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MELBOURNE, Feb. 26 (UPI) — Researchers have 3-D printed everything from animal prosthetics and human teeth to whole cars, but now a university in Australia has tackled printing two jet engines. A group of researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University, in conjunction with Deakin University and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), used a large 3-D printer to manufacture the two engines.

[It would really be great if private entrepreneurs could develop this system! Musk is an innovator. Check out the videos in the article.] “Hyperloop moves closer to becoming reality.” Phil LeBeau@Lebeaucarnews (Hyperloop Transportation Technologies,Inc., says Elon Musk’s vision for the new transportation system is beginning to take hold. CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reports, and talks to Ahlborn about the 5-mile stretch to be tested in the next few years.) The Hyperloop, just an idea in the mind of Elon Musk two years ago, is moving closer to becoming reality. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed an agreement with a developer in central...

Most of the debate over the building of the nation's first bullet train, in California, has focused on the economics of such a monumental undertaking and its projected $68-billion first-phase price tag. Largely ignored amid the excitement over the railway's recent official groundbreaking is the physical impact and design challenges that cities will need to grapple with as they prepare for high-speed rail. California should look to rail systems across Europe to fully understand the challenge of building a transportation hub that connects to the community. To make the most of California's once-in-a-lifetime chance at building a thriving transportation network,...

The smoke surrounding rumors of an Apple-branded vehicle has begun to thicken, as a new report says that Apple is indeed working on an all-electric vehicle that would take the shape of a minivan, with a huge team tasked to the project. Apple has given the project codename "Titan," according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is said to have "several hundred" employees working in the group. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly green-lighted the project almost a year ago, and company executives have already begun to meet with potential contract manufacturers, including Canadian firm Magna Steyr. Apple iPod and...

Apple is recruiting experts in automotive technology and vehicle design to work at a new top-secret research lab, said several people familiar with the company, pointing to ambitions that go beyond the dashboard. Dozens of Apple employees, led by experienced managers from its iPhone unit, are researching automotive products at a confidential Silicon Valley location outside the company’s Cupertino campus, the people said. Sir Jonathan Ive’s team of Apple designers has held regular meetings with automotive executives and engineers in recent months, in some cases trying to hire them. Recent recruits to Apple’s team include the head of Mercedes-Benz’s Silicon...

31 car companies and counting. Apple is closing in on adding every major, or exotic, car manufacturer on the planet to their CarPlay solution. Third party makers such as Alpine and Pioneer are also making aftermarket CarPlay receivers. Kenwood said only months ago it really did not need CarPlay, but in early January at the Detroit Auto Show, Kenwood announced its forthcoming CarPlay decks, as did JVC. The four major aftermarket deck manufactures are now building for CarPlay. High-end smartphone market share was clearly going to shape which platforms auto makers would support, and Apple is dominating the U.S....

Go to the link for details, but herein I break it down for ya bruvva Introducing styluses Small iPads Large screen iPhones Lifelike-looking software/icons ("skeuomorphism") Restoring philanthropy

Against the interests of Michiganders, Governor Rick Snyder has signed a bill banning Tesla Motor’s direct-to-consumer automobile sales in the state.The original focus of House Bill 5606 was on determining how franchise-dealership fees are charged. Then, right before the vote, an amendment banning automobile sales directly to consumers was added by State Senator Joe Hune. This backhanded maneuver shielded the amendment from public comment and debate. Passed unanimously in the State Senate and with only one dissenting vote in the House, the “anti-Tesla bill” is an economic loss for Michigan. The state will miss out on tax revenue from sales...

Tesla Motors makes beautiful, quality electric automobiles. Don't just take it from us; Consumer Reports rated the Tesla Model S the "best overall" car in its 2014 Top Picks report (which includes all non-electric cars as well). Yet, despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk's ongoing effort to expand his EV empire, state after state in the United States is pushing back. Not because those states are against electronic vehicles, Musk or even Tesla; it's about the way Tesla wants to sell its cars. Specifically, it's about money. WHAT TESLA WANTS You know how Apple has stores where it sells its computers,...

an unlikely newcomer is getting top honors: the Tesla Model S.It’s the first electric car to win Motor Trend’s Car of the Year; an unprecedented 99 out of 100 rating from Consumer Reports; and now, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it’s also the safest car ever.But if the Model S really is the car of the future, then why has Texas banned its sales in the state and why are lawmakers in several other states trying to do the same? To answer that, first you need to meet Tesla CEO Elon Musk. He plans on opening 50...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The plural of anecdote is statistics. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. So take what I am about to say for whatever it is worth. Maybe nothing. I own some Tesla (TSLA) stock, after all, just so I can go to the annual shareholder meeting, get a free coffee and be my usual pest. You could argue that what I am about to present is the equivalent of saying, "I've never seen a non-Apple (AAPL) tablet out in the wild, so therefore..." -- and you would be right. But people are still justifying this kind...

After opening several stores without much pushback, Elon Musk's ambition to replicate the Apple experience in Tesla factory stores is now facing potential roadblocks. Dealer associations in a handful of states, and state regulators in at least one case, say Tesla's stores violate state franchise laws that prohibit factory ownership of dealerships. Electric-vehicle maker Tesla now operates 17 stores in 10 states and the District of Columbia, most in shopping malls. Another six are scheduled to open this fall. The protesting dealer associations say Tesla's factory-owned stores present unfair competition for rival dealerships, are inconvenient for consumers needing repairs and,...

SpaceX's recent attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean platform in Florida was unsuccessful, but there were no visuals to tell the full story — until now. The company CEO Elon Musk shared four images from the failed landing on Twitter, in a response to Oculus VR CTO and game developer legend John Carmack. SEE ALSO: SpaceX comes close, but fails to land rocket on ocean platform While the image quality is far from perfect, Musk's descriptions help explain what happened to the rocket during landing. Before impact, the rocket's fins ran out...

Inspired by a book and poster from 1995, titled “Rockets of the World,” graphic artist Tyler Skrabek has provided a new and updated “clean” look for his latest work. ... He wanted an uncluttered look for his poster, and therefore used a set of rules to eliminate some rockets: The Rocket had to have more than 3 successful flights and each rocket had to be unique – no later versions from the same rocket family, such as the Soyuz. Also, rocket wannabes didn’t make the cut … not yet anyway. “Just to keep things tidy I choose not to include...

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. While it's certainly impressive that Elon Musk has bachelor's degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, it's an absurd understatement to say that prepared him to run SpaceX, his spacecraft company. Jim Cantrell, who was an aerospace consultant at the time, became SpaceX's first VP of business development and Musk's industry mentor when the company launched in 2002. He says that Musk literally taught himself rocket science by reading textbooks and talking to industry heavyweights.

SpaceX released video today of another successful soft landing of its Falcon 9 rocket, this time in the Atlantic Ocean. The test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able to consistently reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity. After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but SpaceX received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. The company says it is...

Hey, remember Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the guy who threw needless layers of bureaucracy at SpaceX because the private space company was doing its job of launching rockets into space a little too well? Well, it looks like he’s being joined by gentlemen from the other side of the Capitol: Three congressmen are trying to do the same thing.

Donations to key lawmakers wine-and-dined by its lobbyists earn commercial spaceflight company millions in subsidies Shortly before a private spaceflight company’s test rocket exploded over southern Texas last weekend, state lawmakers announced millions in subsidies to get the company to continue launching rockets in the Lone Star State. Space Exploration Technologies, commonly known as SpaceX, will receive more than $15 million in public financing to build a launch pad in Cameron County, near the Mexican border. The subsidies came after SpaceX’s founder, billionaire tech mogul and pop technologist Elon Musk, made campaign contributions to key state lawmakers and hired lobbyists...

After a hiatus of six long years, US astronauts will finally launch to space in a revolutionary new pair of private crew capsules under development by Boeing and SpaceX, starting in 2017, that will end our sole source reliance on the Russians for launching our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Two years from now, crews will start flying to space aboard the first US commercial spaceships, launching atop US rockets from US soil, said officials from Boeing, SpaceX and NASA at a joint news conference on Monday, Jan. 26. The human rated spaceships – also known as ‘space...

This is not how you design a rocket : ESA Ministerial Meeting Seeking a defense against the market disruption being wrought by SpaceX and its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, European space ministers voted yesterday to formally endorse the Ariane 6 project. The move came after Germany dropped its long running call to proceed with the Ariane V ME before moving on to a new booster. Hours after the meeting, the new industry partnership Airbus Safran, which will build the new booster, was formally announced. The Ariane 6 will come in two configurations. Both will feature a cryogenic two...

SpaceX is counting down to liftoff Saturday of a Falcon 9 rocket with a commercial cargo craft heading for the International Space Station after engineers replaced a component in an upper stage steering system that grounded the launcher Tuesday. Launch of the 208-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for 4:47:07 a.m. EST (0947:07 GMT). The mission has just one second to blast off Saturday or else wait for another opportunity to fly Tuesday. The tight launch windows are required for SpaceX’s Dragon supply ship to reach the International Space Station with more than 2.5 tons of supplies and experiments. A...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was lifted upright on Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad Monday after workers loaded time-sensitive supplies and research specimens into the Dragon cargo craft’s pressurized cabin. More than 3,700 pounds of gear will be delivered to the International Space Station on the mission. The 208-foot-tall rocket is set for liftoff Tuesday at 6:20 a.m. EST (1120 GMT).

Today, NASA selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX is deeply honored by the trust NASA has placed in us, and we welcome today’s decision and the mission it advances with gratitude and seriousness of purpose. Under the $2.6 billion contract, SpaceX will launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

6 days ago At 9:21am ET, Dragon is fully attached to the ISS, its home for the next four weeks. Astronauts will now prepare to open Dragon's hatch to unload cargo, including materials to support more than 255 science experiments.

It was a surreal moment, listening to the founder and chief designer of SpaceX talk about flying to Mars from Boca Chica beach, but talk about it he did at the Sept. 22 official groundbreaking for the world’s first commercial orbital rocket launch site. From the stage, under a tent set up for the occasion near the actual site where the launch pad will be built, Elon Musk fielded questions from reporters, who couldn’t have been blamed for not quite believing what they were hearing at certain junctures. “I’d like to fly to Mars,” Musk said. “But I think the...

Explanation: Taken from an Atlantic beach, Cape Canaveral, planet Earth, four identically framed digital images are combined in this night skyscape. Slightly shifted short star trails dot the sky, but the exposure times were adjusted to follow the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket. The September 21 launch delivered a Dragon X capsule filled with supplies to the International Space Station. Above the bright flare seen just after launch, the rocket's first stage firing trails upward from the left. After separation, the second stage burn begins near center with the vehicle climbing toward low Earth orbit. At the horizon, the...

The International Space Station is ready to receive more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments packed inside a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Saturday. Ground crews loaded last-minute supplies, including a habitat with 20 mice, sensitive research specimens, and other gear, into the Dragon capsule's pressurized cargo cabin Friday before hoisting the Falcon 9 rocket vertical at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad. The cargo's installation Friday set the stage for a final countdown leading to an instantaneous launch opportunity at 2:14 a.m. EDT (0614 GMT), roughly the moment Earth's rotation puts Cape...

SpaceX appears to have completed an evaluation into potential commonality between a failure on a test vehicle and its Falcon 9 fleet, following its now-approved request to the Eastern Range for a Saturday morning launch of the ASIASAT-6 mission. The launch, to be conducted by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, was delayed just ahead of fueling last week, in order to triple-check its fault detection systems. ASAISAT-6 Mission: Last week’s launch appeared to be going ahead as planned, as the SpaceX team entered the Delta Launch Readiness Review (LRR). The initial LRR had cleared the flow to proceed towards rollout...

SpaceX has delayed the launch of its latest Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket – tasked with lofting the ASIASAT-6 satellite into orbit – for at least several days. The call was made by CEO Elon Musk shortly after the rocket had been erected at her Space Launch Complex -40 (SLC-40) pad, with the rationale based on giving the team more time to evaluate the health of the launch vehicle. Falcon 9 Delay: No specific reasons have been provided as to why the call was made, although engineers had been working on a helium leak throughout the past 24 hours or so,...

Falcon 9 First Stage Reentry Footage from Plane Following the successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This footage is from a chase plane filming the decent of the first stage back to earth. Towards the end of the video, the camera operator attempted to zoom in and unfortunately lost sight of the stage and was unable to capture the tip over into the water.

In July 2014, the private space company's Falcon 9 rocket launched six ORBCOMM OG2 satellites. It also tested its reusable first stage technology. A chase plane was on hand to capture some of its fall through the atmosphere and the last few seconds before splashdown.

A Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Tuesday, continuing a jam-packed sequences of launches by SpaceX for commercial and government customers after a slow start to the year. The 22-story rocket will loft the AsiaSat 8 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, a drop-off point for most large telecom payloads heading for operating posts 22,300 miles over the equator. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad is set for 1:25 a.m. EDT (0525 GMT). The launch window extends until 4:11 a.m. EDT (0811 GMT). Forecasters predict generally favorable weather, with a 30 percent chance...

Rocket: Falcon 9 v1.1 Payload: Orbcomm OG2 F1 (6 satellites) Launch date: Sunday, June 22, 2014 Launch time: 5:24 p.m. EDT/2:24 p.m. PDT (2124 GMT) Launch window: 54 minutes Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral, Florida Live launch coverage: At the link or watch it here http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ Delayed (from September, November, April 30, May 10, 27, June 11, 12, 15, and June 20, 21) several times by SpaceX due to a first stage helium leak and Orbcomm due to a potential defect in one of their satellites. On June 20th a launch attempt was scrubbed due to a fluctuation in pressure readings...

Striving to be ready for an onslaught of launches under contract over the next few years, SpaceX plans to double the launcher production rate in its Southern California factory before the end of the year without compromising its commitments to develop a human-rated commercial spaceship, demonstrate rocket reusability, and further cut the cost of space transportation. "We need to meet our cadence of launch," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, at a discussion Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington. "It's about one a month this year, and it's almost two a month next year." While SpaceX tries to manage...

SpaceX’s ocean-going rocket landing pad — dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship — is back in port after a Falcon 9 rocket booster crashed on the platform during an experimental flyback maneuver following Saturday’s successful liftoff with supplies for the International Space Station. Under tow from a tugboat, the 300-foot-long Marmac 300 cargo barge arrived at the Port of Jacksonville in Florida on Sunday afternoon. The images below show it in the St. Johns River near Dames Point Bridge. The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket completed a series of maneuvers to fly back to the barge from the...

San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes flat—that was the dream of the Hyperloop. Back in 2013, Elon Musk introduced the world to this dream a 60 page white paper. The paper caused a stir. The idea—a levitating, solar-power supersonic train—was both pure geek porn and a transportation revolution in the making. It definitely captured people’s imagination. But would it ever get made—now that was the question. Musk himself said he was too busy to take on the project, but if other people wanted in on the cause, well, that was just fine with him. As it turns out,...

NASA's picture-perfect Orion launch to Mars was all the rage last week. Praise was heaped upon key NASA contractors Boeing (NYSE: BA ) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) -- and deservedly so. Between Orion's success, and the companies' announcement that their United Launch Alliance joint venture will develope a "next-generation liquid oxygen/hydrocarbon first stage" rocket to power launches to near-Earth orbit, Boeing and Lockheed are on a hot streak. But amid all the hullaballoo at ULA, you might have forgotten there's another space launch company that is building even more innovative products. Its name is SpaceX. It goes up,...

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. —Never mind rocket launches -- the first rocket landing in Space Coast history is a couple of weeks away, if things work out. SpaceX is expected to announce this week that the company is bringing in a revolutionary ocean-going landing pad for its next launch. Looking down the side of the SpaceX rocket, there are landing legs sticking out, and a set of fins – that look a little like tennis racquets – pop out. They’ll guide the rocket as it flies backwards – down, not up – to a perfectly placed landing at the test site....

Elon Musk spoke at the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's 2014 Centennial celebration. The October 22-24 Centennial Symposium featuring some of the most illustrious names in aerospace reflecting on past achievement, celebrating today’s innovative research and education, and offering their perspectives on what lies ahead. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his company will make a first attempt to land the booster stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform during the upcoming ISS resupply mission. If the attempt is successful, the company plans to refurbish and reuse the booster stage, making spaceflight history and paving the way for...

An Orbital Sciences rocket operating under a NASA contract exploded shortly after launch on Tuesday evening, much to everyone's surprise — except, perhaps, Elon Musk. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, trashed Orbital Sciences for using outdated Russian engines during a 2012 Wired interview: "One of our competitors, Orbital Sciences, has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, and their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the ’60s. I don’t mean their design is from the ’60s—I mean they start with engines that were literally made in...

Why Tesla's Next Big Thing Could Flip the Auto Industry Upside Down By Daniel Sparks | More Articles | Save For Later October 5, 2014 | Comments (10) Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA  ) is calling it the Gigafactory. The electric-car maker estimates that the $5 billion factory will boast lithium-ion battery production that by 2020 will exceed the entire world's 2013 lithium-ion battery production. The factory, Tesla says, is necessary for the company to bring the economies of scale to batteries that will enable Tesla to launch an electric vehicle at half the price of its Model S by 2017, one...

As drivers Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost approached one of the final turns, Prost — attempting to prevent Heidfeld from taking the lead — collided with him, sending Heidfeld's car flying over one of the track dividers. Luckily, Heidfeld emerged from the crash looking mostly no worse for wear. But he immediately rushed over to confront Prost on the track, proving that the dangerous racing tradition of on-track bluster continues, despite last month's tragic accident involving Tony Stewart. "I have a small pain in my calf," Heidfeld said in a statement on the Formula E website. "But apart from that,...

Nevada looks to be the winner for Tesla Motors’ (TSLA) new $5 billion battery factory, but the win comes at a cost for state taxpayers. Tesla is seeking up to $3 billion in new tax breaks to help fund about half of its cost for the new battery factory, which Tesla has already disclosed in regulatory filings would be located outside Reno, Nev., about 235 miles from its auto assembly plant in the San Francisco Bay area. “The total capital expenditures associated with the gigafactory through 2020 are expected to be $4-5 billion (sic), of which approximately $2 billion is...

Only a year after Tesla Motors and CEOElon Musk extracted themselvesfrom the $465-million taxpayerstimulus loan that brought critical scrutiny to the company’s performance, the electric automaker has once again put itself under the spotlight that comes with taking government corporate welfare. Today the company will announce its plans to build a battery manufacturing plant near Reno . The new gambit was the culmination of competition that pitted at least five states against one another for the “privilege” of hosting Tesla’s “Gigafactory” – named so because of the amount of stored power they plan to produce. Cost to build the...

From the start, little has been typical about Tesla Motors' plan for a $5 billion factory to make batteries for a new generation of electric cars. It's not just the project's massive scale, the cutting-edge technology, or even the bonanza of 6,500 good-paying jobs. It's how Tesla is deciding where to build. Through a series of unusual plays, Tesla has five states bidding up subsidy packages to land the coveted plant. The winner is expected to offer the luxury car-maker publicly financed incentives exceeding a half-billion dollars.

No injuries are reported after a SpaceX rocket prototype detonated in Texas today (Aug. 22) after an anomaly was found in the rocket, the company said in a statement. The Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) — a successor to the Grasshopper vertical take-off and landing rocket — was completing the latest in a series of ambitious tests that previously saw the prototype successfully testing new steerable fins. “Today’s test was particularly complex, pushing the limits of the vehicle further than any previous test,” SpaceX said in a statement (which you can read in full below the jump.) “As is our practice,...

Texas is offering more than $15 million in incentives to bring SpaceX's commercial rocket launch facility and 300 jobs to the Brownsville area. Gov. Rick Perry announced the incentive package Monday for the project that is expected to bring $85 million in capital investment to the state. "Texas has been on the forefront of our nation's space exploration efforts for decades so it is fitting that SpaceX has chosen our state as they expand the frontiers of commercial space flight," Perry said in a statement. "In addition to growing the aerospace industry in Texas, SpaceX's facility will provide myriad opportunities...

Lawmakers and top military officials on Wednesday expressed fears that friction with Russia could someday leave the United States without the power to launch rockets into space. Reliance on a single Russian engine to launch many critical military satellites could come back to haunt the U.S., officials said, if tensions between the two nations continue to rise. “If you consider space a national security priority, then you absolutely have to consider assured access to space a national security priority,” Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force’s space command, testified in a joint Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. “Given that...

NLPC has extensively documented howTesla Motors has taken advantage of market distortions to reap revenues – including government mandates, subsidies, and taxpayer support – not the least of which have been so-called “zero emission credits” from the state of California. But much of the revenue Tesla enjoyed last year – which often meant the difference between profit and loss – was credited based upon theoreticaltechnological capabilities and not ones actually put into practice. CEO Elon Musk has also relied on accounting gimmicks to enhance his bottom line over the last 18 months, during which a couple of quarterly earnings...

Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas is out with an awesome and slightly hilarious note in which he argues Tesla is now, maybe, the most important car company in the world. "Not even two years after the delivery of the first Model S, Tesla Motors has transformed from fledgling start-up to arguably the most important car company in the world. We are not joking."