Microsoft co-founder built the world’s largest plane to launch rockets into space

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SpaceX successfully launches and lands a used rocket for the second time

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SpaceX successfully launches and lands a used rocket for the second time http://ift.tt/2tY2dQ6 SpaceX has successfully launched and landed a recycled Falcon 9 rocket for the second time. The rocket’s first stage — the 14-story-tall core that houses the fuel and the rocket’s main engines — touched down on one of the company’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from a launchpad at nearby Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s the 12th time SpaceX has successfully landed one of these rocket stages, and the seventh time it’s performed the feat at sea. This particular rocket previously flew in January, when it was used to put 10 satellites into orbit for communications company Iridium. The rocket then landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX retrieved the rocket and spent the next few months refurbishing it in preparation for today’s launch. The landing wasn’t easy, though. Because the rocket had to push BulgariaSat-1 to such a high orbit, the ...
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The Age of Electric Aviation Is Just 30 Years Away

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The Age of Electric Aviation Is Just 30 Years Away http://ift.tt/2rof7bO Every vision of the future of flight involves electric aircraft—air taxis hopping from one skyscraper to the next as airliners cruise silently over oceans. After all, what kind of future traveler would rely upon fossil fuels? One who wants to go anywhere. For all the hype electric aviation gets, the concepts put forth by aerospace companies and startups are just this side of impossible. Flying requires extraordinary amounts of energy, and doing so under electric power requires at least one massive leap forward in battery tech. Or, as aviation expert Richard Aboulafia puts it when reviewing yet another flying car idea: “Insert miracle.” The problem is, batteries simply do not offer the power-to-weight ratio or cost needed to be feasible, and will not for some time. The technological advancements that allowed Tesla to squeeze 335 miles from the Model S and Chevrolet to get 200 out of the Bolt are not enoug...
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How to Create a Moss Terrarium for a Fraction of the Cost of Those Fancy Kits

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