Hasta La Gadget!

FedEx is planning to launch an ecommerce platform called “fdx” later this year. The shipping company announced the move on Sunday, describing fdx as an end-to-end online shopping hub that aims to provide sellers with solutions for everything from reaching potential customers to order fulfillment and returns. Sounds… familiar. FedEx says it’s targeting fall 2024 for the official launch.

The details are so far pretty scant, but fdx is being billed as a “data-driven” platform that will use FedEx’s insights to optimize basically every part of the buying and selling process. From the get-go, sellers on fdx will have access to the existing network of customers on the ecommerce site ShopRunner, which FedEx owns, and customers will be able to see delivery estimates on products as they browse and add things to their carts, even before checkout. Sellers will be provided carbon emissions reports relating to their supply chain decisions, optimal shipping routes and more.

FedEx is calling fdx a “first-of-its-kind” platform, which sure seems like a stretch, but we’ll find out soon enough if it really has something uniquely enticing to offer. It’ll need to if FedEx wants to woo people out of Amazon’s chokehold.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fedex-is-building-its-own-all-in-one-ecommerce-platform-233624131.html?src=rss

Federal agents were allegedly denied access to a stretch of border, preventing them from rescuing a woman and two children who drowned in the Rio Grande.

Animated by video studio RED SIDE, this is a 3D visualization comparing the size, speed, and range of various missiles used by multiple nations. Even the slowest missile is fast, but the quickest missile makes the slowest look like it’s standing still, and the slowest is traveling over 2,000MPH!

The video starts with a “drag race” comparing the missiles from slowest (the Mach 2.9 Novator Kalibr, ~2,225MPH) to fastest (the claimed Mach 27 of the Avangard, aka Objekt 4202, ~19,884MPH). It then provides an animation of how each missile is typically launched, its different stages, and what a flyby of the rocket at full speed looks like. The third part details each missile’s range; the last part is a size comparison, with all the rockets standing next to one another. I learned a lot by watching it. Mostly, I wouldn’t want to get hit with any of these, even without an explosive payload.

Which missile was your favorite? I found them all rather terrifying. Technologically impressive, sure, but scary to think about. And probably infinitely scarier to try to ride like a mechanical bull.

[via TheAwesomer]

It looks like the Peregrine lunar lander’s final resting place will be back at home where it started. The doomed spacecraft, which experienced an anomaly shortly after launch and has been leaking propellant ever since, is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, Astrobotic wrote in an update on X this weekend. The company plans to host a press conference with NASA on Thursday January 18 at 12PM ET to discuss the lander’s fate.

Peregrine has so far hung on much longer than anyone thought it would after the leak was first detected on January 8, and Astrobotic has been posting round-the-clock status updates. The company days ago ruled out a soft landing on the moon’s surface, but there’s been some uncertainty about where exactly it’ll end up. Peregrine did manage to make it to lunar distance — reaching 238,000 miles from Earth on Friday and then 242,000 as of Saturday — but because of where the moon currently is in its orbit, nothing was there to meet it.

If all had gone according to plan, Peregrine would have met up with the moon about 15 days after launch, at which point it could begin the transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. It’s only been six days, and Peregrine’s dwindling fuel supply isn’t likely to carry it for nine more. “Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak, which have been adding uncertainty to predictions of the vehicle’s trajectory,” Astrobotic wrote in its most recent update on Saturday. “Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

It was always a known risk that Peregrine Mission One might end this way; moon landings are notoriously hard. The commercial mission marked the first of those contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and in a briefing ahead of last week’s launch, NASA’s CLPS Program Manager Chris Culbert said, “We recognize that success cannot be ensured.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peregrine-moon-lander-and-its-cargo-will-likely-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-204002942.html?src=rss

If you were someone who liked Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy of movies in 2021, good news: R.L. Stine says another film is on the way.

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