Hasta La Gadget!

We told you about it late yesterday, but now it’s about time for the livestream of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule reaching the International Space Station. If all’s going as planned, the craft would’ve begun some preliminary maneuvers toward the ISS roughly an hour ago. According to the company, astronauts aboard the ISS will attempt to grapple it with a robotic arm at 6:36AM ET. If that’s successful, the actual berthing of the capsule is set to begin at 8AM. Don’t take our word for it, catch the NASA TV live feed (coverage starts at 3:30AM) at embedded after the break!

Here’s to wishing that all continues to go well overall on this resupply effort!

Update 8:21AM: Dragon was captured at 5:31AM and the berthing process is currently taking place. The capsule should be fully in place by roughly 9:40AM! We’ve also updated the feed past the break, as it was originally pulling from NASA TV’s public feed, rather than the ISS feed — apologies for any inconvenience.

Update 9:03 AM: Dragon was successfully berthed the space station at 8:56AM, ahead of scheduele like much of the event. And with that, NASA has ended coverage of the event. Now those onboard the station will be focused on unloading the supplies it’s carrying. Dragon will return to Earth for a splashdown on March 25th. As always, hit the NASA source link for more detailed info. Catch a picture of Dragon attached to the ISS’s Harmony node just past the break.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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Source: SpaceX, NASA

Data logs of the Model S that left New York Times reporter John Broder stranded revealed a “violation of common sense” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but Broder is now offering his side of the story to help make sense of the information. According to the journalist, he wasn’t provided with “detailed instructions on maximizing the driving range” before his trip, and he placed roughly a dozen calls to the folks at Tesla about how he could address the car’s declining range and make it to his destination. Apparently, some of the doubt-instilling data was caused by following the advice of Tesla representatives on how to maximize the vehicle’s charge. For example, Broder says the auto lost a drastic amount of juice while parked in the cold over night, and a low-power one-hour charge was recommended by Tesla reps in conjunction with driving at a moderate speed to “restore” the lost power.

Broder also mentions that he didn’t drive around a parking lot to run down the battery, but did so since he couldn’t find the poorly-lit and unmarked Supercharger at night. New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan called Musk several times throughout the day and couldn’t get ahold of him, but plans to ask the company’s founder to open source the logs and other information. Come Friday, Sullivan expects to have some conclusions on the matter. Click the bordering source link to see Broder’s entire point-by-point response to the logs for yourself.

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Source: The New York Times (1), (2)

We recently had a chance to put a Tesla Model S through its paces and we had no problem getting where we were going — and back again — despite our testing happening in Upstate New York the middle of a rather chilly January. The New York Times, however, had a bit of a harder time of it. Over the weekend, Times reporter John M. Broder published what can only be called a rather negative report on a failed trip to one of Tesla’s fabled Superchargers. After a series of short charges and a series of drives in a Model S (the very same car we tested, we would add), Broder ultimately ran out of juice and was left stranded, having to tow the car from Brannford, CT to the nearest Supercharger, this one in Milford — about 25 miles away.

Broder blamed the temperature and, ultimately, the car for causing the disappointment — something Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to rebut, saying:

NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn’t actually charge to max & took a long detour.

The Times responded (via CNBC) that the report was “completely factual” and that “Any suggestion that the account was ‘fake’ is, of course, flatly untrue.” Musk then took to CNBC himself to talk about a “lengthy detour” Broder took through Manhattan — something not mentioned in his post.

In our own experiences, we definitely did notice a decreased indicated range immediately after turning on the car, but it quickly rose as they gradually rose to operating temperature. That said, we were never able to eke out the “indicated” range in the cold on either of our lengthy trips — even those that didn’t involve trips through Manhattan.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: @elonmusk (Twitter), The New York Times

Entrepreneur Elon Musk is well-known for talking trash about the vehicular competition… just not when it involves rockets instead of four wheels. Still, that’s what we’re facing in the wake of a BBC interview. He tells the broadcaster that the Ariane 5 rocket stands “no chance” in the face of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy systems from his own SpaceX outfit, as it’s more expensive to use — and the contrast will only get worse when a cheaper, next-generation Falcon 9 arrives, he says. Musk echoes France’s position that Ariane should skip a mid-life upgrade to its vehicle and jump directly to a less expensive Ariane 6. The executive has a point when there’s more than 40 booked SpaceX flights so early into the Falcon program’s history, although there’s something left to prove when the first scheduled Dragon capsule launch ran into a non-critical engine failure. We’ll know that Musk can walk the walk if there’s still a long line of SpaceX customers by the time Ariane 6 hits the launchpad.

Filed under: Transportation

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: SpaceX creator Elon Musk says Ariane 5 rocket has ‘no chance’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, topping off a Model S in 30 minutes with a Supercharger is awfully handy, but production delays of the sedan will keep some future owners away from quick charge times — and most importantly — their cars for a little while longer. In a freshly published filing with the US Securities Exchange and Commission, Tesla revealed that it hasn’t reached its goal of producing 400 Model S vehicles a week, which places them four to five weeks behind their 2012 delivery expectations. To date, just 255 of the autos have rolled off the assembly line, 132 of which have made their way to new homes. According to the Palo Alto-based outfit, ramping up production has been slower than expected for a number of reasons, including supplier delays and taking a deliberately measured pace for quality assurance purposes.

Before the year draws to a close, Musk and Co. anticipate meeting their goal of churning out 400 cars each week, and a total of 20,000 by the end of 2013. Currently, the automaker has racked up around 13,000 reservations and thinks it’ll be working to fulfill even more throughout 2013. As a result of the manufacturing lag, the firm has slashed its revenue forecast by as much as $200 million, estimating it’ll rake in anywhere from $400 million to $440 million this year. In an effort to add cash to its coffers, the company is putting up roughly 5 million shares of stock for sale. Who’s buying, you say? Tesla mentioned its CEO Elon Musk is interested in putting down a cool million bucks.

Filed under: Transportation

Tesla behind on Model S production goals, aims for extra cash with stock sale originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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