Technologies

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Sends Lunar Lander and Rover on Their Way to the Moon

Japanese company iSpace is sending its M1 lander to the surface of the moon carrying Rashid, a new rover from the United Arab Emirates.

While the Orion spacecraft, a key part of NASA’s Artemis I mission, is on its way back to Earth after going far beyond the moon, a new lunar lander from Japan and a small rover from the United Arab Emirates are now en route for a visit to our planet’s lone natural satellite.

The Hakuto R mission, led by private Japanese company iSpace, launched from Florida early Sunday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to send its M1 lander to the surface of the moon. The lander is 8.5 feet by 7.5 feet (2.6 meters by 2.3 meters) when fully unfolded.

Liftoff took place at 12:38 a.m. ET (11:38 p.m. Saturday PT). The first stage booster from the Falcon 9 returned for a landing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station about 9 minutes later and a little less than an hour after launch, SpaceX announced that Hakuto R M1 had been deployed and was officially on its way to the moon.

«Our first mission will lay the groundwork for unleashing the moon’s potential and transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system,» Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of iSpace, said in a statement.

Hakamada added that the company is hoping to contribute to the Artemis program. The US space agency has already committed to buying moon rocks that M1 will collect.

The company confirmed on Sunday it had established a stable communications link with the lander.

The launch had been set for last week, but the company postponed it, first to Wednesday morning and then again to Sunday, so that SpaceX could perform additional preflight checks of the launch vehicle.

iSpace was one of the finalists in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which ended back in 2018 without any winners being declared. But it did raise funds to continue on its own and secure some customers with similar lunar ambitions. That’s how a rover named Rashid from the UAE’s space program wound up on board M1.

Rashid is set to study moon dust and will send images and data back to Earth.

If the mission succeeds, Japan and the UAE will join the US, Russia and China as the only countries that have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface. Another Lunar X Prize finalist, Israel’s SpaceIL, attempted its own lunar landing in 2019, but the mission ended with a crash into the moon that destroyed the spacecraft.

The lander has a long journey between blastoff and lunar touchdown, performing months’ worth of tests in space before arrival at the Atlas crater on the near side of the moon, which is scheduled for April.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 26, #929

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Dec. 26 #929

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is full of fun pop-culture references. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Golden state cliches.

Green group hint: Funny films.

Blue group hint: Rock on.

Purple group hint: Not white.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: California-based character tropes.

Green group: Comedy subgenres.

Blue group: ’70s rock bands.

Purple group: Black ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is California-based character tropes. The four answers are movie exec, surfer, tech bro and Valley Girl.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is comedy subgenres. The four answers are buddy, cringe, screwball and stoner.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is ’70s rock bands. The four answers are America, Chicago, Foreigner and Journey.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is black ____. The four answers are Forest, Friday, Panther and Widow.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 26 #663

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 26, No. 663.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one, but you might struggle at first to see a connection between the words. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please hold.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Cats love these more than they love expensive toys.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BOXING, CHEAT, HEAT, SMOCK, MOCK, LATE, TEAM, MEAT, TEAMS, LOOT, TOLE, BALL, BALE, KALE, TALL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

GIFT, SHOE, TOOL, LUNCH, MATCH, PIZZA, BALLOT, TACKLE (All are words that can be placed in front of «box.»)

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is BOXINGDAY. To find it, start with the B that’s four letters down on the far-left row, and wind across and then down.

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 25, #1650

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 25, No. 1,650.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle has some tough-to-guess letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with P.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with M.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a geometric figure.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is PRISM.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Dec. 24, No. 1649, was SPOOL.

Recent Wordle answers

Dec. 20, No. 1645: WHITE

Dec. 21, No. 1646: QUILT

Dec. 22, No. 1647: CONCH

Dec. 23, No. 1648: GLINT

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What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Don’t be afraid to use our tip sheet ranking all the letters in the alphabet by frequency of uses. In short, you want starter words that lean heavy on E, A and R, and don’t contain Z, J and Q.

Some solid starter words to try:

ADIEU

TRAIN

STARE

NOISE