NROL-167: SpaceX Launches Next-gen US Spy Satellites In 100th Falcon 9 Flight Of The Year

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Comedy • News • Science & Tech

October 25, 2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying a batch of next-gen spy satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), lifted off at 1713 UTC today (Oct. 24) from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. The reusable Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth about eight minutes after launch as usual, touching down on the SpaceX droneship Of Course I Still Love You, stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

The webcast of the clandestine NROL-167 mission ended shortly after the first stage touchdown, at the request of the NRO. This was the 21st launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description; and the 100th Falcon 9 liftoff of 2024.

As it's customary with NRO missions, the payload on today's launch is classified. NROL-167 was the fourth launch supporting the NRO's "proliferated architecture," a constellation consisting of "numerous, smaller satellites designed for capability and resilience," according to the agency.

The first three proliferated architecture missions also took flight on Falcon 9s — NROL-146 in May, NROL-186 in June and NROL-113 in September.

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SpaceX: The Explosion, Loss Of Starship Upper Stage During Test Flight 7

SpaceX gave an update on what caused the loss of the Starship upper stage during test flight 7 last month.

"Two minutes into its burn, a flash was observed in the aft section of the vehicle near one of the Raptor vacuum engines; Sensors in the attic detected a pressure rise indicative of a leak after the flash was seen.

"Roughly two minutes later, another flash was observed followed by sustained fires in the attic. These eventually caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship

"Telemetry from the vehicle was last received just over eight minutes and 20 seconds into flight.

"Contact with Starship was lost prior to triggering any destruct rules for its Autonomous Flight Safety System, which was fully healthy when communication was lost. The vehicle was observed to break apart approximately three minutes after loss of contact during descent. Post-flight analysis indicates that the safety system did trigger autonomously, and breakup occurred within Flight Termination System expectations.

"The most probable root cause for the loss of ship was identified as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which led to increased stress on hardware in the propulsion system. The subsequent propellant leaks exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires.

"All debris came down within the pre-planned Debris Response Area, and there were no hazardous materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality.

"SpaceX reached out immediately to the government of Turks and Caicos and the United Kingdom to coordinate recovery and cleanup efforts. While an early end to the flight test is never a desired outcome, the measures put in place ahead of launch demonstrated their ability to keep the public safe."

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St. Clair filed the petitions in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, seeking to establish Musk as the father of her son, referred to as R.S.C. in court documents. She also requests sole custody of the child.

According to the filings, Musk met the child three times: twice in Manhattan for a total of three hours and once in Texas for 30 minutes. The last visit was on November.

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The 31-year-old publicly revealed Musk as the father of her child on Valentine's Day, on social media. Musk has not publicly acknowledged the child or the lawsuit

St Clair left Musk's name off the birth certificate due to security concerns, citing Musk's claim of receiving credible death threats every day. The social media influencer and Musk began their romantic relationship in May 2023.

Musk has 12 children with three different women, and this child would be his 13th.

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Apple has stated that it is "gravely disappointed" and remains committed to offering the highest level of security for users' personal data.

In a statement by Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said the company’s Advanced Data Protection feature will no longer be available to new users and current U.K. users “will eventually need to disable this security feature.”

“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the U.K. given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy,” the company said. “Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before."

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