Elon Musk’s SpaceX has brought three American astronauts and a Russian astronaut back to Earth. The Associated Press reports:
Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton.
A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week.
The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.”
A NASA astronaut was taken to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue after returning from a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton, the space agency said Friday.
SpaceX is much more competent and efficient than NASA. A SpaceX launch costs about $62 million, but a NASA launch costs about $2 billion.
“The California government denied an Air Force request to allow Elon Musk’s SpaceX to increase its California rocket launches, citing Musk’s politics,” such as his posts on social media, reports The Independent. That retaliation against Musk violates the First Amendment, which makes it illegal for government regulators to punish a business for the speech of one of its owners.
Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink has received accelerated review for its brain implant to cure blindness from the FDA.
Other federal agencies, however, have launched investigations against Musk’s businesses, seemingly in retaliation for his criticism of the Biden administration.
The Justice Department has sued SpaceX for hiring only U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Musk says SpaceX was only following federal law, but the Justice Department disagrees. Musk said federal regulations mandated that SpaceX employees have either citizenship or “at least a green card” due to rockets’ classification as “advanced weapons technology.” The Justice Department, however, argues that discrimination against aliens is forbidden.
A recently-developed brain implant lets people control Alexa with their mind. Skull implants could fight depression.
Brain implants are also being used to restore cognitive abilities wiped out by traumatic brain injuries, enabling people to work again, and once again do things they couldn’t do because of their brain injury, such as reading, avoiding getting speeding tickets, and grocery shop.
