Sci-Tech

NASA’s Artemis 2 mission around Moon set for November 2024

Washington, United States (AFP) — NASA is on track to launch a crewed mission around the Moon in November of next year after a successful unmanned test flight, the US space agency said Tuesday. NASA officials provided an update on the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972. The first Artemis mission wrapped up in December with an uncrewed Orion […]

Japan H3 rocket fails, destruct command issued

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s next-generation H3 rocket failed after liftoff on Tuesday, with the space agency issuing a destruct command after concluding the mission could not succeed. The failure is a blow for Japan’s space agency JAXA, after the rocket failed to even lift off on its first try last month. Tuesday’s launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan initially appeared to be a success, with the flagship rocket lifting off at […]

Satellites could beam poorest nations out of digital desert

by Tim Witcher Agence France-Presse Doha, Qatar (AFP) — Only a third of people in the world’s poorest countries can connect to the internet, the UN telecoms agency said Sunday, but low-flying satellites could bring hope to millions, especially in remote corners of Africa. Tech giants including Microsoft have pledged to help populations hobbled by poor internet services to “leapfrog” into an era of online connectivity, with satellites set to play a key role as […]

Machine magic or art menace? Japan’s first AI manga

by Tomohiro OSAKI Agence France Presse Tokyo, Japan (AFP) — The author of a sci-fi manga about to hit shelves in Japan admits he has “absolutely zero” drawing talent, so turned to artificial intelligence to create the dystopian saga. All the futuristic contraptions and creatures in “Cyberpunk: Peach John” were intricately rendered by Midjourney, a viral AI tool that has sent the art world into a spin, along with others such as Stable Diffusion and […]

SpaceX Dragon crew enter International Space Station

Washington, United States (AFP) — The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft arrived at the orbiting station at 0640 GMT on Friday, the US space agency said in a statement. NASA’s Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev and Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates entered the station about two hours later, the livestream showed. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the spacecraft had blasted off to the station on Thursday after the launch was […]

Time US adults spend on TikTok closes in on Netflix: market tracker

San Francisco, United States (AFP) — TikTok is closing in on streaming giant Netflix when it comes to the amount of time US adults spend on the platforms, according to a report released Thursday by Insider Intelligence. TikTok use eclipsed that of YouTube two years ago and has continued to grow faster than the Google-owned video sharing platform, particularly among US adults in their prime earning years, the report indicated. “The amount of time US […]

Internet access, privacy ‘essential for freedom’: Proton chief

by Nina LARSON Agence France-Presse Geneva, Switzerland (AFP) — Internet privacy company Proton can spot attacks on democracy in a country before they hit the headlines, simply by watching demand for its services explode, its chief told AFP. When Russia blocked access to independent news sites following its invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the small company which provides virtual private networks (VPNs) saw “a 9,000 percent increase in sign-ups over just a period of […]

Clones, noseprints, flying taxis: Sci-fi meets reality at expo

by Valentin BONTEMPS and Joseph Boyle Agence France-Presse Barcelona, Spain (AFP) — The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is primarily a pow-wow for the big-wigs of the telecom industry, but far from the main thoroughfares of the vast conference there are always hidden tech gems. Here are some of the most offbeat products spotted by AFP. – Eternal clone – As advertising slogans go, “you can live forever” is up there with the best. That is […]

Canada bans TikTok on government phones, other devices

Ottawa, Canada (AFP) — The Canadian government on Monday banned TikTok from all of its phones and other devices, citing concerns about data protection. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, has faced increasing Western scrutiny in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data. Effective Tuesday, “the TikTok application will be removed from government-issued mobile devices. Users of these devices will also be blocked from downloading the application in […]

Twitter cuts more staff as Musk turmoil grows

by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Reports of more layoffs at Twitter landed on Monday as owner Elon Musk waded into a racism controversy that risked pushing advertisers further away from the struggling platform. Musk called US media “racist” on Sunday after multiple American newspapers announced they would stop publishing a popular comic strip whose creator called Black people a hate group. Musk, chief of electric car company Tesla and […]

SpaceX Dragon crew to blast off for ISS

Washington, United States (AFP) — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to blast off early Monday for the International Space Station carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and the second Emirati to voyage to space. The SpaceX Dragon Crew-6 mission is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:45 am (0645 GMT). Weather conditions are expected to be near perfect. The Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Endeavour, is scheduled […]

Russia launches empty ship to ISS to replace damaged capsule

  Moscow, Russia | AFP | An uncrewed Russian Soyuz capsule took off early Friday from Kazakhstan for the International Space Station to eventually bring home three astronauts whose return vehicle was damaged by a tiny meteoroid. The Soyuz MS-23 vessel lifted off successfully from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome, live video broadcast by ISS-partner NASA showed. Though the capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS early Sunday Moscow time, it is not expected to […]