Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday announced that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is chosen to fly on the upcoming Indo-US mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Shukla is designated as the prime astronaut to fly on the mission, while Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair will be the backup astronaut. 

In an official release, the ISRO said its Human Space Flight Centre has entered into a space flight agreement with US’ Axiom Space Inc. For the mission, the National Mission Assignment Board has recommended two ‘gaganyatris’. 

The Board has “recommended two ‘gaganyatris’ (space travellers) –Group Captain Shukla (prime) and Group Captain Nair (backup),” read the statement. 

“The assigned crew members will be finally approved to fly to the International Space Station by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP). The recommended gaganyatris will commence their training for the mission from the first week of August 2024,” said ISRO.

Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair | X

The ‘gaganyatris’ will be undertaking selected scientific research and technology demonstration experiments on board the ISS and engage in space outreach activities, it added.

“The experiences gained during this mission will be beneficial for the Indian Human Space Programme and it will also strengthen human space flight cooperation between ISRO and NASA,” the Indian space agency said.

A joint statement issued by ISRO and NASA IN June last year had envisioned a joint ISRO-NASA mission to the space station. The decision was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the US. 

Who is Group Shubhanshu Shukla? 

Born in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow in 1985, Shukla is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. He was commissioned on June 17, 2006 in the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force (IAF). 

He is a Fighter Combat Leader and a test pilot with approximately 2,000 hours of flying experience. He has flown a variety of aircraft including Sukhoi-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32, among others.

Who is Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair? 

Born in Kerala’s Thiruvazhiyad on August 26, 1976, he is also an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and a recipient of the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy. He was commissioned on December 19, 1998 in the fighter stream of the IAF. 

Group Captain Nair is a Category-A flying Instructor – the highest that a pilot can achieve, and a test pilot with approximately 3,000 hours of flying experience. He has also flown several aircraft including Sukhoi-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Hawk, Dornier and An-32.

He is an alumnus of the United States Staff College and a Directing Staff at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and the Flying Instructors School, Tambaram.

Netflix is starting to pick up the pace of its original movies again as 2024 winds down. The problem is that not all of them deserve to be counted among the very best. Netflix has always favored quantity over quality, and that’s exactly what it gets. Sometimes, the bad Netflix originals far outweigh the good ones.

This month, Netflix did very well with It’s What’s Inside, a sci-fi thriller that goes to some dark places. Romance lovers may enjoy Lonely Planet, which offers a more dramatic take on the genre than Netflix normally uses.

There’s a robust selection of titles from all genres in our roundup of the best Netflix original movies right now. You can find the rest of our picks below.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for here, try our other lists of the best movies to stream this week, the best Netflix movies, the best Hulu original series, and the best Amazon Prime original movies.

Related Topics: Netflix | Hulu | Amazon Prime | More Streaming Services

Yesterday, OnePlus officially announced OxygenOS 15, the next big update to its custom Android skin for phones and tablets. The company showed off the main new features that the new firmware will bring, highlighting the arrival of multiple AI-powered features. Now, OnePlus has updated the information with the rollout schedule for the Android 15-based beta update, confirming that some models will have to wait until 2025.

According to the official rollout schedule, the OxygenOS 15 open beta will be available for the first eligible devices as early as October 30. However, the last models will get it in February next year.

Android 15 rollout schedule to eligible OnePlus devices for 2024 and 2025

Starting October 30, users of the OnePlus 12, OnePlus 12R, and OnePlus 12R Genshin Impact Edition will be able to install Android 15 beta. This is great news for users of said devices, as they are just a few days away from enjoying early access to the new features and improvements. Then, sometime in November, users of the OnePlus Open and OnePlus Pad 2 will be able to do so.

Starting in December, the OnePlus 11, OnePlus 11R, and every model in the OnePlus Nord 4 series will gain access to the beta program. The first OnePlus Pad is also on the list for the last month of the year. Next, in January 2025, Android 15 beta will be available to owners of the OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus 10T, and OnePlus Nord 3. Lastly, the OnePlus 10R and OnePlus Nord CE 3 will receive the open beta starting in February 2025.

Some key OxygenOS 15 improvements

OxygenOS 15 will bring a set of nice improvements and new features to users of eligible devices. There are a number of new AI-powered features for image editing and enhancement. The artificial intelligence will also enable grammar checks, suggested answers, and summaries. There’s also an AI Toolbox 2.0 sidebar that will offer direct access to the AI features available for each app. The company is even polishing the OxygenOS UI and redesigning its icons.

The legal battle between Apple and medical technology company Masimo rages on, with the bigger company — sorta, kinda — winning their latest face off. A federal jury has agreed with Apple that previous versions of Masimo’s W1 and Freedom (pictured above) watches infringed on its design patents, according to Reuters. It only awarded Apple $250 in damages, which is the smallest amount that could be awarded for patent infringement, but the company’s lawyers reportedly told the court that it wasn’t after money anyway.

What Apple, which is worth $3.5 trillion, wanted was an injunction on the sales of Masimo’s current smartwatch models. However, the jury determined that those newer models don’t violate Apple’s intellectual property. That is why Masimo is also treating the jury’s decision as a win, telling the news organization that it’s thankful for the verdict that’s “in favor of Masimo and against Apple on nearly all issues.” Apparently, the ruling only affects a “discontinued module and charger.” As for Apple, it told Reuters that it was “glad the jury’s decision today will protect the innovations [it advances] on behalf of [its] customers.”

Masimo sued Apple in 2021, accusing it of infringing on several of its light-based blood-oxygen monitoring patents, while the tech giant countersued a year later. A court sided with Masimo in 2023, forcing Apple to pause sales on its latest smartwatch models, as the US International Trade Commission blocked all Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 imports into the country. The company appealed and was ultimately able to sell its watches in the country earlier this year by removing the technology from the units offered in the US.

Before Jon McNeill was CEO at VC firm DVx Ventures, he was the president of Tesla and chief operating officer at Lyft. He helped Tesla grow its revenue run rate from $2 billion to $20 billion in 30 months, and he doubled Lyft’s revenue ahead of its IPO. He’s also on the board of GM’s Cruise and Lululemon, among other companies. So when he comes out with advice for how to build an innovative company, startups listen.

During the World Business Forum this week in New York City, McNeill presented insights into building innovative companies, a method Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls “the algorithm.” This approach, covered in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk, emphasizes radically simplifying both goals and processes. 

McNeill’s key lesson: Start by identifying the problem you’re solving, then aim for massive (not incremental) goals. “Order of magnitude big,” he said.

He recounted Tesla’s 2017 “production hell” when the company, facing bankruptcy, sought to boost digital sales of the $100,000 Model S by 20x. Tesla reduced the 63 clicks to buy a car online to 10, simplifying both the process and the supply chain.

McNeill’s takeaway for startups? 

“The answer isn’t ‘No,’ or ‘It’s crazy.’ The answer in innovative communities is: ‘I have no idea how to do that, but we’ll try.’”

Five steps of innovation by subtraction

1. Question every requirement

The only requirements McNeill said are truly important are requirements of the law and requirements of physics. Everything else can be poked and prodded at.

“When you have a large organization, things that started out as a good idea can become a rule, and then those rules can become requirements,” McNeill told TechCrunch. “And it’s almost like a tribal myth or a telephone game. And so [Musk] wants to really understand, is this a real requirement, or is this something that somebody thought was a good idea that, over time, has been codified into a requirement?” 

2. Delete every step in the process that you can

McNeill advises companies to track every process in a spreadsheet so they can identify only the steps that add value to the customer. Everything else they should delete, with the caveat that they can always add some of those steps back in if needed. 

“Until you have to add back in 10% of steps, you haven’t cut deeply enough,” he said.

For managers to succeed at this, they need to spend 20% of their time on the front lines, he said. If you’re the CEO of Starbucks, that means rolling up your sleeves and understanding not only how to make a cup of coffee end to end, but also understanding why your customers are frustrated with that process. 

3. Simplify and optimize

In 2018, when Tesla was trying to figure out how to ramp production of Model 3s, Tesla executive Jerome Guillen realized Tesla had over-automated production. He said the company needed to go back to basics, and for him, that meant building a massive tent in which the team could build the cars by hand. 

McNeill says the Model 3s were built this way, manually, for months, which helped Tesla simplify the production process further when the team eventually moved the line back inside the main building. 

“They were able to remove more than 50% of the steps because they had just optimized the process manually,” McNeill said. 

4. Apply speed; maximize cycle time

“Simplifying and optimizing can really work into the fourth step, which is to then apply speed,” McNeill said. “Speed exposes all the weaknesses in the process.”

McNeill says speed matters more than ever today. 

“When cash costs 5%, [simplification] speeds up your cash generation,” he said. “Cash velocity is really the metric of elite performers.”

5. At the very end, automate it

Only after companies have simplified the process and really understand the product and customer journey should they move to automation.

“Automation is like the bolts in the floor,” McNeill said. “Once you begin to write code, it gets very hard to unwind it and hard to replace it.”

“You automate to make it repeatable, and you automate to make it scalable, and you only do that when you have a repeatable and scalable process.”

McNeill’s three secret ingredients

On top of the five lessons, McNeill provided three extra cultural principles. 

The first is that companies should expand their view to include the entire customer journey or experience. An example? GM is really good at producing cars, and that includes its EVs. But charging is part of that customer journey, something GM didn’t latch on to right away. Tesla did when it built its Supercharger network. 

His second ingredient is to inject urgency and accountability by identifying the two or three things that matter to a company at any given time. The CEO should be allowed to concentrate entirely on those things.

The third ingredient is to experience the product as your customer experiences the product. Or as McNeill put it: “Eat your own dog food.”

Governor Tim Walz is returning to Twitch and this time, he’ll actually be playing a game. Earlier this month, Kamala Harris’ campaign teamed up with a Twitch streamer to live-stream a Walz rally as part of a World of Warcraft stream. But on Sunday afternoon, Walz will be playing Madden NFL on Twitch with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY).