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SpaceX wins FAA clearance for return to flight

SpaceX Falcon 9
A closeup shows the fairing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in January 2016. (NASA Photo)

SpaceX has the all-clear to return its Falcon 9 rocket to flight next week after a four-month suspension due to a launch-pad explosion.

The go-ahead came in the form of a launch license issued today by the Federal Aviation Administration for SpaceX’s launch of 10 advanced Iridium Next telecommunication satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Also today, the FAA said it has accepted the results of SpaceX’s report on the loss of a Falcon 9 and its Amos-6 satellite payload on Sept. 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and “has closed the investigation.”

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FAA tests systems to counter dastardly drones

Drones
Drones were visible in abundance at CES. (FAA Photo)

Drone sightings by commercial pilots are on the rise, and so is the Federal Aviation Administration’s research into systems that detect and defend against unmanned aerial vehicles.

In cooperation with other government agencies and industry partners, the FAA has been testing technologies designed to detect unauthorized drone operations near airports and other critical infrastructure, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a packed audience today at the CES show in Las Vegas.

“We’ve evaluated some of these technologies in some pretty complicated places, airports like New York, and Denver, and smaller places like Atlantic City,” he said.

Huerta said further tests will be conducted later this year around Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

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Otto Robotics raises $1.5M for robo-food venture

170105-otto-robotics

Otto Robotics, a stealthy startup that’s working on automated systems to make and deliver food, has raised $1.5 million in a private equity offering.

That report comes in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that was made by the nascent company, headquartered in Redmond, Wash.

Otto Robotics’ co-founder and chief, Garett Ochs, told GeekWire that the lead investors for the seed round are Draper Associates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.

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You could win $25,000 in IoT security contest

Internet of Things
The IoT Home Inspector Challenge is aimed at heading off new types of home-based network vulnerabilities. (FTC Graphic)

The Internet of Things can be a rough neighborhood, as October’s massive botnet attack illustrated – and so, in an attempt to head off future hacks, the Federal Trade Commission has organized a contest for IoT security tools.

It’s offering prizes worth up to $25,000 for the top entries.

The FTC’s IoT Home Inspector Challenge is open to developers who come up with tools to address security vulnerabilities caused by out-of-date software in devices that range from webcams to, um, kitchen ranges.

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Jeff Bezos casts vote for space superhighway

Jeff Bezos and Alan Boyle
Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos chats with GeekWire’s Alan Boyle at the 2016 Space Symposium in Colorado, with a picture of Blue Origin’s New Shepard passenger capsule displayed in the background. (Tom Kimmell Photography / Courtesy of the Space Foundation)

What should Donald Trump have NASA do? Today Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos voiced his support for the idea that the space agency should help build a “highway in the sky” analogous to the interstate highway system that President Dwight Eisenhower ramped up in the 1950s.

The backing came in the form of an eight-word tweet, accompanied by a link to an article by Howard Bloom appearing in Salon (and as a guest blog posting on Scientific American’s website as well).

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Alaska Airlines kicks off daily flights to Havana

Alaska flight to Havana
A Cuban flag is propped up on an seat in Alaska Airlines’ jet for the carrier’s inaugural flight to Havana. (Alaska Airlines Photo via Twitter)

For the first time in decades, passengers got on a jet at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that could take them all the way to Cuba’s capital – albeit with a layover in Los Angeles.

Alaska Airlines’ Flight 286 set out from Sea-Tac at 5:10 a.m. today for the Seattle-based carrier’s inaugural commercial trip to Havana. Among the dignitaries on board: King County Executive Dow Constantine and Ana Mari Cauce, the University of Washington’s Cuban-born president.

The Boeing 737-900ER jet stopped at LAX to pick up additional passengers – and give Alaska an opportunity to indulge in some Latin-flavored celebration. Then the jet took off again for the four-hour-plus flight to Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport.

Flight 286 finished up the journey at 4:57 p.m. local time. After another flurry of fanfare in Havana, the jet turned around to make Flight 287 to LAX. It was due back in Seattle in the middle of the night.

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Audi and Nvidia team up on autonomous car

Audi Q7
In a self-driving car demo, CES attendees can ride in the back seat of an Audi Q7 piloted driving concept car that has no one behind the wheel. (Nvidia Photo)

Nvidia may be best-known for video games, but its deal with Audi to provide the smarts for an autonomous vehicle in 2020 demonstrates that it’s not just playing games in the artificial intelligence realm.

The expanded Audi partnership, announced this week at CES in Las Vegas, is just one of several hookups that the California-based chip company has forged with automakers.

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AlphaGo beats Go masters in stealth games

Image: Go game
The AI program known as AlphaGo has mastered the game of Go. (Credit: Google DeepMind)

For the past week or so, a mystery player has been logging into online Go game servers and beating the world’s best. Today, the player’s identity was revealed at last.

It was none other than AlphaGo, the artificial-intelligence program that triumphed over Go master Lee Sedol last March in a widely publicized $1 million showdown.

Google DeepMind’s co-founder and CEO, Demis Hassabis, let the world in on the secret today in a tweeted statement.

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NASA backs two new missions to asteroids

Lucy and Psyche missions
Artist’s conceptions show the Lucy probe visiting a rocky asteroid at left, and the Psyche probe visiting a metallic asteroid at right. (NASA Illustrations)

Today is a great day for asteroid miners: NASA announced that it will provide full funding under its Discovery Program for two missions focusing on different types of asteroids.

A mission called Lucy will launch in 2021 to study a smorgasbord of asteroids, including one in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, plus six others among the swarms of space rocks caught in Jupiter’s orbit.

Another mission called Psyche will take off in 2023 to visit a type of asteroid that’s never been seen up close before: a huge metallic object called 16 Psyche that’s similar in composition to Earth’s core.

“This is what Discovery Program missions are all about – boldly going to places we’ve never been to enable groundbreaking science,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA Headquarters’ Science Mission Directorate, said today in a news release.

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Amazon wins a patent for delivery tunnels

Delivery tunnel
A diagram shows how goods could be delivered via tunnels. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)

Maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising that Amazon has patented a system for delivering goods via a dedicated network of underground tunnels. After all, the Seattle-based company is looking into virtually every other mode of transportation.

But the idea seem ambitious, even for America’s largest online retailer.

Amazon has experimented with delivery services that make use of autonomous drones, bicycle couriers and branded fleets of airplanes and trucks. There’s talk of self-driving trucks, flying warehouses and a system that would let drones hitchhike on trucks and buses.

Even the patent for Amazon’s Treasure Truck leaves the door open for Treasure Boats as well.

Amazon’s patent application for a dedicated network delivery system, above or below ground, was filed almost three years ago. The patent was finally issued and published a little more than a month ago.

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