Technologies

Rocket Rivalry Heats Up as Blue Origin Successfully Lands Its Booster

Jeff Bezos’ space company is closing the gap with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket on Thursday, and also nailed the landing of its rocket booster. The booster, named Never Tell Me the Odds (Han Solo fans will recognize that quote), landed gently on a floating platform named Jacklyn, after Bezos’ late mother. This was the first time Blue Origin successfully landed the New Glenn rocket booster.

Just before 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, New Glenn launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It deployed NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers twin spacecraft, dubbed Escapade, into the designated loiter orbit, and then landed the reusable first stage on Jacklyn in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Blue Origin’s competitor, has successfully landed boosters as well, but this was the first time Blue Origin has done so. It’s seen as an important step since both companies plan to reuse the expensive boosters on future flights.

Escapade is on its way to Mars. Two small identical spacecraft, named Blue and Gold for the colors of the University of California-Berkeley, whose Space Sciences Laboratory is managing the mission, were successfully deployed half an hour after launch.

Blue and Gold will loop around a point in space known as Lagrange-2. Later this month, they will do a quick flyby of Earth and then depart for Mars. The twin orbiters are expected to arrive at the Red Planet by November 2027.

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Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 18, #1011

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 18 #1011.

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 pretty tricky, but musicians might find the blue group easy. 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: Time between two things, maybe.

Green group hint: That smarts!

Blue group hint: Rockers know these well.

Purple group hint: You might write one out to pay a bill.