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In our top science stories this week, SpaceX must deorbit 100 Starlink satellites due to a flaw; a person in Oregon caught the bubonic plague from their pet cat; and the Perseverance rover’s SHERLOC instrument is on the fritz. Oh, and a grotesque AI interpretation of rat genitalia somehow made it past peer review.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is so done with Delaware, packing up his business incorporations from the mid-Atlantic state after a judge came for his paycheck.
An unspecified defect in early model Starlink satellites has prompted SpaceX to preemptively deorbit the units before they potentially fail and become hazards in low Earth orbit. While the company remains confident that the deorbiting of these problematic units will prevent any issues, this incident underscores the…
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Details about SpaceX’s proposed land swap deal with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (TPWC) keep getting uglier. After an overwhelming majority voted against the land exchange, the decision was delayed to March. Recent reports, however, suggest that the acres in question were already set aside for preservation…
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SpaceX’s Starship is poised to be the most coveted launch vehicle in the world once it’s finally up and running, but the Pentagon is hoping to take things a step further by grabbing full control of the megarocket for critically important missions.