Aamir Ahmed, 39, who worked in marketing for Fiat Chrysler before going to Amazon and Harman International, is the new leader of a brand that has struggled to gain traction since returning to North America in 2011.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he wants to help rivals with the EV transition. Analysts say charging deals could also turn the Supercharger network into a business opportunity.
United Launch Alliance isn’t taking any chances with its new Vulcan Centaur rocket opting Thursday to stand down from a planned hot fire test and continuing the potential delays before its debut mission dubbed Certification-1.
Ahead of plans to light up the engines at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, teams saw a delayed response from the booster engine ignition system that would power up its two BE-4 engines supplied by Blue Origin.
“Timing and response doesn’t look right. Need to understand it,” ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno posted in an update on Twitter.
The Flight Readiness Firing test at Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 was going to be the first time the combined Vulcan first stage topped with the Centaur second stage would light up on the launch pad, although held down with restraints.
The six-second firing would also test out the company’s pre-launch timelines and procedures, propellant loading and a target of six seconds of engine burn producing close to 1 million pounds of thrust.
CATL said it is researching the development of perovskite cells, among the most promising methods to drive new improvements in solar panel performance.
The last two of NASA’s four surviving hurricane-tracking TROPICS satellites made it to orbit after a successful launch and deployment by small-rocket company Rocket Lab on Friday.
Originally planned to be a six-satellite constellation and launched in 2022, the first two satellites were lost when competitor Astra Space suffered issues with the second stage of its now-retired Rocket 3.3 after liftoff from Cape Canaveral last June.
NASA shifted the contract to launch the remaining four TROPICS satellites to Long Beach, California-based Rocket Lab, which opted to use its New Zealand launch facilities for two launches with two satellites each this month in an effort to get them in place ahead of the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.
The first of Rocket Lab’s flights, dubbed “Rocket Like a Hurricane” went well two weeks ago with the followup launch dubbed “Coming to a Storm Near You” lifting off from the Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 3:46 p.m. local time, which was 11:46 p.m. Thursday EDT. Both flew on the company’s small Electron rockets, which have now flown 37 times successfully since 2018, mostly from New Zealand, but also as of this year flying from Virginia.