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Windows 11 will be supercharged with AI designed to enhance productivity and search across the OS. It's an open secret that Microsoft is gearing up to supercharge Windows 11 this summer with next-gen AI capabilities that will enable the OS to be context aware across any apps and interfaces, as well as remember everything you do on your PC to enhance user productivity and search. These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20. AI Explorer will utilize next-gen neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to process these machine learning and generative AI experiences locally on the device with low latency. The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race. It will also require PCs with at least 16GB RAM. But what exactly is AI Explorer, and what can it do? Here's everything I know about it so far. AI that remembers everything you do AI Explorer is an app that will run in the background on NPU capable PCs. (Image credit: Windows Central) According to my sources, AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer. It will document and triage everything it sees, no matter what apps or interfaces you're looking at, and turn them into memories that you can recall at a later point. For example, you can have a conversation with a friend in the WhatsApp app for Windows, and AI Explorer will record and remember the content that was on-screen and process it with AI for you to recall later. AI Explorer can also summarize conversations, emails, web pages, and general UI surfaces just by asking for it during or after the fact. I'm told that much of this experience is rendered on-device and does not reach out to the cloud to process information. This is important for privacy reasons, but also for performance reasons. To reduce latency, AI Explorer will rely on NPU silicon to process content that has been recorded. I also understand that users will be able to filter out specific apps from being recorded by the AI Explorer process, or disable AI Explorer entirely. Search for anything with natural language A mock-up of what the search bar in AI Explorer may look like. (Image credit: Windows Central) Sources say AI Explorer features a UI that runs along the top of the screen, and lets users recall memories based on the user's inputted search criteria. Because AI Explorer is recording and triaging everything you do on your computer, anything and everything becomes something you can search for. Looked at some webpages about dinosaurs a few days ago but can't remember the name of the websites? Just type "show me webpages about dinosaurs I viewed a few days ago" and AI Explorer will be able to pull it up. How about a chat with a friend about the Fallout TV show, but you can't remember who it was or what app you used? Type "find me conversations I've had about the Fallout TV show" and AI Explorer will pull up those chats and the points in time where you had them. Notably, AI Explorer enables the ability to search for things using natural language. No longer will users be confined to strict search terms that must be accurate for results. If you're looking for a document that your colleague Bob sent you on Slack, just typing "find me that file Bob sent me on Slack a few weeks ago" should yield results based on memories that AI Explorer has captured. You can also use basic search terms such as "FY24 earnings," and every instance where FY24 earnings (and related queries) appeared on-screen will be brought up and shown in AI Explorer for you to look back at. Contextually aware across any app The AI will be able to help across apps. (Image credit: Windows Central) AI Explorer is able to do more than just remember the things you do on your computer, it's also able to analyze what's currently on-screen and provide contextual suggestions and tasks based on what it can see. For example, if you're looking at an image in an app or webpage, AI Explorer can present suggested tasks such as "remove the background of this image using Paint," which can be initiated with a single click. You can also ask AI Explorer to compare two documents that are on-screen, which will lean on Microsoft Copilot to create a comparison. It can also read, understand, and help craft responses to emails or conversations, no matter the app. This capability is called Screen Understanding, and I'm told one of the big selling points of AI Explorer is that it's supposed to work across any app, with no developer input required. There will likely be things developers can do to enhance their apps for AI Explorer, but out of the box it should be to analyze, triage, and provide contextual suggestions for content within apps without any developer input. A new era of AI experiences on Windows Microsoft has teased AI Explorer in the past. (Image credit: Windows Central) Sources familiar with AI Explorer describe it as a truly useful AI experience that works for you in the background to enhance your workflow while using a Windows PC. With that in mind, it's not an entirely new concept. There's already a third-party app available on Mac called Rewind.ai that does pretty much everything AI Explorer is attempting to achieve. The existence of Rewind.ai proves that this is a concept that can be done, and Microsoft is essentially building its own version into Windows 11 that offloads the resources required for such a feature onto NPUs to keep the load away from the CPU. AI Explorer will be the defining difference between upcoming AI PCs and a non-AI PCs, my sources say. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself has teased that personal computing is about to enter a new era thanks to AI, and that this year will be where we really see how AI can aid and improve people's digital workflows on Windows. New Windows lead Pavan Davuluri has also previously teased what's coming this year: "The AI is going to be able to orchestrate across multiple apps, services, and devices, functioning as an agent in your life that can connect and keep context across entire workflows." AI Explorer isn't the only new AI experience Microsoft is working on for Windows 11 in 2024 either. I understand that Microsoft also has more advanced Windows Studio Effects in the works, a new Live Captions feature that can translate languages in real-time, and more on-device generative AI experiences such as local Copilot capabilities, background removal in Photos, image generation in Paint, and more. We will have hands-on with AI Explorer, and all the new AI features, once they are announced, likely on May 20. Source

Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 build for members of the Windows Insider Program in the Beta Channel. The new build number is 22635.3566 (KB5037002). It turns the "Show desktop" button on the taskbar back on by default, among other improvements and bug fixes. Here is the changelog: You can check out the full blog post here. Source

Recently, we have been covering quite a lot of retro stuff for Windows which shows how modern apps have their roots in the '90s. In early March, we reported on an interesting experiment which demonstrated the excellent backward compatibility of Windows 11 with the help of Office. A similar experiment was done by a YouTuber but on a much grander scale, where he ported “thousands of apps” to Windows 95. We also covered the interesting tale of the engineer who added Zip support to Windows but nearly got fired for it too. If you are a fan of the bygone era of Windows, you are likely to be delighted about the latest announcement. Microsoft, in collaboration with IBM, has announced that it is open-sourcing MS-DOS 4.00 as the two worked together on the underlying code. MS-DOS or Microsoft Disk Operating System was first released in 1981, which was 43 years ago. Later, in 1986, MS-DOS 4.00 was announced and it was designed with preemptive multi-tasking in mind such that specially written programs were able to run in the background. Interestingly though, this initial release, referred to as "Multitasking DOS," was not released widely as a result of the lack of interest shown by OEMs of that time, including IBM itself. Thus the final MS-DOS 4.00 release version from 1988 was not the multi-tasking OS it was once originally intended to be. Microsoft says it successfully ran MS-DOS 4.00 on an IBM PC XT inside PCem (a Windows 95/98 emulator) as well as an 86Box emulator (an IBM PC emulator). Internet archivist and enthusiast, Jeff Sponaugle, who, among others, helped image the original disks (photo above), published a YouTube video today of DOS 4.00 Multi-tasking running on an IBM PC XT: The source code is available on GitHub for those who wish to try it. You can learn more about the story on the source links below. Source: Microsoft via Scott Hanselman Source

On Thursday, Bethesda Game Studios and its owner Microsoft released the "next-gen" update for its post-apocalypse RPG Fallout 4. Among other things, it added native support for Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S and Sony's PlayStation 5 consoles, along with widescreen and ultra-widescreen display support for PC gamers and more. Unfortunately, it appears the update also comes with its share of bugs and other issues. The Xbox Series X and S update was supposed to add two different graphical modes; Quality Mode, (30FPS at 4K resolution with Ultra graphics settings) and Performance Mode (60FPS at 4K resolution with standard graphics settings). However, Eurogamer reports that the Xbox Series X|S update currently only has support for the Performance Mode. Attempts to run the game in Quality Mode do not work at the moment. The PC update, as expected, has caused a number of popular third-party mods for the game to break. If you play the PC version of Fallout 4 with one or more mods, you can head over to the NexusMods forums, where you can learn how to keep the update from being installed on your PC with Steam, GoG.com, and PC Game Pass. This update was also supposed to make the game verified for Valve's Steam Deck portable gaming PC. While that does indeed happen, the update has also done away with the game's launcher, which let users customize their graphics. The launch command of "SteamDeck=0 %command%" will restore the game launcher. Finally, PlayStation owners who have the game as part of their PlayStation Plus Extra subscription currently cannot get the next-gen update. Bethesda Game Studios has posted on its X (formerly Twitter) account that the update will be available for those members at some point, adding "Your patience is appreciated while the teams work on this." The Fallout 4 update was released in the middle of a resurgence of gamer interest in the entire Fallout franchise, thanks in part to the success of the Fallout live action TV show on Amazon Prime Video. Source

It makes sense for Qualcomm to offer something more powerful than the X Elite. Quick answer: There is no official confirmation that Qualcomm will create additional Snapdragon X SoCs beyond what has already been announced for the platform. However, with the announcement of the more affordable Snapdragon X Plus, another, more powerful platform beyond the Snapdragon X Elite is not entirely ruled out. An Oryon CPU with over 12 cores and higher clock speeds would help Qualcomm compete with Apple's M-series ARM chips. A quick look at the Snapdragon X platform A Snapdragon X Elite benchmarked in Cinebench 2024. (Image credit: Future) Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform is a series of Systems-on-Chip (SoC) that is expected to significantly shake up the Windows on Arm landscape. The company has announced two platforms—the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus—with a total of four chips between them. The more powerful Snapdragon X Elite was first introduced in October 2023, while the more affordable Snapdragon X Plus was unveiled on April 24, 2024. The X Plus announcement clarified the X Elite's chip layout; Qualcomm has three different SKUs for the X Elite, which I discuss below. The Snapdragon X Plus platform has one chip. These SoCs consist of an ARM64 Oryon processor (CPU), Adreno integrated graphics (GPU), and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI acceleration. All SoCs offer 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, support for three concurrent 4K displays at a 60Hz refresh rate, USB4 connectivity (Intel's Thunderbolt understandably won't be included), and AV1 decoding and encoding for 4K HDR video. The SoCs also contain a "Micro NPU" for always-enabled human presence detection. Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite vs. X Plus The Snapdragon X Plus is a more affordable alternative to the X Elite. (Image credit: Qualcomm) The Snapdragon X Elite platform contains three different chips (aka SKUs), each with a 12-core CPU, 42MB cache, and 45 TOPS NPU. The most powerful X1E-84-100 chip has a multithread 3.8GHz clock speed and 4.2GHz dual-core boost clock, as well as a GPU with 4.6 TFLOPs of performance. Next in line is the X Elite (X1E-80-100), which has a 3.4GHz multithread clock, 4.0GHz dual-core boost clock, and 3.8 TFLOPs GPU. Finally, the X Elite (X1E-78-100) is nearly identical to the X1E-80-100, except it lacks dual-core boost ability. Here's a closer look at the breakdown between these CPUs. Platform ID CPU Cores CPU Cache CPU Multithread Frequency CPU Dual-Core Boost Frequency GPU TFLOPs NPU TOPS Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 12 42MB 3.8GHz 4.2GHz 4.6 45 Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 12 42MB 3.4GHz 4.0GHz 3.8 45 Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 12 42MB 3.4GHz N/A 3.8 45 Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 10 42MB 3.4GHz N/A 3.8 45 The Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-64-100) has 10 CPU cores, a 42MB cache, and a 3.4GHz multithread frequency. It also lacks dual-core boost abilities, and its GPU hits 3.8 TFLOPs. Qualcomm hasn't listed any TDPs for its new chips, but based on performance specs, it's safe to assume that the X Plus will draw the least amount of power while the X Elite (X1E-84-100) will draw the most. (Perhaps more importantly, they all draw up to 50% less power than anything from Intel or AMD, although how efficient they are against Apple remains to be seen). Qualcomm Snapdragon X vs. Apple M Apple M3 vs. Snapdragon X Elite (Image credit: Ben Wilson | Bing Image Creator) Apple offers several performance tiers for its M-series chips using the ARM architecture. The M1 was launched in 2020, followed by the M1 Pro and M1 Max about a year later. About five months after that came the M1 Ultra. The M2 launched in mid-2022, with the M2 Pro and M2 Max coming at the start of 2023. It took Apple about six months to launch the M2 Ultra used in desktops. We're now at the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, announced in October 2023. According to Apple's previous release schedules, an M3 Ultra will likely be announced soon. Looking at the current range of M3 chips, Apple offers its CPUs between 8 and 16 cores, split into performance and efficiency cores designed for different tasks. The split big.LITTLE architecture, created by Arm over a decade ago, has not made it into Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips. Qualcomm believes that its Oryon CPU cores are all plenty efficient, and instead, it adds boost capabilities to two of its cores in the two top X Elite SKUs. Apple MacBooks (late 2023) up against Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Oryon CPU using Geekbench 6. (Image credit: Future) Qualcomm hasn't been shy about showing off its Snapdragon X performance metrics compared to Apple's M-series SoCs. Performance claims by the company making the chips should always be approached warily, but it looks promising so far. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon suggested at a 2023 Snapdragon Summit that the X Elite (X1E-84-100) is faster and 30% more efficient in single-threaded situations than Apple's M2 Max. Apple has since moved on to M3 hardware, but again, it looks like the X Elite can best the M3 and keep up with the M3 Pro in Geekbench 6 multi-core performance. We'll have to test this ourselves when we get our hands on some of the new Windows on Arm laptops, which are expected later this year. The possibility of a third Snapdragon X SoC Qualcomm is showing off its first-gen Snapdragon X chips as powerful and efficient alternatives to Apple, Intel, and AMD hardware. These preliminary performance comparisons do, however, leave a high-end performance gap where Apple still reigns. The M3 Max, available with 14 or 16 cores, is still the most powerful ARM CPU for laptops today. And that's before the expected M3 Ultra for desktops makes its debut. The M2 Ultra has 24 cores, and with Apple feeling the competitive heat from Qualcomm, it might go all-out with the M3 Ultra. Qualcomm clearly isn't going to sit back and rest on its X Elite platform. The X Plus has already been announced as a more affordable option for OEMs to use on more budget-friendly laptops. The "Plus" moniker suggests that we could see something even more basic in the future, but that also works the other way, So what's stopping Qualcomm from creating a third Snapdragon X platform with superior performance compared to the X Elite SoCs? Qualcomm is clearly aiming to topple Apple's ARM CPU dominance, and it will need an SoC with enough performance to keep up with (or best) the M3 Max and whatever Apple is cooking up for its fourth-gen M4 chips. As AI PCs continue to gain popularity, stronger NPUs will also be required to keep up with the performance demands of localized AI acceleration. We are calling Qualcomm's next platform "Snapdragon X Ultra" or "Snapdragon X Extreme" based on speculation; no matter what it's called, it will need more cores (including boost cores) and higher frequencies to compete with Apple's top silicon. Source

Facepunch Studios has confirmed that years of Nintendo-related uploads are being deleted from Steam Workshop in response to takedown notices linked to Garry's Mod. What began as rumors of a Nintendo DMCA takedown campaign, suddenly shifted towards a 'fake notice' campaign, run from a suspicious domain. Frustrations then targeted Garry himself for "falling for a scam." "You didn't even look at the domain!" yelled one fan. Let's do that. In a world where there’s always someone telling people what to do, Garry’s Mod is a breath of fresh air. Launched in 2006, the sandbox game has no goals; just hand over $9.99 to Steam, jump in, and do whatever you like. With the benefit of hindsight, some fans may have taken that a little too literally. At the time of writing, Garry’s Mod workshop content uploaded by users over many years, is being systematically taken down in response to takedown notices filed by Nintendo. “This is an ongoing process, as we have 20 years of uploads to go through. If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot,” the Facepunch Studios announcement reads. The team don’t seem especially upset and are taking everything in their stride. Nintendo has a reputation for taking action against content featuring its characters and artwork so removing it now is the right thing to do. “Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is up to them. They don’t want you playing with that stuff in Garry’s Mod – that’s their decision, we have to respect that and take down as much as we can,” the announcement adds. DMCA Notices Aren’t Real, or Even Sent By Nintendo, Some Claim Normal service will be restored shortly, but some fans may still need convincing regarding recent events. They believe that some type of scammer, probably not even connected to Nintendo, has been using bogus notices to take content down for quite some time. Mindful that Garry and the team needed to be aware of that, so that nothing gets taken offline unnecessarily, attracting their attention became a priority this week. As the image from X shows, a few hours after being alerted, investigations ended with the conclusion that the takedowns were legitimate. Yet for some, that still wasn’t good enough. Over the past few months there have been reports of bogus DMCA notices claiming to have been sent by Nintendo, containing allegedly similar fictitious claims. Many were resurrected this week after more than three years, contributing to the chaos. In some cases, users simply expressed sadness or sympathy for Garry and the team. In many, many others, passions and frustrations proved too much. Instead of the usual blanket bitterness towards Nintendo, Garry’s X account filled up with demands for evidence, rock-solid proof that Nintendo really was to blame. Some even fired off accusations that no work had been done to get to the bottom of the crisis. In a post to X, Garry addressed the “it’s fake” guys by posing five questions, all of them related to a domain name referenced in one or more of the takedown notices. The skeptics believe that the domain mm-nintendo.com is fake; Nintendo ‘always’ use a different domain, and domain details here are different to those used elsewhere, etc. We’ve seen more than our fair share of bogus notices in the past but since these notices don’t appear to have been shared in public, determining whether they’re real or fake simply isn’t possible. Since Garry is on record saying that they’re real, there’s no obvious reason to question that. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that developers can become quite attached to their projects and the communities that support them; removing content for no reason isn’t something they do lightly. So whether real or fake, voluntarily or under duress, a decision has clearly been made to say goodbye to content that, in real terms, amounts to a liability. That being said, let’s squeeze the domain mm-nintendo.com and see what comes out. Genuine or a Big Fat Phoney? Finding takedown notices featuring the domain mm-nintendo.com wasn’t difficult. The pair shown below seem fairly typical; they both use notice@ in their email addresses and were sent to ISPs asking for content to be taken down. Similar notices dated 2016, 2017, and 2018, fail to raise any obvious red flags and since the first and last were processed by GitHub, people can be confident they received considerable scrutiny. A similar notice sent to GitHub in 2020 took content down using the DMCA. In other parts of the notice, takedowns were requested under trademark law. At this point, it’s worth highlighting something that all of these notices have in common: not a single one targets pirated copies of Nintendo games. Instead, they all target audiovisual works, images, and fictional character depictions, to which Nintendo owns the rights. It’s a trend that runs through all similar notices. A 2019 takedown notice sent to itch.io, also featuring the email address [email protected], displays the same features as another sent to Sankakucomplex in 2019. No games piracy in sight, only alleged infringement in characters, artwork, and audiovisual works. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to raise a theory at this point; is it possible that Nintendo uses the mm-nintendo.com domain when takedown notices target characters, artwork, and audiovisual works, in cases where specific expertise is necessary? MarkMonitor (MM for short?) There’s no direct evidence to show that the MM in mm-nintendo.com stands for MarkMonitor. However, there’s plenty of evidence to show MarkMonitor has connections to Nintendo. The domain was registered through MarkMonitor in September 2016 and then updated somewhat coincidentally this Wednesday when the Garry’s Mod controversy began. The most obvious change is the prominence of the email address [email protected] before the update. MarkMonitor doesn’t manage all 6,431 domain names currently listed under Nintendo of America, but it has provided brand protection services for some of the biggest names in business. When Apple worked with MarkMonitor back in 2013, records show the company operated the domain mm-apple.com. While that domain has long since expired, mm-microsoft.com is very much alive and just like mm-nintendo.com, redirects to its owner’s main domain. Other domains registered through MarkMonitor and used for brand protection over the years, probably behaved in much the same way; mm-velcro.com, mm-walmart.com, mm-loreal.com, and mm-nissan.com, for example. So Real or Fake? There seems no doubt that the domain mm-nintendo.com a) actually exists b) is used for brand protection purposes and c) isn’t used often or even at all for regular DMCA takedown work. That leads to the final item, d) the domain is different because it has a specific purpose. It’s possible that brand protection matters are handled by a dedicated Nintendo department and/or MarkMonitor itself, which also has an office in the UK. Perhaps the image below, uploaded on Thursday, offers a few more clues. Just don’t venture too close to the edge. Whether the DMCA or similar takedown notices sent to Garry and the team are legitimate is best judged by those who have seen them. Based on the above, however, his claim – that the notices are official – should really be the last word on the matter. As for the other ‘fake’ notices previously sent that also mention the mm-nintendo.com domain, only a close review of each could determine whether they’re genuine and/or accurate. When everything is said and done, however, perhaps the most important question is whether they target obviously Nintendo-like characters or imagery. From what we’ve seen, most seem to do just that. Source

After multiple rounds of leaks revealing the price and the design of the upcoming Google Pixel 8a, now a fresh set of ads of the alleged Google Pixel 8a have surfaced online showcasing various features of the device. More importantly, they confirm seven years of updates for the Pixel 8a, the same as that of the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. While the Pixel 8a is speculated to launch at the upcoming Google I/O event on May 14, it seems like we won't have to wait for the actual launch event to know about the features Pixel 8a will come with. Android Headlines has leaked a set of Pixel 8a advertisements that showcase some notable secrets of the Pixel 8a. According to the leaked ads, the Pixel 8a will pack an 'AI-mazing' camera on the phone, which will bundle features such as Best Take, Audio Magic Eraser, and Night Sight. Both Best Take and Night Sight aren't new features for the Pixel 8a; however. The Audio Magic Eraser is a feature that was added last fall to the Pixel 8 series and is a great addition to the mid-range Google phone. There are other features that the ads showcase, such as screening calls with Call Assist, getting a summary of emails on the spot, and Circle to Search. Also, the ads have revealed the specifications of the device, and as expected, the Google Pixel 8a is powered by the Tensor G3 chipset, the same processor that powers the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro. Google has also mentioned fast charging but hasn't mentioned how many watts of fast charging is supported. Interestingly, the ads mention support for Google One VPN, which is something that is going away in June. It is possible that these ads were made before the decision to kill Google One was taken, or it's just that Google One will be promoted till its last breath. Furthermore, the leaked ads also mention that the Pixel 8a is IP67 dust and water-resistant. One thing that Google has highlighted is that the Pixel 8a will get seven years of 'security updates', instead of just updates. So, the update policy may not be the same as the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, as we are expecting. Source

"This is a vital component in our preparations for launch." Welcome to Edition 6.41 of the Rocket Report! As I finish up this edition I'm listening to the post-Flight Readiness Review news conference for Boeing's Crew Flight Test. It sounds like everything remains on track for a launch attempt on May 6, at 10:34 pm ET. It's exciting to see this important milestone for Boeing and the US human spaceflight program so near to hand. As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar. Shetland spaceport advancing toward launch. SaxaVord Spaceport in Scotland is on track to launch the United Kingdom’s first vertical rocket into orbit, the BBC reports. The Civil Aviation Authority has granted a range license to the Scottish spaceport, which will allow the company to control the sea and airspace during launch. Previously, the site received a spaceport license in December 2023. Ambitiously, the facility aims to launch up to 30 rockets every year. From Germany to Scotland with love ... "This is a vital component in our preparations for launch," said Frank Strang, chief executive of SaxaVord Spaceport. "As Western Europe’s only fully licensed vertical launch spaceport, we are now preparing to make more space history with the beginning of orbital launch operations well underway.” Germany-based rocket manufacturer Rocket Factory Augsburg could be the first to launch an orbital mission from Shetland later this year. (submitted by Ken the Bin) Rocket Lab launches 5th Electron this year. Rocket Lab launched a South Korean smallsat and a NASA solar sail experiment on the company’s fifth flight of the year on Tuesday, Space News reports. NEONSAT-1, the primary payload of the mission, is an imaging satellite with a mass of about 100 kilograms. The spacecraft is part of a constellation of 11 spacecraft called New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety, with the other 10 to be launched by South Korea’s Nuri rocket in 2026 and 2027. Better get busy ... This was the first Electron launch in more than a month after a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office on March 21 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. Company executives said in an earnings call in February that the company has 22 Electron launches planned for the year, two of which are of its HASTE suborbital version. That would be an impressive total if Rocket Lab can achieve it. (submitted by Jay500001) The Rocket Report: An Ars newsletter The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger's space reporting is to sign up for his newsletter, we'll collect his stories in your inbox. Sign Me Up! PLD Space has raised 120 million euros. The Spanish launch startup revealed this week that it has raised 120 million euros to date, providing the funding needed to launch its orbital Miura 5 rocket by the end of 2025. Last October the company's smaller, suborbital Miura 1 rocket made what the company characterized as a "successful" test flight, reaching an altitude of 46 km. By my very rough rule of thumb, a launch company must have at least $100 million in funding to have a fighting chance to reach orbit. Building new buildings ... The Miura 5 vehicle is intended to have a capacity of up to 250 kg in low-Earth orbit. The new funding will mainly be used for the expansion of PLD Space's infrastructure, increasing the size of its facilities from 169,000 to 834,000 square meters. The company also plans to begin building a launch site for the Miura 5 rocket in Kourou, French Guiana, later this year. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea) SpaceX lands 300th Falcon booster. With the launch of a Starlink mission on Tuesday evening and subsequent return of the Falcon 9 first stage, SpaceX recorded its 300th successful booster landing. In the Falcon fleet's lifetime, SpaceX has now landed about 85 percent of the Falcon rockets it has launched, Ars reports. These days, more than 90 percent of all its missions launch on previously flown boosters. So, rocket recycling is totally a thing. Saving a lot of metal ... Landing 300 rockets means SpaceX has preserved 2,700 Merlin rocket engines. In round numbers, the dry mass of a Falcon 9 first stage is about 50 metric tons, so the landing of all these rockets has prevented 15,000 metric tons of metal and other materials from being dumped into the oceans. To put this number further into perspective, only a handful of rockets have ever launched more than 300 times, and they are all Russian. China launches astronaut mission. A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Thursday, carrying the Shenzhou 18 spacecraft and its three-person crew into orbit, Space.com reports. Shenzhou 18 is commanded by Ye Guangfu, 43, who was part of the Shenzhou 13 mission three years ago. Fighter pilots Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, both spaceflight rookies, make up the rest of the crew. A change in control ... The three will spend around six months in space. Their spacecraft is scheduled to reach the Tiangong space station 6.5 hours after launch. The trio will be greeted aboard the orbital outpost by Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie, and Jiang Xinlin, who make up the Shenzhou 17 crew. The latter three will soon complete their six months in orbit. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea) China on track for 2030 lunar landing. China is on target to reach its goal of putting its astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade, according to the country’s human spaceflight agency. Officials with the China Manned Space Engineering Office provided a rare update on the crewed lunar program during a press conference at Jiuquan spaceport on April 24, Space News reports. Two Long March 10 lunar variant rockets will separately launch Mengzhou and three astronauts and the Lanyue lander. Hardware in work ... The pair will then perform a lunar orbit rendezvous and docking ahead of descent to the lunar surface. Two astronauts will spend six hours on the lunar surface before rejoining their colleague in lunar orbit and returning to Earth. “The program development for major flight products, including the Long March 10 rocket, the Mengzhou crew spacecraft, the lunar lander Lanyue and the lunar landing suits, are all complete,” said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of CMSEO. “Their prototype production and tests are in full swing.” I'm not convinced they'll make 2030, but China's simple architecture gives them a chance. (submitted by EllPeaTea) NASA considering changes to Artemis III. Although NASA is unlikely to speak about it publicly any time soon, the space agency is privately considering modifications to its Artemis plan to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon later this decade, Ars reports. Multiple sources confirmed that NASA is studying alternatives to the planned Artemis III landing of two astronauts on the Moon, nominally scheduled for September 2026, due to concerns about hardware readiness and mission complexity. Saving an ICPS stage ... Under one of the options, astronauts would launch into low-Earth orbit inside an Orion spacecraft and rendezvous there with a Starship vehicle, separately launched by SpaceX. During this mission, similar to Apollo 9, a precursor to the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the crew would validate the ability of Orion and Starship to dock and test habitability inside Starship. One benefit of this mission profile is that NASA could "save" an upper stage for the SLS rocket and use it on the subsequent lunar landing mission while also buying down some risk. Boeing will cut SLS workforce. Last week, senior Boeing officials leading the Space Launch System program convened an all-hands meeting for the more than 1,000 employees who work on the rocket. They announced that there would be significant cuts to the program, Ars reports. In a statement provided to Ars, a Boeing spokesperson confirmed the cuts: "Due to external factors unrelated to our program performance, Boeing is reviewing and adjusting current staffing levels on the Space Launch System program." Cites 'external factors' ... The Boeing statement did not say so, but sources told Ars that the cuts may eventually amount to hundreds of employees. They will be spread across the company's rocket facilities in Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, primarily. When Boeing cites "external factors," it is referring to the slipping timelines for NASA's Artemis Program. Although the SLS rocket will be ready for the current schedule, barring a catastrophe, the other elements are in doubt. For Artemis II, NASA still has not cleared a heat shield issue with the Orion spacecraft. The lunar lander and spacesuits will not be ready for Artemis III. New Glenn to debut in September? For the time being at least, NASA is expecting a Mars smallsat mission to launch in late September on Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, Space News reports. Nick Benardini, NASA’s planetary protection officer, listed a September 29 date for the launch of the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission during a Committee on Space Research meeting this week. A much-anticipated launch ... That is the most precise date yet offered for the mission. Blue Origin itself has not announced a formal date for the first New Glenn launch beyond the company’s expectation that it will take place this year after several years of delays. Among the pacing items for this mission are seven BE-4 engines, which will power New Glenn's first stage. A handful of sources inside Blue Origin believe the company is making credible progress toward a launch attempt this year. (submitted by Ken the Bin) Next three launches April 28: Falcon 9 | Galileo satellites | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 00:34 UTC April 28: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-54 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 21:50 UTC May 2: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-55 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 01:43 UTC Source