Technologies

SpaceX’s Starship Could Launch Just Weeks After NASA’s First Artemis Mission

A pair of monster rockets are set to make history before the new year.

There could be a tremendous amount of space travel history made in the closing weeks of 2022 as two long-awaited and game-changing rockets are now set to make their first trips to space within weeks of each other.

NASA says it is confident its new Space Launch System and Orion capsule are ready for blastoff on Nov. 14 for the uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon, if the weather around Florida cooperates. Meanwhile, another vehicle that the space agency has adopted into its Artemis program to return humans to the moon — the Starship from SpaceX and Elon Musk — could finally fly beyond the bounds of Earth’s atmosphere for the first time in early December.

Both mega rockets have been years in the making and are ready to set new marks when it comes to power and lifting capacity. If Artemis I does get off the ground next week after several delays, it will become the most powerful operational rocket in the world, and NASA’s most powerful ever. But it could be eclipsed just a few weeks laterby Starship and its Super Heavy booster, which is designed to deliver even more thrust than the SLS.

All of this is in the service of pushing humans farther out into the solar system, first by establishing a permanent base on the surface of the moon through a series of Artemis missions, and then on to Mars in the 2030s. Both the SLS/Orion combo and Starship will likely play a role in delivering infrastructure and astronauts to the moon over the next decade. NASA selected Starship as a human landing system for the Artemis program last year.

That’s the plan, anyway. First, both of these vehicles have to prove they can get off the ground. We’ve seen the Starship fly high in the atmosphere and come back for a landing, but it has yet to visit space, and the Super Heavy booster needed to make it to the moon hasn’t left the surface.

As for Artemis I and SLS, the saga is much longer, with the banger rocket way overbudget and years behind schedule. Attempts to launch in recent months have been set back by engine troubles, pesky leaks and a rude visit from Hurricane Ian. The rocket was rolled back to the huge Vehicle Assembly Building on Cape Canaveral for safe-keeping and repairs. Now it’s back on the launch pad, and NASA says it is ready to go for launch just after midnight ET on Nov. 14 (9:07 p.m. PT on Nov. 13).

Meanwhile, Starship is working through a long to-do list leading up to its first orbital flight.

«Right now, the schedule would lead to an early December test flight,» NASA’s Mark Kirasich, who oversees Artemis development, told an advisory council on Oct. 31.

Between now and then, Starship still needs to conduct a test firing of its engines and perform a «wet dress rehearsal» where fuel is loaded into the rocket and a mock countdown is run. SpaceX also still must secure its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which gave a conditional green light to Starship moving forward in June, but with a laundry list of 75 modifications to the plan that needed to be done first.

Starship’s planned first flight will be considerably shorter than that of Artemis I. The SpaceX system will blast off from Texas and make a quick trip to orbit before splashing down in the Pacific off the coast of Hawaii. Artemis, on the other hand, is set to fly Orion around the far side of the moon before coming back to Earth.

NASA plans to begin its livestreaming coverage of the countdown to Artemis I launch on Nov. 11 with a prelaunch briefing at 4 p.m. PT.

Technologies

Google’s New AI Features Are Trying to Make Data Entry a Thing of the Past

More Gemini AI features will come to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

The latest batch of Google updates to its workspace tools highlights AI’s promise to automate mundanity in the workplace. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive all have new AI-powered features, the company announced Tuesday. The one thing all these updates have in common? Gemini is using your files, emails and chats to give you relevant information, not random answers gleaned from the web.

These updates come as AI is playing a bigger role in our work lives, for better or worse. Agentic tools like Claude Cowork and coding assistants like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex are more capable than chatbots and able to handle tasks announced independently. AI tools are also becoming more customized, with Google’s personalized intelligence rolling out across its platforms to help refine AI outputs to things that are relevant and useful for you. Google continues that trend with this new batch of Workspace updates.

New Gemini AI features in Google Workspace apps will cite their sources after each query. For example, if you ask Gemini in Google Docs to fill out an itinerary template, it will pull the information from your email, chats and files. The «sources» tab in the Gemini side panel will show you where it found the information it used, like your flight confirmation email and chats discussing dinner plans. Seeing where Gemini pulled its answers from is also how you’ll double-check Gemini’s work.

The most impressive new features are in Sheets, where AI can fill in the holes in your spreadsheets. You can describe what you want the AI to do with a simple prompt and avoid writing an exact formula. You can click on an empty cell, select the pop-up that says «Drag to fill with Gemini,» then highlight the cells you want Gemini to fill in. That deploys an AI agent to search the web to fill each cell with the necessary information.

For example, if you have a spreadsheet of the contact info for local companies, you can have Gemini search the web to fill in a the location, CEO and other publicly available information of each company. The tool aims to dramatically reduce the time needed for manual data entry. Gemini can also summarize, categorize and create charts with prompts alone.

You can also chat with Gemini in Sheets and have it scour your raw data to make custom reports and charts. No need for pivot tables if they confound you as much as they baffle me. One of the biggest uses of AI at work is helping create presentations.

In Google Slides, you can now tell Gemini in natural language what you want to appear on a slide, and it will create it, matching the style of your existing slides. You can also ask Gemini to edit your slides if you don’t want to waste time painstakingly moving design elements around the slide. The AI should fill the slides with relevant information based on your instructions and the work files it has access to, so you shouldn’t need to replace a bunch of filler text.

If you use Docs, Sheets and Slides through the Workspace account of your company, then you won’t be able to turn off AI features individually. The managing company is in control of AI access for users. Personal users can tweak their settings to limit Gemini. The new features are rolling out in beta now, in English only, to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US, as well as some Google Workspace customers who are part of the Gemini Alpha testing program.

For more, check out the new cowork feature in Copilot and how to use Perplexity AI for deep research.

Technologies

Nintendo Switches Lanes, Sues US Over Tariffs

Mario wants his money back.

Tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Companies that were subjected to those fees, such as FedEx and Dollar General, have since sued the federal government, and Nintendo wants a piece of the action.

Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of International Trade on Friday, as first spotted by Aftermath. The complaint seeks refunds of tariffs Nintendo paid, plus interest, and asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and stop the government from collecting them going forward.

«Since February 1, 2025, President Trump has executed the unlawful Executive Orders, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries,» Nintendo said in the complaint.

When reached for comment, Nintendo of America confirmed the lawsuit.

«We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic,» Nintendo of America said in an emailed statement on Friday, March 6.

It’s unclear how much Nintendo paid in tariffs, and it did not state an amount in the lawsuit. While the Switch 2 was priced at $450 when it launched last year, and has stayed at that amount, Nintendo did increase the price of the original Switch and accessories for both consoles. Microsoft and Sony also increased the prices of their hardware and accessories last year due to tariffs.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6 to 3 that the sweeping tariffs Trump instituted last year exceeded his executive powers. Following the ruling, on the same day, Trump announced a new set of tariffs of 10% on imported goods that would last for 150 days, starting Feb. 24.

The decision on what to do with the collected tariffs — a reported $166 billion — has been left to the US Court of International Trade. Judge Richard Eaton told the US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, March 4, to refund the importers that were forced to pay tariffs, which is more than 330,000. On Friday, the CBP said it couldn’t easily issue tariff refunds because its system requires duties to be recalculated and refunds processed entry by entry. This process would involve tens of millions of transactions. The agency said it’s updating its systems and could start providing refunds by late April.