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[embedded content] Twice a year, around the time of the autumnal and veal equinoxes, is the Solar Dynamics Observatory's eclipse season. From its vantage point in geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, the SDO's view of the sun is blocked once a day by the Earth. And on the rare occasion, both the Earth and the moon pass between the SDO and the sun -- a rare double eclipse. One of these took place on September 1, when first the Earth, then the moon, were captured blocking out the sun as the SDO filmed the whole thing in hi-res. It's not quite as dramatic as a solar eclipse take from the Earth, but it's still interesting if you know what you'r...

And that was the end of SpaceX' Falcon 9 and Spacecom's Amos-6 communications satellite. USLaunchReport video/Screenshot by CNET An explosion that destroyed a SpaceX rocket carrying an Israeli satellite last week is being felt well beyond Cape Canaveral, Florida.Israel-based Space Communication told reporters Sunday that it could seek $50 million or a free flight from Elon Musk's SpaceX to cover the cost of its now destroyed Amos-6 advanced communications satellite, according to Reuters. The explosion occurred on Thursday moing during a routine firing of SpaceX' Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral.During the conference...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.An intact Falcon 9. NASA/Getty Images It was just a routine rocket test.However, as the Space X Falcon 9 rocket stood on the launch pad with its Amos-6 satellite, there was an explosion.Video has now emerged of what that explosion looked like.Posted by nonprofit US Launch Report, the video shows a blast of considerable magnitude. A fire started immediately and the top part of the rocket fell to the ground.Then the fire continued the rage, as so many hopes were temporarily bued. As the video of the fire continues, small...

[embedded content] Hurricanes are scary enough at ground level. View them from space and they look almost unreal, like special effects created in a movie studio. NASA released a time-lapse video on Tuesday showing the Inteational Space Station orbiting over three separate hurricanes. They look both massive and frightening from the station's orbital vantage point.In order, the video shows twin hurricanes Lester and Madeline in the Pacific Ocean and then Gaston in the Atlantic Ocean. Both Lester and Madeline pose a potential threat to the Hawaiian Islands. Gaston is kicking across the Atlantic with wind speeds reaching 100 mph (about 160 kph). Les...

Mophie makes some nice exteal batteries for charging devices, with sleek aluminum housings, but the knock against them has been that they're expensive.Well, the company got the message and has priced its new models more competitively. It's also adding even more charging options, including an updated Powerstation Plus line with an integrated switch-tip Lightning to Micro-USB cable that charges both iOS and Android devices, a Powerstation USB-C, and a Charge Force Powerstation for Qi wireless charging-enabled devices. Prices start at $30.Enlarge ImageThe Mophie PowerStation Plus starts at $60 and has an integrated Lightning cable with a Micro-USB adapter. ...

Enlarge ImageA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 18, 2016. Bruce Weaver/AFP/Getty Images Satellite operator SES and rocket maker SpaceX on Tuesday aounced plans to launch the SES-10 satellite into orbit on a used Falcon 9 rocket. The SES-10 will replace SES's AMC-3 and AMC-4 satellites to provided expanded telecommunications coverage to Latin America. Luxembourg-based SES said it will be the first company to ever launch a geostationary satellite on a used rocket. The launch is slated for sometime in the fourth quarter. "Re-launching a rocket that has already delivered spacec...

Enlarge ImageThe two Koreas. Google South Korea has delayed its reply to Google's request for mapping data, a Reuters report said Wednesday. The Alphabet property first reached out to South Korea in June, requesting access to govement-held mapping information for distribution to outside servers. This would allow Google to offer complete Google Maps services there. South Korean officials had previously agreed to reach a decision by Wednesday but have now pushed their decision to November 23. According to Reuters, the information would improve South Korea's maps, but officials want to take more time to weigh sec...

The high-tech hub is a production facility for the UK's top YouTubers....

NASA hopes to launch a spacecraft next month that will essentially chest-bump an asteroid and swipe a sample of space rock to bring back to Earth for study in the process. The Osiris-Rex spacecraft is about the size of a small bus when its solar arrays are deployed. Right now, the plan is to launch it from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 411 rocket as soon as September 8 at 7:05 p.m. ET. It's scheduled to reach the potentially hazardous asteroid Beu at some point in 2018. The craft's epic acronym name stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer, which explains what NASA hopes it will do. Those goals include retuing and anal...

[embedded content] Blizzard unveiled a new map for its team-based shooter Overwatch at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this Tuesday. Eichenwalde, set in Stuttgart, Germany, joins the 12 other inteational destinations that serve as arenas for players to explode each other over control points and payloads.Eichenwalde is an Assault and Escort hybrid map, which looks like it will have the attacking team escort a battering ram up to the castle gates before storming the keep. Prepare your best Reinhardt laugh (and your excuses for when you charge the German knight directly off the edge of the map).Overwatch recently surpassed 15 million players and is cur...

Enlarge ImageThe first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully lands on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship stationed about 370 miles east of Cape Canaveral. SpaceX A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted a Japanese communications satellite into orbit early Sunday, lighting up the deep oveight sky as it climbed away from Cape Canaveral on a jet of fiery exhaust.While the rocket's second stage was boosting the relay station to orbit, the first stage successfully flew itself back to landing on an offshore drone ship, the Califoia rocket builder's sixth successful booster recovery in 11 tries. It was ...

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Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity, which is currently undergoing testing. Virgin Galactic Virgin Atlantic's rocket planes may soon be taking to the skies once more, as the would-be space tourism company is awarded an operator license for its SpaceShipTwo craft.The license, granted by the US Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, will pave the way for commercial flights, Virgin Galactic said in a statement. The company has also started taxi tests of new SpaceShipTwo craft VSS Unity, ahead of flight tests.The granting of this license is a step towards getting Virgin Atlantic's s...

How much is it worth to Uber to reduce its dependence on Google Maps? Try half a billion dollars.That is how much the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company is getting ready to invest in an ambitious global mapping project, the Financial Times reports Sunday. In addition to weaning itself off Google's map app, which currently powers Uber, the investment is expected to aid the move to driverless vehicles, according to the report.Fresh off raising $3.5 billion last month, the 6-year-old company is using some of its $11 billion war chest to reinvent public transportation. Other companies working on technologies to support driverless cars include Google, Ford, Nissan and General Motors.In a bi...

Sony has aounced Driveclub VR will be available for the launch of its PlayStation VR headset in Japan. Although further details aren't available in English as of yet, a post on the Japanese PlayStation Blog states there will be a cockpit view and realistic 3D audio.Paul Rustchynsky, Driveclub's former director, confirmed on Twitter that there "is a collection of brand new tracks," for the PlayStation VR version. He did not provide any further details.Earlier this year, Driveclub developer Evolution Studios was closed by its parent company Sony. This was part of a wider restructure to Sony's European studios. Codemasters, the developer of the Dirt, Grid, and F1 series of racing games, later h...

Another big free update arrives for Doom tomorrow, July 29, and will be followed soon after by the game's first premium downloadable content. That consists in part of new maps, something that could be problematic for the game's player base, but developer id Software has a plan to avoid that.Typically when a multiplayer game receives premium DLC maps, it breaks up the user base--those without the DLC can't play with those who do have it except on servers only ruing the original maps. That will still be the case in Doom, but it avoids splitting up groups of friends. Through a feature id calls PartyPlay, Doom allows people who don't own the DLC to play on the DLC maps as long as they're in a pa...

Enlarge Image Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNET Last month we leaed that Sony's Playstation VR platform would come to the US, UK and Australia on October 13. On Thursday, the company revealed that those in Asia will be able to join the party at exactly the same time.Playstation VR will launch on October 13 in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. In Singapore, it'll retail for SG$599 -- that converts to around $445, about 10 percent more than the $399 Americans will pay.The headset is priced at £349 for those in the UK and AU$550 down under. That cost doesn't include the mot...

An artist's illustration of what SpaceX hopes will become a real view some day. SpaceX NASA has suggested that SpaceX is spending around $300 million on its Red Dragon Mars lander mission, according to Space News.The space exploration company has not disclosed how much it's spending on the Red Dragon mission it aounced in April. But the price tag was revealed, indirectly, by a NASA administrator at a meeting on Tuesday, Space News reported. NASA estimates that the space agency will spend approximately $32 million on the mission, which it's supporting in exchange for data collected. "They did talk to us about...