November 3, 2018

Elon Musk Went on Firing Spree Over Slow Satellite Broadband Progress (Source: Ars Technica)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently "fired at least seven" managers in order to speed up development and testing of satellites that could provide broadband around the world, Reuters reported today. SpaceX denied parts of the story, saying that some of those managers left of their own accord and that the firings happened over a longer period of time than Reuters claimed.

SpaceX has Federal Communications Commission approval to launch 4,425 low-Earth orbit satellites between 2019 and 2027 in a bid to compete against cable and fiber ISPs and to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas. SpaceX is also seeking FCC approval of another 7,518 satellites. SpaceX's "goal of having Internet service available in 2020 is 'pretty much on target' with an initial satellite launch by mid-2019," one of Reuters' sources said.

But Musk apparently concluded that keeping the Starlink project on schedule required a management shakeup. In June, Musk flew to the Seattle area for meetings with engineers who were leading the satellite project. Musk had fired at least seven members of the program's senior management team at the Redmond, Washington, office, the culmination of disagreements over the pace at which the team was developing and testing its Starlink satellites. (10/31)

Scientists Create Rare Fifth Form of Matter in Space for the First Time Ever (Source: Live Science)
For a few minutes on Jan. 23, 2017, the coldest spot in the known universe was a tiny microchip hovering 150 miles over Kiruna, Sweden. The chip was small — about the size of a postage stamp — and loaded with thousands of tightly-packed rubidium-87 atoms. Scientists launched that chip into space aboard an unpiloted, 40-foot-long rocket, then bombarded it with lasers until the atoms inside it cooled to minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit — a fraction of a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature in nature.

While the rocket bobbed in low gravity for the following 6 minutes, scientists were given a rare opportunity to study in-depth the weirdest, least-understood state of matter in the universe — the Bose-Einstein condensate. For the first time ever, scientists had created one in space.

Unlike the other four states of matter (solids, liquids, gases and plasmas), Bose-Einstein condensates can form only when clouds of gassy atoms cool to within a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero. When groups of atoms are cooled to such unfathomably low temperatures, they stop moving as individuals and meld into one big "super atom." (11/2)