It wasn't a NASA lander, it was an Astrobotic lander. NASA has been busy with Mars landings. The whole point of CLPS is to get cheaper missions by doing less micromanaging. We'll see how Intuitive Machines does next.
I don't think anyone even moderately informed has though a 2025 Artemis 3 landing is realistic for years at this point. It sounds like the official delay announcement is coming soon.
Ouch, Vulcan did its job, but Peregrine can't get stable sun pointing to charge batteries. Hopefully they're able to get back on track. The volley of lunar landers in the past few years has been rough.
He might be right wing from a global perspective, but I'm still gonna vote for him instead of whoever has the R label. I wish we had cooler viable options, but "lesser of two evils" reigns supreme.
The Annihilation / Southern Reach sequels were short enough books that I figured I might as well read them despite some people not liking them. They're definitely different from the space related stuff I normally pick up, but I'm glad I read them.
I thought they were good! They both made me not want to put them down and kept weaving the horror and mystery together, closed out some of the loose ends and answered questions, but also opened a lot of new cans of worms.
I've only read Ringworld from that list (earlier this year). The story did a cool job of introducing the concept of an orbital ring and giving it a sense of scale, plus introducing some other cool concepts/ideas. It also introduced more species and planets and technology that made sense for a big Star Wars-like space opera book series. It was definitely dated as far as how female characters were written, though.
I thought Consider Phlebas did a better job of using a Ring World without it being the whole plot on its own, but I suppose Ringworld had to walk so others could run with it.
I didn't mean it as whataboutism to justify China's situation, just as a tangent about the US also having work to do. I agree, now that you said it, that it looks like whataboutism.
Hopefully the drop in the US over the past two years turns into a longer trend.
I wish they would just say "I don't want one" instead of trying to justify it with myths about lifetime emissions or whatever. It's the same thing with SUVs vs station wagons or hatchbacks- just say "I want the big one" instead of trying to peddle myths about safety or something.
I don't know if their statement is universally true, but the EPA's fuel economy / total emissions calculator seems to show it for what I've put in. You can put in a Prius or random EV and see how they compare.
I finished Ignition! and am about to start The Player of Games from the Culture series. I really enjoyed Consider Phlebas, but I've been trying to switch off between fiction and nonfiction.
This feels like a good spot to remind folks that you can get free at-home covid tests from covid.gov.
If you haven't gotten one in a bit, covid vaccines are also free in the US, either through your health insurance or through the Bridge Access Program.