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SpaceX successfully launched its sixth Starship flight test on Tuesday, in a race to the moon and Mars - but aborted its attempt to ‘catch’ the returning rocket in mid-air.
The test follows a first-ever successful landing and capture exercise in October- when the Starship was caught by the ‘chopsticks’ arms of the launch-and-catch tower at Starbase in Texas. However, the sixth test ended slightly differently, with a splash landing in the Indian Ocean.
And Elon Musk was joined by President-elect Donald Trump for this one, another signal of their growing alliance.
Reuters reports that Russia has begun making mobile nuclear bomb shelters, designed to protect from radiation and shockwaves from a nuclear blast.
It’s said that the "KUB-M" shelter could offer protection for 48 hours against these and other natural and man-made hazards.
This news comes as President Vladimir Putin approved a new official doctrine on Tuesday.
Also in this episode:
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I'm Rachelle Abbott, and this is The Standard's Tech and Science Daily podcast.
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SpaceX successfully launched its sixth Starship flight test on Tuesday in a race to the moon and Mars, but aborted its attempt to catch the returning rocket in mid-air.
The test follows a first ever successful landing and capture exercise in October, when the Starship was caught by the chopstick arms of the launching catch tower at Starbase in Texas.
However, the sixth test ended slightly differently with a splash landing in the Indian Ocean.
It was revealed almost five minutes into the launch that the Super Heavy Booster would not be caught in the giant mechanical arms due to unspecified conditions not being optimal.
And Elon Musk was joined by President-elect Donald Trump for this one, another signal of their growing alliance.
Trump posted his attendance on X alongside a link to the launch's live stream.
Next, Reuters reports that Russia has begun making mobile nuclear bomb shelters designed to protect from radiation and shockwaves from a nuclear blast.
It's said that the "KUB-M" shelter could offer protection for 48 hours against these and other natural and man-made hazards.
The Emergency Ministry's Research Institute said the "KUB-M" looks like a reinforced shipping container and consists of two modules, a room for 54 people and a technical block.
More modules can be added if needed.
This news comes as President Vladimir Putin approved a new official doctrine on Tuesday.
It's worth noting the Institute have not linked the production increase to any current crisis.
Next.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said social media firms should be more concerned about the impact of their products as he confirmed he was considering a ban on under-16s using the platforms.
Speaking to Sky News, he said that he was keeping all options open, but that at the moment there's very little evidence provided by the platforms.
He added that he will be looking into the impact that social media has on young children, young people and people with vulnerabilities, so he can build policies that sometimes might be strident policies, but he has to have the evidence to do so.
Now.
Despite launching on both PC and Xbox this week, it appears Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2024 hasn't taken off so smoothly.
There have been reports of long loading times and system crashes, no pun intended, with lots of data having to be pulled from the cloud before players can even reach the start screen.
In this new release, players are encouraged to get out of the plane and take a walk on land to explore trees, rocks, snow and even animals in a zoo.
Let's go to the ads, coming up in part 2:
Protecting your pets from carbon monoxide.
See you back here in just a minute.
Welcome back.
Known as the silent killer, as it cannot be seen, tasted or smelt, carbon monoxide is a deadly gas, which is easily emitted from household appliances, including faulty boilers and gas cookers.
Not only can it severely affect us humans, but it can harm our pets too.
To mark carbon monoxide awareness week, Gas Safe Register has joined forces with animal welfare charity, the RSPCA
In terms of severe impacts, this is something that could actually cause the death of your pet.
Carbon monoxide is called the silent killer, so the symptoms from the in-coordination through to coma, and then, very sadly, the death of your pet.
Pets often show the symptoms before people do, because they are smaller, so they are likely to be more impacted.
And also, they are more likely to be spending more time inside rather than nipping in and out.
So, they are often affected first, and the symptoms will move through to, from the in-coordination to coma, and ultimately to death if it's not dealt with.
So, it is really serious, and then obviously you start to have the other members of the family affected as well.
That's Caroline Allen, the RSPCA's chief vet.
The Gas Safe Register says their new research revealed that a fifth of pet owners did not own a CO alarm, with 99% unable to correctly identify all the signs that can indicate their pet could be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
So, what are some of the signs?
The key ones that you would see would be drowsiness, change in behaviour, so particularly becoming more irritable.
That could progress to breathlessness and kind of being uncoordinated or wobbly.
Now, these are symptoms that can be seen with a number of conditions, but there are a couple of things that would be a little bit more specific, and particularly that those signs would improve if you took your pet out into the fresh air, so you would be signs that you would be seeing in the home, and then when you went out, they would tend to improve.
But also, more specifically would be the membranes and what we call the mucous membranes, so the pink bits, the lips, gums, around the eyes, even sometimes the ears, where you've got a normal like nice light pink colour, would actually appear quite a brick red colour.
You know, obviously that's quite unusual, and that would be quite a cardinal sign of actually what the toxin is doing in the blood.
And again, you would tend to see that improve when the pet went outside.
And one of the more challenging things is obviously that could have all improved quite significantly by the time you got to the vet, which obviously we would recommend with any pet who was unwell.
So it's just important that, you know, people are being observant and particularly if they observe those things, to note them down and tell their vet.
To check how safe your home is, the Gas Safe Register offers free tips on their website.
Next.
Scientists have said a new study has shown that salmonella could help fight bowel cancer.
University of Birmingham researchers say their study shows salmonella could be re-engineered to help T cells.
They're a type of white blood cell that protects the body from infection and disease to kill cancer cells.
They say they found why T cells, key to fighting cancer, don't function optimally during cancer treatment and have now pinpointed the protein responsible that could help fight against the disease.
The study is published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
And finally…
Now, you have to listen quite carefully, but that's the sound of Boki the Brown Bear enjoying a Kong toy treat as he continues to impress veterinary staff with his remarkable recovery.
The bear underwent pioneering life-saving brain surgery in October and has made a very encouraging recovery after six weeks of rehabilitation.
As previously reported on this podcast, Boki became the first Brown Bear on record to have brain surgery.
The two-year-old who lives at the Wildwood Trust near Canterbury, Kent, had been suffering from seizures, which were believed to be caused by fluid on the brain.
You're up to date.
Come back at 4pm for The Standard podcast.
For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk.
