NASA Delays Artemis II Lunar Mission Launch
NASA announced a delay of at least one month for the launch of its Artemis II lunar fly-by mission. The mission, which would carry four astronauts, was initially scheduled for launch sometime in the near future, but has been pushed back due to issues uncovered during critical pre-launch testing of the rocket and capsule, according to NPR News.
The Artemis II mission is significant as it would mark the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. The delay means the crew of four moon-bound astronauts will remain on the ground for a longer period than initially anticipated.
In other news, the House of Representatives approved a Senate-passed spending package to reopen much of the federal government, ending a four-day partial shutdown, Time reported. The 217-to-214 vote sent the measure to President Donald Trump's desk. The legislation funds large swaths of the government for the rest of the fiscal year, but only extends financing for the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 13.
Meanwhile, in France, prosecutors carried out a search on the offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X, Time reported. Musk was also summoned to attend a hearing in April. The search, conducted by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutors office, along with the French national cyber unit and Europol, marks an escalation of the ongoing investigation into X over suspected abuse of algorithms, plus allegations related to deepfake images and wider concerns over posts generated by the platforms AI chatbot, Grok. According to Time, the office said the search was carried out with the objective of ultimately ensuring the compliance of the X platform with French law and in particular, a focus on Xs Grok, designed by xAI, which chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau says has led to the dissemination of illegal content.
Also, a correction was issued by Nature News regarding an article published in May 2023 concerning the coupling of tropical water and interannual CO2 growth rate. The correction stated that the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was misapplied, leading to slightly larger P values than previously reported.
Finally, according to Time, the Islamic Republic of Iran is facing significant challenges, including a collapsing currency and a struggling economy. The government has become one of the most disgraced regimes in the world, it has dragged the country into deep decline, and it is now incapable of feeding its own people.
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