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À partir d’avant-hierArs Technica

India’s plan to let 1998 digital trade deal expire may worsen chip shortage

India’s plan to let 1998 digital trade deal expire may worsen chip shortage

Enlarge (credit: Narumon Bowonkitwanchai | Moment)

India's plan to let a moratorium on imposing customs duties on cross-border digital e-commerce transactions expire may end up hurting India's more ambitious plans to become a global chip leader in the next five years, Reuters reported.

It could also worsen the global chip shortage by spiking semiconductor industry costs at a time when many governments worldwide are investing heavily in expanding domestic chip supplies in efforts to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies.

Early next week, world leaders will convene at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, just before the deadline to extend the moratorium hits in March. In place since 1998, the moratorium has been renewed every two years since—but India has grown concerned that it's losing significant revenues from not imposing taxes as demand rises for its digital goods, like movies, e-books, or games.

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a new first-person Nazi-whipping journey

Indiana Jones in front of an alcove in a ruin.

Enlarge / CGI Harrison Ford just can't believe he's getting roped into another globe-trotting adventure. (credit: Bethesda/Machine Games)

Almost two years ago to this day, Bethesda told everyone its Machine Games subsidiary was working on a new Indiana Jones game, one with "an original story." Now we can see what Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is going to look like, with a gameplay trailer showing up during Microsoft's Developer Direct event, and when it's arriving: "2024." You can now wishlist it on Steam and the Xbox store; it's exclusive to those platforms.

Gameplay reveal trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

While the game has Harrison Ford's likeness, it's not Ford voicing your character. Troy Baker, the original voice of Joel in The Last of Us, picks up the role of the archaeologist.

From the trailer, Great Circle looks a lot like the modern Wolfenstein games that Machine Games made—and that's a good thing. The New Order and The New Colossus excelled at making you feel more like a human action hero than a shooting tank. They've got a knack for first-person platforming, stunts, and cinematic moments that are nowhere near as painful as in many shooters. They excel at balancing immersing you as a player and letting your character have a personality.

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Rocket Report: SpaceX’s record year; Firefly’s Alpha rocket falls short

Firefly Aerospace's fourth Alpha rocket lifted off December 22 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

Enlarge / Firefly Aerospace's fourth Alpha rocket lifted off December 22 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (credit: Firefly Aerospace/Trevor Mahlmann)

Welcome to Edition 6.25 of the Rocket Report! We hope all our readers had a peaceful holiday break. While many of us were enjoying time off work, launch companies like SpaceX kept up the pace until the final days of 2023. Last year saw a record level of global launch activity, with 223 orbital launch attempts and 212 rockets successfully reaching orbit. Nearly half of these missions were by SpaceX.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Firefly's fourth launch puts payload in wrong orbit. The fourth flight of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket on December 22 placed a small Lockheed Martin technology demonstration satellite into a lower-than-planned orbit after lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. US military tracking data indicated the Alpha rocket released its payload into an elliptical orbit ranging between 215 and 523 kilometers in altitude, not the mission's intended circular target orbit. Firefly later confirmed the Alpha rocket's second stage, which was supposed to reignite about 50 minutes after liftoff, did not deliver Lockheed Martin's satellite into the proper orbit. This satellite, nicknamed Tantrum, was designed to test Lockheed Martin's new wideband Electronically Steerable Antenna technology to demonstrate faster on-orbit sensor calibration to deliver rapid capabilities to US military forces.

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Apple wants iPhone 16 batteries to come from India, not China

iPhone 15 in all of its colors

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 is manufactured both in China and India. (credit: Apple)

Apple wants batteries for its latest generation of iPhones to be made in India, as part of the US tech giant’s efforts to diversify its global supply chain and move manufacturing out of China.

The world’s most valuable company has informed component suppliers of its preference to source batteries for the forthcoming iPhone 16 from Indian factories, according to two people close to Apple.

Battery manufacturers, such as Desay of China, have been encouraged to establish new factories in India, while Simplo Technology, a Taiwanese battery supplier for Apple, has been asked to scale up production in India for future orders, said three people familiar with the situation.

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India reveals that it has returned lunar spacecraft to Earth orbit

India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar spacecraft undergoes accoustic testing. The propulsion module can be seen at the bottom.

Enlarge / India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar spacecraft undergoes accoustic testing. The propulsion module can be seen at the bottom. (credit: ISRO)

A little more than three months ago the Indian space agency, ISRO, achieved a major success by putting its Vikram lander safely down on the surface of the Moon. In doing so India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, and this further ignited the country's interest in space exploration.

But it turns out that is not the end of the story for the Chandrayaan 3 mission. In a surprise announcement made Monday, ISRO announced that it has successfully returned the propulsion module used by the spacecraft into a high orbit around Earth. This experimental phase of the mission, the agency said in a statement, tested key capabilities needed for future lunar missions, including the potential for returning lunar rocks to Earth.

A capable module

The primary task of the propulsion module was to deliver the Vikram 3 lander into a low-lunar orbit, 100 km above the surface of the Moon. After doing this in August, the propulsion module moved to an orbit around the Moon at an altitude of 150 km. There, its remaining operational goal was to support a science experiment, known as SHAPE, to observe the Earth.

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Rocket Report: China launches 3-man crew; SpaceX adds to busy manifest

A Long March 2F rocket climbed into space Thursday with a three-man crew heading for China's Tiangong space station.

Enlarge / A Long March 2F rocket climbed into space Thursday with a three-man crew heading for China's Tiangong space station. (credit: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)

Welcome to Edition 6.17 of the Rocket Report! Two Asian powers notched achievements in their human spaceflight programs this week. In China, three astronauts launched to begin a six-month expedition on the Tiangong space station. With this mission, China is settling into a routine of operations on the Tiangong complex. Elsewhere in Asia, India took strides toward launching its own astronauts with a successful test of a launch abort system for the country's Gaganyaan spacecraft, which could fly people into low-Earth orbit in 2025. This is welcome news for US officials because India could help offer a counterweight to China's dominance (among Asian countries) in spaceflight.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

India tests escape system for human-rated crew capsule. India aced the first in-flight test of the crew escape system for the country's Gaganyaan spacecraft Saturday, Ars reports. With this flight, India tested the set of rocket motors and parachutes that would propel the spacecraft away from a failing launch vehicle, a dramatic maneuver that would save the lives of everyone on board. An unpressurized version of the Gaganyaan capsule launched, without anyone aboard, on top of a single-stage liquid-fueled rocket. About a minute later, soon after the rocket surpassed the speed of sound, the vehicle triggered the abort maneuver, and the capsule separated from the booster to parachute into the sea. By all accounts, Indian officials were thrilled with the outcome of the test flight.

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India celebrates “first major milestone” on path to launching astronauts

A forward-facing camera on the top of an Indian booster captured this view of a Gaganyaan test spacecraft firing its abort motor to propel itself off the rocket.

Enlarge / A forward-facing camera on the top of an Indian booster captured this view of a Gaganyaan test spacecraft firing its abort motor to propel itself off the rocket. (credit: ISRO)

In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed his nation to develop its own capability to send astronauts into orbit, an achievement that would make India the fourth country with an independent human spaceflight program. On Saturday, that ambition moved a step closer to reality with a successful test of the human-rated spacecraft's launch-abort system.

This is the set of rocket motors and parachutes that would be used to propel the spacecraft away from a failing launch vehicle, a dramatic maneuver that would save the lives of everyone on board. By all accounts, Indian officials were thrilled with the outcome of the test flight.

"We have started the journey of Gaganyaan with this maiden launch of the test vehicle abort sequence, and this will be repeated multiple times under different conditions," said Sreedhara Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization. "Also, we’ll have an unmanned Gaganyaan vehicle (orbital) mission soon, at the beginning of the next year.”

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India sets sights on a Moon landing in 2040, but is it realistic?

A view of the Moon from Chandrayaan 3 before landing.

Enlarge / A view of the Moon from Chandrayaan 3 before landing. (credit: ISRO)

In recent years the nation of India has embraced spaceflight as a means of establishing itself as a major geopolitical player. The Soviet Union and United States, of course, pioneered the use of space exploration to exercise soft power in the 1960s during the Cold War. More recently China has used its various space missions, both human and scientific, to bolster its international prestige.

And now India is seeking to do the same. Spaceflight not only helps out on the international stage, but domestically as well. After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft made a soft landing on the Moon in August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was able to bask in the reflected glory of the nation's space agency, ISRO. Modi also previously set into motion the Gaganyaan program to launch the country's first astronauts from its own soil.

With that milestone now possibly set to occur in 2025, Modi has set his sights higher and farther. After a high-level meeting this week to assess progress on the Gaganyaan mission, Modi's office released a statement outlining the country's ambitions in space over the next two decades.

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