We’ll start things off this week with some breaking news from NASA: just days after the space agency announced the Artemis II crew was preparing to blast off towards the Moon as soon as March 6th, a new problem with the Space Launch System rocket has pushed the launch back indefinitely. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, problems encountered while loading helium into the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) necessitate rolling the massive rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for diagnosis and repair.

The logistics of shuffling the vehicle 6.8 kilometers (4.2 miles) from the pad to the VAB is going to eat up at least a week, and sending it back the other way is naturally just as much of a production. Add in the time they’ll need to actually figure out what’s wrong with the ICPS and make the necessary repairs, and it’s easy to see why a March launch is almost certainly off the table. It’s frustrating to see the Artemis II mission get delayed this close to launch, but sending humans into space isn’t the sort of thing you can cut corners on.

Well, you’d think so at least. This week NASA also released a scathing report detailing the multitude of technical issues that came up during the 2024 test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. While astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams eventually made it back home safely aboard a SpaceX Dragon, the space agency has still categorized it as a Type A mishap — their highest incident classification and the same rating given to the losses of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia.

On the subject of companies we love to hate, a recent post by Brian Merchant on his blog Blood in the Machine (awesome band name, called it) points out the precipitous rise in Flock attacks. That is, folks are taking matters into their own hands and destroying the surveillance devices all over the US. Now Hackaday certainly isn’t condoning the destruction of anyone’s property, but we definitely appreciate the rebellious cyberpunk vibe.

Before you go out hunting for Flocks, keep in mind that at least one person has caught a charge already. In fact Jefferey Sovern picked up thirteen charges, as that’s how many Flock cameras he managed to bag before the law caught up to him. According to reports, he also admitted to “keeping some of the wiring, batteries and solar panels taken from the cameras.” Sounds like Jeff would fit in just fine around these parts.

Looking for some new wheels? Got a handy source of hydrogen? If so, you might be in luck. According to CarBuzz, the resale value of Toyota’s Mirai has absolutely cratered. When they were sitting on the lot a new Mirai would have cost you a bit more than $50,000, but on the second-hand market you can get last year’s model for as little as $15,000. If you’re not too picky, you can get one even cheaper. We did a little searching of our own, and found a 2021 Mirai with less than 40K miles for just $9,000. That’s an insane price for a mid-size luxury car, but of course it doesn’t really matter how cheap the car is if you can’t find anywhere to fill the thing up.

Finally, the folks at F-Droid have sounded the alarm about some concerning changes Google has planned for Android. As we first covered back in October, anyone looking to develop applications for the world’s most popular mobile operating system will soon have to register with Google through a process which is still not entirely clear. Although the search giant has hinted that the system will feature some special consideration for students and hobbyists, F-Droid isn’t convinced. Until there is more transparency, they are urging developers and Android users to push back via keepandroidopen.org.

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