

Good luck getting Apple AirPods before the holidays

Apple’s wireless earbuds have been on the market for just over a year now, but they’re shaping up to be one of the biggest tech gifts for this holiday season. In fact, most of the big online retailers appear to have sold out of their stock. Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart’s sites have all been depleted — and even Apple’s currently showing them out of stock.

The company’s site is listing January 5 as at the fastest ship date for the headphones, and the timeframe looks to be about the same for most of its retail stores. A recent check in on Apple’s site shows a majority of its locations also list January 5 availability. That said, there do appear to be a handful of stores still stocking the product.

If you’re in New York City, you might still be able to get your hands on a pair of AirPods ahead of the holiday. Otherwise, hopefully a raincheck will look just as nice under the tree — or maybe a pair of buds from Samsung or Google will do the trick.

The headphones saw some shipping delays early on, being pushed from October to December 13 of last year — similar to what the company’s high end HomePod suffered recently, stating that Apple needed “a little more time” to bring the product to market. This year, AirPods have been one of the primary focuses of the company’s holiday ads. It appears the tact has worked — perhaps even a little too well.

Recent reports have suggested that AirPod shipments are set to double next year, though for those who were planning on picking them up as a holiday gift — it appears you’ve missed the boat.

Pepsi one-ups Budweiser brewer by ordering 100 Tesla electric semi trucks

PepsiCo is the latest company to reveal that it’s placed orders for Tesla’s forthcoming electric semi-truck – and also the company with the largest order so far. The beverage company has ordered 100 of the trucks per Reuters, meaning it’s placed at least a $20,000 deposit for each of those since Tesla rose the down payment amount for its original $5,000 starting point.

PepsiCo is actually the second large beverage concern this week to announce its intent to purchase some of Tesla’s all-electric Class 8 heavy-duty towing vehicles; Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch revealed earlier that it has put down money for 40 Tesla Semis.

Tesla is seeing a lot of pre-order interest already, from major fleet operators including Walmart, Canadian grocery chain Loblaws and many more. The amounts are, however, at most in the double digits (barring this 100 unit order from PepsiCo), which represents just a small fraction of the total fleets operated by each (Pespi runs over 10,000 trucks, for instance).

Those volumes are big for Tesla, which is new to making trucks and will have to wade through a lot of “production hell” (as Elon Musk termed the current Model 3 production ramp) to get to a place where it can make a lot of the trucks quickly. But they’re also essentially just pilots for these retailers. Pilots at this number of large shippers without even a production vehicle under their belt is definitely a good sign, however, regardless of how you look at it.

Fitbit is having a bad day

Fitbit is, once again, not having a good day after spending the year in mostly middling
status as it looks to prove there’s a market for fitness trackers as well as its own smartwatch.

The culprit today is a Wall Street firm slapping a “sell” rating on the company’s stock, which
often results in a resounding rejection of its potential going forward and sparks a sharp drop
-off in the company’s share value. Fitbit fell around 8.5 percent this morning after a year
 that tried to recover from a steep decline at the beginning of the year amid uncertainty around its business.

Here’s a look at what happened:

Fitbit’s now down more than 16 percent in the last year. Volatile companies are often vulnerable to these kinds of swings as a result of Wall Street firms rating the shares, which can range from recommendations to buy or sell the stock based on its performance or analysis of its potential business.

For Fitbit, that’s bad news, because the company needs to keep its share price up as companies can use shares as part of compensation packages when they try to hire new people. There’s also always a morale component, as the stock price is a very public-facing barometer of the company’s performance (even if people try to argue against its importance), and one that can wave off potential talent that would be interested in joining the company.

The last update we got from Fitbit was a slew of apps coming to its Ionic smartwatch, which included the addition of apps like Yelp and Uber. But as Apple continues to retool the Apple Watch with new features for health tracking, which appears to be working in a way to detect some common conditions according to a study from UCSF, it’ll face increasing competition when people look at it as a health tracker.