After standing down from the piloted Polaris Dawn launch late Tuesday, SpaceX shifted gears and pressed ahead with plans for back-to-back launches of Starlink internet satellites early Wednesday, one from Florida and the other from California.

But the second flight was called off after the first stage used in the Florida launch toppled into the Atlantic Ocean and broke apart while attempting to land on a SpaceX droneship stationed several hundred miles northeast of Cape Canaveral. The landing mishap ended a string of 267 successful booster recoveries dating back to February 2021.

The Falcon 9’s second stage, meanwhile, successfully carried 21 Starlink satellites to their planned orbit.

The first stage landing appeared normal until the moment of touchdown when more flames than usual were visible around the base of the rocket as it neared the deck. A landing leg immediately collapsed on touchdown and the booster, obscured by fire and smoke, tipped over the side of the landing barge into the Atlantic.

“After a successful ascent, Falcon 9’s first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship,” SpaceX said on the social media site X. “Teams are assessing the booster’s flight data and status.”

It was first stage B1062’s 23rd and what turned out to be final launch and landing, a new reuse record. SpaceX is working toward certifying its Falcon 9 first stages for up to 40 flights each.

Shortly after the Starlinks launched from Florida were deployed, SpaxeX called off the California launch, planned for 5:58 a.m. EDT, to give engineers more time to review telemetry and video footage, on the lookout for any signs of trouble that could affect other rockets.

“Standing down from our second @Starlink launch of the night to give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch,” SpaceX said on X. “A new target launch date will be shared once available.”

Here are updated Falcon 9 stats through through this morning’s Florida launch:

Total Falcon 9 launches to date: 367
Total Falcon Heavy launches to date: 10
Total Super Heavy/Starship launches to date: 4
Falcon 9/Heavy launches this year: 83 (82 F9s, 1 FH)
In-flight Falcon 9/Heavy failures: 2 (06/28/15, 07/11/24)
Successful Falcon 9/Heavy launches in a row: 13
Most successful flights in a row: 344 (between 6/28/15 and 07/11/24)

Starlink launches to date: 190 (181 dedicated flights, 9 mixed payloads)
Starlink launches this year: 58
Starlink satellites launched to date: 6,920
Starlinks with direct-to-cell capability: 136
Starlinks presumed to be working going into latest launch: 6,269*
Payloads launched to orbit this year by SpaceX: 1,548

First stage fleet leader: B1062, 23 flights (booster lost on landing)
California landings to date: 20
Florida landings to date: 54
Droneship landings to date: 267 (not counting today’s flight)
Successful booster landings overall: 341
Successful booster landings in a row: 267 (before today’s flight)

*Source: https://planet4589.org/space/con/star/stats.html

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The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets pending an investigation to determine what caused a first-stage booster to crash onto a landing barge early Wednesday after helping launch another batch of Starlink internet satellites.

After standing down from the piloted Polaris Dawn launch late Tuesday because of an unfavorable long-range forecast, SpaceX pressed ahead with the first of two planned back-to-back launches of Starlinks, one from Florida and the other from California.

But the second flight was called off after the first stage used in the Florida launch crash-landed and toppled into the Atlantic Ocean while attempting to touch down on a SpaceX droneship stationed several hundred miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.

The FAA said it would require an investigation, effectively grounding SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets — including the Polaris Dawn booster — until the probe is complete and corrective actions are approved.

“A return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety,” the FAA said in a statement.

“In addition, SpaceX may need to request and receive approval from the FAA to modify its license that incorporates any corrective actions and meet all other licensing requirements,” the agency said.

Late Tuesday, SpaceX delayed Wednesday’s planned launch of the Polaris Dawn mission, a commercial flight featuring what will be the first non-government spacewalk, to Friday at the earliest because of predicted end-of-mission splashdown weather. The launching now is on indefinite hold pending the landing mishap investigation.

The landing failure ended a string of 267 successful booster recoveries in a row dating back to February 2021. The Falcon 9’s second stage, however, successfully carried 21 Starlink internet satellites to their planned orbit.

The first stage landing appeared normal until the moment of touchdown when more flames than usual were visible around the base of the rocket as it neared the deck. A landing leg immediately collapsed on touchdown and the booster, obscured by fire and smoke, tipped over the side of the landing barge into the Atlantic Ocean.

“After a successful ascent, Falcon 9’s first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship,” SpaceX said on social media. “Teams are assessing the booster’s flight data and status.”

It was first stage B1062’s 23rd and what turned out to be its final launch and landing, a new reuse record. SpaceX is working toward certifying its Falcon 9 first stages for up to 40 flights each.

Shortly after the Florida Starlinks were deployed, the company called off the California launch, planned for 5:58 a.m. EDT, to give engineers more time to review telemetry and video footage, on the lookout for any signs of trouble that could affect other rockets.

“Standing down from our second @Starlink launch of the night to give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch,” SpaceX said. “A new target launch date will be shared once available.”

While many Apple deals focus on iPads or MacBooks, one of the unsung heroes in the Apple arsenal is the Apple Mac mini M2. Right now, you can buy it from Best Buy for $100 off, so it’s now $499 instead of $599. A fantastic option for someone who wants all the benefits of macOS without needing a laptop, it’s small enough to fit into pretty much any working environment even if you have a small apartment. Here’s what it has to offer for the exceptionally smart price.

Why you should buy the Apple Mac mini M2

If you’ve been reading through our Mac mini M2 buying guide, you’ll appreciate that whether to go Mac mini or MacBook can be a tough decision. That’s why we spent some time laying out why you should buy a Mac mini instead of a MacBook Air. On a simple level, the Mac mini is cheaper, supports more external displays, and has more ports.

This particular model of the Apple Mac mini M2 has an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. It also sports 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. That’s fairly basic stuff, but macOS runs efficiently so it doesn’t need too much memory or storage space to still run well. We reviewed the Mac mini M2 Pro and called it “the best mini computer ever,” with the standard Mac mini M2 still proving pretty potent.

This model supports two displays while having an advanced cooling system which ensures the best performance you can get out of this processor. It also has Wi-Fi 6E support, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one HDMI, two USB-A, a headphone jack, and Ethernet port. Despite packing so much in, the Apple Mac mini M2 only measures 7.7 inches, so it easily fits into your home. Just add one of the best monitors or connect it to your TV.

Normally $599, the Apple Mac mini M2 is down to $499 for a limited time only at Best Buy. The $100 discount makes it even more affordable and unmissable. Check it out now as the deal is likely to end soon, and it’s a chunky price cut of nearly 20%.

In the ocean food chain, large sharks generally only have to worry about keeping orcas at bay — but a new study suggests the apex predators may have to watch out for their own.

Researchers have discovered evidence pointing to the first known case of a porbeagle shark — which can grow up to 12 feet long and 500 pounds — being killed by a large shark predator. The findings were published Tuesday in the biology journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

This isn’t the first case of “shark cannibalism,”  said Jon Dodd, executive director of the Atlantic Shark Institute, which helped lead the study. Larger sharks eating smaller sharks is a common occurrence, “in the open ocean, size matters, but there is always something bigger,” he said. 

In some cases — bull sharks, mako sharks and baby sand tiger sharks, for example — sharks will even eat their own species.

But cases of large sharks eating other large sharks, the subject of this study, are few and far between, said lead author Dr. Brooke Anderson, a marine biologist for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. 

The fatality of the female porbeagle raises questions about whether this incident represents a wider trend among large predators, said Anderson. “With the advancements in technology, it’s possible that this happens more frequently than we’ve just really been able to discover,” said Anderson.  

The number of sharks eaten by other sharks is impossible to know, said Dodd adding, “but if our experiences at the Atlantic Shark Institute are an indicator, it might be more than we think.”

A group of scientific researchers from across the U.S. discovered the porbeagle death while conducting a satellite tracking project in the Northwestern Atlantic to better understand the shark species’ whereabouts, behaviors and environmental preferences. They were particularly curious about female porbeagles, which are known to traverse long swaths of the ocean to deliver their pups. 

“We were really seeking to understand the habitats used by the pregnant females and try to figure out where they might be going to give birth,” said Anderson.

The victim of the attack, nicknamed Penelope by researchers, was one of the 11 sharks scientists tagged off the coast of Cape Cod in 2020 and 2022. Tracking tags were placed on the dorsal fins of the sharks and used to collect information on water depth and temperature. The tags stored the data until they eventually fell off the sharks, at which point the data was transmitted back to the researchers via satellite.

The tracking devices were designed to stay on for a year, but five months into the experiment, Penelope’s data had already come in. “As soon as I got the data from that tag, I immediately knew something weird had happened,” Anderson said. 

A few days before Penelope’s tag popped off along the coast of Bermuda, the temperature of the water suddenly spiked. It remained relatively high, even when it reached 600 meters below sea level, which is “very unusual,” Anderson explained.

Anderson and her colleagues came to a harrowing conclusion: the porbeagle had been hunted and eaten by another behemoth of the sea. “The only explanation for that data is that this tab is now in the stomach of a predator,” Anderson told CBS News.

Researchers don’t know with 100% certainty what the culprit was, but the diving pattern of the predator, which researchers tracked by looking at the depth data collected by the tag, was similar to that of white sharks they’ve monitored in the past. “Based on that, it was likely, I’d guess, a mature female white shark,” said Anderson.

Porbeagles, which have historically been overfished, are considered endangered in certain parts of the world. Given they are already at risk, Anderson said the loss of pregnant females and their babies could prove devastating to the population.

And sharks aren’t the only ones that could feel the ripple effects of this change. The rulers of the deep maintain the balance of the underwater ecosystem by keeping smaller predator populations in check and adding vital nutrients to shallow waters. 

“Humans heavily rely on oceans for food and many other things and the oceans need healthy shark populations,” Anderson said. 

The Star Wars Jedi series has been pretty popular since it debuted back in 2019, and the coming installment of the third game is likely to show just as much promise as the first two games in the series. It’s also reportedly going to be the last game in the series, according to EA. The publishing company has confirmed that a third installment of Star Wars Jedi, said to be a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is in the works.

EA has also confirmed that this third game will be the “final chapter” making this a trilogy. The first two games and the third installment in the series are all developed by Respawn Entertainment. The same development studio behind Titan Fall and Apex Legends.

While we don’t know how far along in development the game is, EA says that Respawn is already working on the game. The publishing company mentioned these details at its recent EA Investor Days conference. This took place on September 17 (via Insider Gaming and GameRant). Interestingly, EA’s conference was held on the same day Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released for the PS4 and Xbox One. It was originally released for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S back on April 28, 2023.

EA doesn’t mention any specifics about the third Star Wars Jedi game

With EA confirming a third game is in development, fans no doubt want to know everything they can about the game. When it’s coming, what the story will be, what new features will be included. All of that will no doubt come in time, but EA hasn’t shared any of those details as of yet. Nothing other than the fact that the game is in development was mentioned during the investor conference. The only thing that is probably safe to assume is that the series’ main character, Cal Kestis, will return to be the main playable character in the final game.

Will this new game come to PS4 and Xbox One as well?

It’s tough to say. It can’t be confirmed what platforms the game will be released on. Especially with EA sharing absolutely nothing about the game at this time. Since Jedi Survivor was released on PS4 and Xbox One, it’s certainly possible.

How likely it is will be another story. Even if it is released on PS4 and Xbox One, that may not happen right away. It could end up being more than a year after PC and current-gen consoles just like with Jedi Survivor. That’s even if the game releases this gen in the first place.