Some bad news for SpaceX this morning as a rocket they were testing blew on a Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida. SpaceX says no one was hurt. In a statement, SpaceX said that the rocket was undergoing a standard pre-launch firing test when there was “an anomaly” on the pad resulting in the loss of the Falcon 9 rocket and the payload, which was a satellite for Israeli firm Spacecom. It was due to launch Saturday.
SpaceX is in a bit of a space race with NASA and other firms, such as United Launch Alliance, and has been successfully launching and landing its Falcon 9 rockets as of late, although they did lose a rocket when it exploded high in the atmosphere in July of last year. That unmanned mission was on its way to the International Space Station. SpaceX has a nearly billion-dollar contract with NASA to get supplies to the station and satellites into orbit.
SpaceX is due to begin sending astronauts to the ISS soon, and their Dragon crew capsules do feature an escape system to protect astronauts in the event of a rocket explosion. An investigation by NASA and SpaceX is under way and there’s been no early word on what may have caused the explosion.
Setback for Samsung as battery issues pop up
Speaking of explosions, Samsung may halt shipments of their popular Galaxy Note 7 after several reports of the phone’s batteries exploding. Shipments of the highly anticipated new phone were halted in South Korea earlier this week after reports of the battery problems started popping up, but BGR reports the China and Euro launches of the phone are going forward as planned. We’ll see if that plan holds up in the coming days.
The Korea Herald is reporting that Samsung was planning on replacing the phone’s batteries for free for any customer that had a concern, but now, the company may just replace the entire phone, which is not very encouraging. Timing couldn’t be worse, either, as Apple is almost certainly going to release their iPhone 7 on September 7th, and the big new Samsung phones were primed to compete with it.
Go big or go home (if you can even carry it)
Bigger isn’t always better, but sometimes, well, maybe it is. That’s what ACER seems to think after taking the wraps off a 21-inch curved screen gaming laptop at the big IFA show in Berlin. DT’s Computing Editor Matt Smith got a up-close look at a pre-production version of the 18-pound monster, and it is appropriately over the top. The Predator 21 X will pack two GTX1080 video cards, four solid state drives, eye-tracking controls, and a price above $5,000.
For that money, it even comes with a wrist rest, so hey, what a deal. No exact price or release date has been specified by ACER, but when it does become available, we’ll let you know so you can pick it up in your Hummer.
