Though it hasnt always been the case in the past, recent years have been particularly kind to fans of horror games, and it doesnt look like thats going to change anytime soon. Looking ahead at 2025 and beyond, theres a long list of spooky titles that are looking truly promising, that we cant wait to get our hands on. As we charge headfirst into the new year then, here, were going to speak about a few such horror games worth keeping an eye on. Keep in mind that for the purposes of this feature, were sticking exclusively to games that have been officially announced.SILENT HILL fSilent Hillenjoyed a spectacular revival in 2024 with theSilent Hill 2remake, and with that now in our rearview mirror, all attention now turns to whats next for the franchise.Silent Hill f,the series next mainline entry, was announced at the same time as the aforementioned remake, but little is known about it so far, other than the fact that its set in a town in Japan, and is being co-developed by NeoBards Entertainment. Hopefully Konami will have new details to share on the title in the near future.

The billionaire space race entered a new phase today when Jeff Bezos Blue Origin successfully launched its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket into space from Cape Canaveral in Florida.At 2:03AM ET on Thursday morning, New Glenns seven reusable BE-4 engines ignited to propel the NG-1 rocket into space, with the second stage and payload reaching medium Earth orbit to achieve Blue Origins primary mission goal. In parallel, the first stage booster dubbed, So Youre Telling Me Theres A Chance autonomously descended to its landing platform located several hundred miles downrange in the Atlantic. As it approached the Jacklyn barge, the booster lost contact with control and stopped sending data. Blue Origin confirmed that the booster was lost during landing.Blue Origins goal for todays uncrewed launch was for New Glenn to reach orbit. Anything beyond that would be a bonus like activating a prototype of the Blue Ring Pathfinder payload vehicle or landing the reusable booster. No matter what, we will learn a lot,said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limpahead of todays launch.Todays flight profile. Success meant launching into orbit, everything else was a bonus. Image: Blue OriginThe launch comes after almost a decade of development and puts Elon Musks SpaceX on notice. New Glenn has about the same carrying capacity as SpaceXs Falcon Heavy, and is meant to shuttle cargo into space on the reusable launch platform. This includes satellites for Blue Origins rival to Starlinks constellation of high-speed low-latency internet service. The first of these 3,236 Project Kuiper satellites are expected to launch into low Earth orbit soon, aboard SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket before New Glenn can take over the heavy lifting.

The study of artificial intelligence has witnessed transformative developments in reasoning and understanding complex tasks. The most innovative developments are large language models (LLMs) and multimodal large language models (MLLMs). These systems can process textual and visual data, allowing them to analyze intricate tasks. Unlike traditional approaches that base their reasoning skills on verbal means, multimodal systems attempt to mimic human cognition by combining textual reasoning with visual thinking and, therefore, could be used more effectively to solve more varied challenges.The problem so far is that these models cannot interlink textual and visual reasoning together in dynamic environments. Models developed for reasoning perform well on text-based or image-based inputs but cannot execute simultaneously when both are input. Spatial reasoning tasks like maze navigation or the interpretation of dynamic layouts show weaknesses in these models. Integrated reasoning capabilities cannot be catered to within these models. Thus, it creates limitations in the models adaptability and interpretability, especially where the task is to understand and manipulate visual patterns and the instructions given in words.Several approaches have been proposed to deal with these issues. Chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting improves reasoning by producing step-by-step textual traces. It is inherently text-based and does not handle tasks requiring spatial understanding. Other approaches are visual input methods through external tools such as image captioning or scene graph generation, allowing models to process visual and textual data. While effective to some extent, these methods rely heavily on separate visual modules, making them less flexible and prone to errors in complex tasks.Researchers from Microsoft Research, the University of Cambridge, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced the Multimodal Visualization-of-Thought (MVoT) framework to address these limitations. This novel reasoning paradigm enables models to generate visual reasoning traces interleaved with verbal ones, offering an integrated approach to multimodal reasoning. MVoT embeds visual thinking capabilities directly into the models architecture, thus eliminating the dependency on external tools making it a more cohesive solution for complex reasoning tasks.Using Chameleon-7B, an autoregressive MLLM fine-tuned for multimodal reasoning tasks, the researchers implemented MVoT. This method involves token discrepancy loss to close the representational gap between text and image tokenization processes for outputting quality visuals. MVoT processes multimodal inputs step-by-step through creating verbal and visual reasoning traces. For instance, in spatial tasks such as maze navigation, the model produces intermediate visualizations corresponding to the reasoning steps, enhancing both its interpretability and performance. This native visual reasoning capability, integrated into the framework, makes it more similar to human cognition, thus providing a more intuitive approach to understanding and solving complex tasks.MVoT outperformed the state-of-the-art models in extensive experiments on multiple spatial reasoning tasks, including MAZE, MINI BEHAVIOR, and FROZEN LAKE. The framework reached a high accuracy of 92.95% on maze navigation tasks, which surpasses traditional CoT methods. In the MINI BEHAVIOR task that requires understanding interaction with spatial layouts, MVoT reached an accuracy of 95.14%, demonstrating its applicability in dynamic environments. In the FROZEN LAKE task, which is well-known for being complex due to fine-grained spatial details, MVoTs robustness reached an accuracy of 85.60%, surpassing CoT and other baselines. MVoT consistently improved in challenging scenarios, especially those involving intricate visual patterns and spatial reasoning.In addition to performance metrics, MVoT showed improved interpretability by generating visual thought traces that complement verbal reasoning. This capability allowed users to follow the models reasoning process visually, making it easier to understand and verify its conclusions. Unlike CoT, based only on the textual description, MVoTs multimodal reasoning approach reduced errors caused by poor textual representation. For example, in the FROZEN LAKE task, MVoT sustained stable performance at increased complexity concerning its environment, thereby demonstrating robustness and reliability.This study, therefore, redefines the scope of reasoning capabilities of artificial intelligence with MVoT by integrating text and vision into reasoning tasks. Using token discrepancy loss ensures visual reasoning aligns seamlessly with textual processing. This will bridge the critical gap in current methods. Superior performance and better interpretability will mark MVoT as a landmark step toward multimodal reasoning that can open doors to more complex and challenging AI systems in real-world scenarios.Check out the Paper. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit.(Promoted) Nikhil+ postsNikhil is an intern consultant at Marktechpost. He is pursuing an integrated dual degree in Materials at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Nikhil is an AI/ML enthusiast who is always researching applications in fields like biomaterials and biomedical science. With a strong background in Material Science, he is exploring new advancements and creating opportunities to contribute. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

While the big tech show of the year focuses on, well, the tech industry, gaming is also a large part of what CES has to offer. From the headliners like Nvidias new RTX 5000-series GPUs to speculative gear like Nintendo Switch 2 mock-ups from accessory makers, CES 2025 had plenty to get excited about. We were at the show this year to check out everything gaming related and these are the things to get excited about for the future of gaming.Nvidia RTX 5000-series GPUsOne of the headliners of CES 2025 was Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang kicked off the keynote by revealing the next generation of GPUs to power PC gaming the GeForce RTX 5000-series. The new line of desktop video cards includes the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 for now. Of course, we expect performance gains across the board with the better specs (including GDDR7 memory), but along with the cards comes DLSS 4.0 and improved multi-frame generation to boost frame rates significantly without sacrificing visual quality while also making room for better ray tracing techniques.As expected, Nvidia also revealed the mobile versions of the RTX 5000-series GPUs which well see in gaming laptops starting in Q1 2025. We saw one in particular running the RTX 5090 the Razer Blade 16. So, it wont be long until we see the new crop of gaming laptops hitting stores.Both the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 will be released on January 30 for $1999 and $999, respectively. Well keep you posted on the actual availability of the new RTX cards once they launch and will have in-depth reviews when the time comes.Black State: A New Game Showcasing Nvidias Graphics TechPlayWe were able to see the upcoming third-person shooter called Black State at Gamescom 2024, but we went hands-on with a new alpha build of the game during the Nvidia Editors Day. It was used to showcase the performance of the upcoming RTX 5090 along with the benefits of DLSS, frame generation, and a full suite of ray tracing all working simultaneously. Black State is built on Unreal Engine 5 and was able to run upwards of 200+ fps at 4K, even hitting 300 fps at certain points based on in-game performance metrics.Other than it being a technical showcase, Black State had solid shooting mechanics and features a cover system as youll end up in intense firefights in its contemporary sci-fi world. The catch with Black State is its portal system where certain doors lead to completely different worlds each time you open and close a portal door and its able to do this without any loading times. Although the developers werent able to share any details about the story, they did say that the portal system has a narrative purpose.AMD RX 9070 Video Card BenchmarkedNvidia isnt going unchallenged when it comes to new GPUs as AMD also revealed a new line of graphics cards. While the newly released Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Ryzen 9 9950X3D show AMD taking charge of high-end CPUs, its the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT thatll compete with Nvidias mid-to-high level GPUs. Funny enough, we were able to test out the RX 9070 for ourselves at CES 2025 with machines running Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Of course, we werent able to run comparative benchmarks, rather we saw what it was capable of on the spot and the RX 9070s results were impressive.You can expect the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 to launch sometime in Q1 2025, and when that time comes, well be sure to keep you posted on availability and performance with our reviews and benchmarks.Project Ava: Razers AI Game CoachRazer always has some wild piece of tech in a prototype phase to show off at CES, but it has recently showcased more practical concepts that intend to hit the market. The most interesting thing Razer was showing at CES 2025 was Project Ava an in-game AI assistant that analyzes your performance and coaches you, providing advice and suggested actions to take. We saw it being used live with a MOBA, and its intended to be akin to having an esports coach guide you through a competitive game. We asked about the ethical implications and Razer stated that Project Ava will work within the bounds of each games terms of service and will not provide players with information about probability or factors that arent readily apparent to the player. It will also provide post-match analysis to break down your performance with what you did right, what you did wrong, and how to improve.It will also work for single-player games, and we saw it in action with Black Myth: Wukong against the Yin Tiger. Project Ava gave information about a bosss moveset before the fight and told the player about visual cues, attack windows, and phase changes during the boss fight. Each time Project Ava was activated for an inquiry, we heard the server machine running it spin up fast, and like many AI applications, its a resource hog (though it doesnt seem to be so for your local machine). Project Ava is planned to go into beta sometime this year.Steam Deck Competitors GaloreIt seems like every company thats made gaming laptops has branched into handheld gaming PCs (ala the Steam Deck) to varying degrees of success. While the Asus ROG Ally has been at the top of the Steam Deck competitors, others such as Lenovo and MSI have dipped their toes in the market and we saw revamped versions of their handhelds at CES 2025.While the updated Lenovo Legion Go might be the flagship of the companys handhelds, its the slightly more compact Legion Go S thats making the bigger splash. Thats because you can get a model of the Legion Go S that runs SteamOS as opposed to the standard Windows 11 that other handhelds use. Its a big deal since this is the first time were seeing SteamOS running on a non-Valve handheld, which some prefer over Windows because its user friendly, stable, and built for running games properly (although you would be primarily tied to your Steam library of games). We got our hands on the Legion Go S and came away optimistic about its performance and pricing. Several SKUs will roll out this year starting with one running the Z1 Extreme processor coming out soon and another model with the upcoming and improved Z2 processor sometime in May.Nintendo Switch 2 Mock-UpsContinuing on the handheld gaming train is the not-so-official mockups of the Nintendo Switch successor, which well just call Switch 2 for simplicitys sake. Accessory maker Genki had physical shells of whats presumably the Switch 2 on display at CES 2025 and we were able to check them out at the show. From appearances, it seems to be very similar to the original Switch with some slight changes, but one of the most notable differences is its size. Based on the unofficial mockup, the Switch 2 appears to measure at 10.5" wide, 4.5" tall, .5" thick and with an 8" screen. the current Switch OLED model, which is 9.5" wide, 4" tall, .5" thick, and has a 7" screen. Were sure to know more about the Switch 2 from Nintendo itself soon, and when that time comes, well be here to report on it.Hyperkins PS5-Style Xbox/PC ControllerHave you ever wanted to use a PlayStation DualSense on an Xbox? Okay, maybe not, but you can get really close with Hyperkins upcoming Xbox and PC controller called The Competitor. It borrows a lot from the DualSenses design philosophy symmetrical stick placement, similar bumper and triggers, familiar ergonomics, and the two-tone color scheme. The Competitor also has two programmable back buttons and features Hall Effect sticks and triggers for better reliability and durability.We had the chance to use The Competitor at CES 2025 and was impressed with its overall feel and performance. The back buttons are placed just right and the Hall Effect sticks were smooth and accurate. It does feel similar to a DualSense, but since its a wired-only controller and doesnt have the state-of-the-art features (haptics, motion controls, touchpad) of the DualSense, its much lighter. Hyperkin said its geared more towards PC gamers (and those who may have moved to PC for Game Pass) who prefer the PS5-style gamepad but want something that has wider native compatibility on WIndows (via Xinput).Corsairs Origin Arachnid Gaming PCOrigin PC has been known for fancy pre-built gaming PCs (that often come in special crates upon delivery). Now that its under the Corsair umbrella, we were able to see its latest extravagant build called the Arachnid. Its a huge fully aluminum open-air case that takes on a spider-like design motif (hence, the name) with pumps and reservoirs for liquid cooling. Its intended to be a high-end PC so itll be outfitted with the latest Nvidia RTX video cards and Intel/AMD CPUs, depending on your configuration. Itll be available sometime in Q1 2025.Project Arielle: Razers Chair with Built-In Hot-Cold FansAnother one of Razers concepts was Project Arielle, a mesh gaming chair with built-in bladeless fans that can blast warm or cool air. While things like the new Blade laptop with an RTX 5090 or the universal handheld PC dock are more practical products in Razers suite, trying out this new chair was a standout at CES 2025.The fans built into the chair are lined with Were not sure how effective something like Project Arielle will be in the long-run and how practical itll be as an everyday office or gaming chair, but it sure is a unique idea.

Jan 16, 2025Ravie LakshmananEndpoint Security / RansomwareCybersecurity researchers have detailed an attack that involved a threat actor utilizing a Python-based backdoor to maintain persistent access to compromised endpoints and then leveraged this access to deploy the RansomHub ransomware throughout the target network.According to GuidePoint Security, initial access is said to have been facilitated by means of a JavaScript malware downloaded named SocGholish (aka FakeUpdates), which is known to be distributed via drive-by campaigns that trick unsuspecting users into downloading bogus web browser updates.Such attacks commonly involve the use of legitimate-but-infected websites that victims are redirected to from search engine results using black hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. Upon execution, SocGholish establishes contact with an attacker-controlled server to retrieve secondary payloads.As recently as last year, SocGholish campaigns have targeted WordPress sites relying on outdated versions of popular SEO plugins such as Yoast (CVE-2024-4984, CVSS score: 6.4) and Rank Math PRO (CVE-2024-3665, CVSS score: 6.4) for initial access.In the incident investigated by GuidePoint Security, the Python backdoor was found to be dropped about 20 minutes after the initial infection via SocGholish. The threat actor then proceeded to deliver the backdoor to other machines located in the same network during lateral movement via RDP sessions."Functionally, the script is a reverse proxy that connects to a hard-coded IP address. Once the script has passed the initial command-and-control (C2) handshake, it establishes a tunnel that is heavily based on the SOCKS5 protocol," security researcher Andrew Nelson said."This tunnel allows the threat actor to move laterally in the compromised network using the victim system as a proxy."The Python script, an earlier version of which was documented by ReliaQuest in February 2024, has been detected in the wild since early December 2023, while undergoing "surface-level changes" that are aimed at improving the obfuscation methods used to to avoid detection.GuidePoint also noted that the decoded script is both polished and well-written, indicating that the malware author is either meticulous about maintaining a highly readable and testable Python code or is relying on artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist with the coding task."With the exception of local variable obfuscation, the code is broken down into distinct classes with highly descriptive method names and variables," Nelson added. "Each method also has a high degree of error handling and verbose debug messages."The Python-based backdoor is far from the only precursor detected in ransomware attacks. As highlighted by Halcyon earlier this month, some of the other tools deployed prior to ransomware deployment include those responsible for -Disabling Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions using EDRSilencer and BackstabStealing credentials using LaZagneCompromising email accounts by brute-forcing credentials using MailBruterMaintaining stealthy access and delivering additional payloads using Sirefef and MediyesRansomware campaigns have also been observed targeting Amazon S3 buckets by leveraging Amazon Web Services' Server-Side Encryption with Customer Provided Keys (SSE-C) to encrypt victim data. The activity has been attributed to a threat actor dubbed Codefinger.Besides preventing recovery without their generated key, the attacks employ urgent ransom tactics wherein the files are marked for deletion within seven days via the S3 Object Lifecycle Management API to pressurize victims into paying up."Threat actor Codefinger abuses publicly disclosed AWS keys with permissions to write and read S3 objects," Halcyon said. "By utilizing AWS native services, they achieve encryption in a way that is both secure and unrecoverable without their cooperation."The development comes as SlashNext said it has witnessed a surge in "rapid-fire" phishing campaigns mimicking the Black Basta ransomware crew's email bombing technique to flood victims' inboxes with over 1,100 legitimate messages related to newsletters or payment notices."Then, when people feel overwhelmed, the attackers swoop in via phone calls or Microsoft Teams messages, posing as company tech support with a simple fix," the company said."They speak with confidence to gain trust, directing users to install remote-access software like TeamViewer or AnyDesk. Once that software is on a device, attackers slip in quietly. From there, they can spread harmful programs or sneak into other areas of the network, clearing a path straight to sensitive data."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Time zones: EST (UTC -5), CST (UTC -6), MST (UTC -7), PST (UTC -8), AKST (UTC -9), HST (UTC -10), ART (UTC -3), UTC -4, UTC -4:30, UTC -3, UTC -2Were hiring a customer service rep with excellent technical skills to answer our very small volume of customer requests. Weve worked hard to improve our customer experience, and so over time weve reduced our customer service needs. It only takes about five hours per week to respond to our customers emails.Your role would be to check the email twice a day (M-F) for about 30 minutes each time, once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening. We mostly take customer requests over email; theres only about one or two phone call per month.The key functions of this role are:Answering a few emails really well every dayReproducing bugs and writing up the problems for the development teamReporting on feedback and usability problemsThis role is a 1099 contract position, paying a flat rate of $800/month. This seems ideal for someone who wants some very part-time work, in addition to whatever else theyre already doing, or for someone who just wants something meaningful to work on.Id like to hire you if you:Are good with technology (were selling a web app)Want a flexible position to support your lifestyleEnjoy helping customers solve problemsEnglish is your first language and you live in North or South AmericaAnd we get along; to see the team youll be joining, visit our about us pageMy company is called Custody X Change. Ive been working on the business since 2004. We sell a web application that creates child custody schedules and parenting plans. It also helps families make difficult decisions post-divorce/separation, and facilities communication between two parents who may not get along very well anymore. All of this reduces a lot of conflict and saves people a ton of money in legal fees.If you want to help people use a genuinely helpful product, and join a small, distributed team, then we should talk.To apply, fill out the application here: https://forms.gle/QzunaG9bzbUhG3RbAThanks,BenP.S. We want everyone working here to be happy. Youll be evaluated based on results, not anything else.

Looking for the most recentregular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.Pretty sneaky,Connections: Sports Edition. As a Minnesota Wild fan, I saw that team name in there, and saw the category it could fit in (green). I also see that you set things up so that was a red herring, and it actually belonged in a different category. Read on for hints and answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle.For now, the game is in beta, which means the Times is testing it out to see if it's popular before adding it to the site's Games app. You can play it daily for now for free and then we'll have to see if it sticks around.Read more: NYT Has a Connections Game for Sports Fans. I Tried ItHints for today's Connections: Sports Edition groupsHere are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest, yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.Yellow group hint: They work together.Green group hint: Wild would be another answer.Blue group hint: Theme-park town.Purple group hint: Deal me in.Answers for today's Connections: Sports Edition groupsYellow group: Members of a staff.Green group: NHL teams with singular nicknames.Blue group: Orlando teams.Purple group: ____ card.Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English WordsWhat are today's Connections: Sports Edition answers? The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 16, 2025. NYT/Screenshot by CNETThe yellow words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is members of a staff. The four answers are coach, manager, scout and trainer.The green words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is NHL teams with singular nicknames. The four answers are Avalanche, Kraken, Lightning and Utah Hockey Club.The blue words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is Orlando teams. The four answers are Magic, Orlando City, Pride and UCF.The purple words in today's ConnectionsThe theme is ____ card. The four answers are lineup, trading, wild and yellow.

January 15, 20257 min readBlue Origins New Glenn Rocket Finally Takes FlightThe heavy-lift New Glenn rocket soared to success, reaching orbit on its highly anticipated inaugural flight but failing to land its booster on an ocean bargeBy Nadia Drake edited by Lee BillingsA Blue Origin New Glenn rocket is seen on the launch pad on Dec. 19, 2024, at Launch Complex-36 during a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the rocket's maiden flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoA few minutes after 2:00 A.M. EST, a hulking, 320-foot-tall rocket slipped its tethers at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and heaved itself into the sky on a bluish-white pillar of flame, briefly turning night into day along the eastern shore of Floridas Space Coast. About 8 minutes later, the rockets large, first-stage booster failed to stick its landing on a barge in the Atlanticnot exactly the desired outcome, but not unusual for the first attempt to land a booster upright.The early morning launch, a mission called NG-1, marks the inaugural flight of Blue Origins New Glenn rocketand the first orbital launch for the company, which was founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. With a successful maiden flight, New Glenn will become the newest reusable, heavy-lift rocket in the aerospace industrys arsenal, a tool that will increase launch capabilities, shake up the launch market and potentially catalyze big science with its power and its spacious fairing, the nose cone that protects a spacecrafts payload during launch.This rocket, with the goal of reusability and the overly large fairing, is a unique new addition that I think people are genuinely hopeful for, says Lori Garver, NASAs former deputy administrator.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.During her tenure at the space agency, Garver pushed it to invest in commercial launch services from companies such as Elon Musks SpaceX, which now hauls most of our spacefaring cargo into low-Earth orbit and beyond. But competition is healthy. It drives down prices while fueling innovation and improvement. Rockets are no exception. And now, as questions swirl around Musks role (and goals) in the incoming Trump administration, New Glenns entry into the launch market is under more scrutiny. With SpaceX and [Musks] notoriety, theres a lot of interest in a competitor coming up. And I think there will be heightened attention to this rocket because of that, Garver says. Theres a lot of hesitation to having all our eggs in one basket.Reusability Is the Future of LaunchToday SpaceX is arguably the primary launch provider for NASA and the U.S. military; its fleet of Falcon 9 rockets is also busy delivering the companys own Starlink communication satellites into orbit. But NASA is already counting on New Glenn, named after the late astronaut John Glenn, to deliver two spacecraft into orbit around Mars. And Blue Origin has other customers lined up, too, including AST SpaceMobile, Telesat and Amazon, which will eventually launch an orbital mega constellation (like Starlink) of more than 3,200 communication satellites, known as Project Kuiper.This is a big deal because were finding ourselves in this area where the demand for launch has not decreasedits actually increased tremendously, says Mike French of the Space Policy Group.Founded a quarter-century ago, Blue Origin envisions a future with millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Its mascot is a tortoisea nod to the slow and steady fabled competitor that ultimately triumphs over a speedier hare, which today is an obvious metaphor for SpaceX. Now, more than four years later than its anticipated launch, New Glenn has finally flown (although, for those keeping track, in 2015 Blue Origin became the first company to successfully launch and land a rocket with its New Shepard space vehicle).This inaugural flight is designed to test a rich cache of hardware: the rockets cargo-delivering upper stage, this time packed with a 45,000-pound payload demonstrator called Blue Ring Pathfinder, and the reusable first-stage booster, named So Youre Telling Me Theres a Chance. During the six-hour flight, Blue Origin personnel will thoroughly test the Pathfinders flight, communications and operational systems with a steady stream of information relayed between ground control and low-Earth orbit. After launch, the 230-foot-tall first-stage booster, powered by seven BE-4 engines that provide some 3.8 million pounds of thrust, attempted to land on Jacklyn, a barge in the Atlantic Ocean named for Bezoss mother. Of everything attempted this morning, nailing that landing was possibly the trickiest.We know landing the booster on the first time is ambitious, but you know what? Were going for it, Ariane Cornell, Blue Origins vice president of in-space systems, said during a launch webcast. You might even say were a little crazy to try it on the first flight, but the data we get for flying the complete mission profile is incredibly valuable.A successful landing is also the most crucial step toward realizing reusability akin to what SpaceX has already achieved with its rocketsBlue Origin has designed these boosters to fly at least 25 times.Reusability is the future of launch; thats how you get to lower costs, says Clay Mowry, CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a former Blue Origin executive.You dont fly an airplane and throw it away after one use, he says. I think [New Glenn] is going to be a hugely important event for the entire space industry. It brings a lot of capability to the heavy-lift end of the marketplace.Bigger Rockets, Bigger ScienceWhen it comes to big rockets, we tend to focus a lot on lift, Mowry says, but power is not the only thing that sets New Glenn apart. I think whats more extraordinary about that vehicle is the amount of volume it brings, he says, referring to the payload fairing that encapsulates cargo.At seven meters (23 feet) across, New Glenns fairing is the roomiest on the market. It doubles the volume provided by standard five-meter- (16.4-foot-) class rockets, such as the Falcon Heavy, United Launch Alliances Vulcan and the now-retired Ariane 5, which launched NASAs James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on December 25, 2021.I remember walking underneath [New Glenns payload fairing], and it was just such a huge space, and these engineers were standing there, like, My God, this thing is massive, Mowry says, recalling a visit to the companys production facility. I think its going to have an impact on their abilitymeaning the satellite operators and customersto deploy things they couldnt have dreamed of before. Like, for example, space telescopes.When JWST launched, it was folded like origami into the Ariane 5, where it was packed in as tightly as possible for a delicate telescope with a sun shield spanning 21 meters (68.9 feet) when fully unfurled. Over the course of many days, teams back home walked the instrument through a critical and complex deployment sequence involving 344 single points of failure. The use of larger rockets like New Glennand SpaceXs Starship, which is currently in developmentmay mean that future giant space telescopes wont need to achieve such fraught space-saving extremes. Instead, cavernous payload fairings could ignite a different level of thinking about what might be possible, from a space instrument perspective, says French, also a former NASA chief of staff. To the extent that we get so much out of space science, it will always be constrained somewhat by launch: What can we fit? How big is the box? French says. Theres such ingenuity, really just breakthroughs, on the technology side that allow us to have these breakthroughs on the scientific side. Its always so impressive to meet and talk to the people that live at that intersection.NASA denied multiple requests from Scientific American to talk with some of the agencys most visionary experts about how larger rockets might affect the science missions of the future. But already agency presentationsreference New Glenn (and Starship) in designs for the astrophysics flagship Habitable Worlds Observatory, a space telescope meant to look for signs of alien life on temperate Earth-size exoplanets around dozens of sunlike stars. Similarly, NASAs Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, a pair of spacecraft that will orbit Mars, were supposed to fly on New Glenns inaugural launch, had it occurred in October 2024 as planned.From a science perspective, more launch is a very good thing, French says. More launch likely means more competitive prices, more options on timing and more options on what those launches can do.Populating the SkiesScience missions, of course, arent the only passengers on rockets of any size. The need for rides into orbit for military payloads, national security assets and commercial satellites for Earth observations or global communications is far greater than what space scientistsand their limited budgetspresently demand.Access to space is now critical for society, Garver says.In fact, the customer base for rockets like New Glenn will almost certainly be dominated by companies that construct satellite mega constellationssuch as Starlink, Project Kuiper, the U.K.s OneWeb and Canadas Telesat. And thats for a simple reason: building those constellations requires launching lots of satellites, and many more satellites can fit into such a rockets much larger cargo space. That means fewer launches and fewer launch expenses.When youre deploying a constellation of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of satellites, this is a huge cost driver in terms of having access to spacebeing able to put those satellites in space efficiently, in the right place, Mowry says.Additionally, such satellites arent designed to have a long lifetime. So, as French notes, maintaining those constellations means continually refreshing the hardware in orbit, which requires a high launch cadence. If you think of the market as a pyramid, you have these large commercial constellations at the bottom, building demand, he says. How many such constellations can safely exist in orbit remains an open question. But such broad demand will create space for less common and ingenious applicationsthe as-yet-unimagined projects of the future.

Behind the Scenes: Victoria, a Steampunk short film By Bart on January 16, 2025 Behind the Scenes About a year ago, BlindIllusionist posted a passion project he worked on: a short film in a Steampunk universe, inspired by Ian Hubert. He now posted a breakdown of the project, showcasing how Blender played a significant role in creating its VFX.First, let's what's the film itself again:And here's the new breakdown: