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🦾SpaceX Milestone, Caterpillars Autonomous Truck + more
Rad Tech Team
November 08, 2024
Table of Contents
SpaceX Delivers 23 New Starlink Satellites:
After a few nail-biting delays, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket finally lifted off Thursday, Nov 7th carrying 23 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The Starlink 6-77 mission launched at 3:19 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, marking the third flight for this Falcon 9 booster.
Launch Recap:
Launch Scrubbed (Twice): Sunday’s attempt was halted two minutes before liftoff due to a helium leak in the first stage, and Wednesday’s try was called off due to weather.
Successful Deployment: After a brief six-minute hold, Falcon 9 lifted off and landed smoothly on the "Just Read the Instructions" drone ship, with the satellites successfully deployed.
SpaceX’s Update: SpaceX confirmed the deployment with a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Deployment of 23 @Starlink satellites confirmed.”
Another big win for Elon Musk after the Trump victory.
Caterpillar’s First Autonomous Truck Rolls Out in the Aggregates Industry:
Caterpillar just hit a new milestone, rolling out its first autonomous off-highway truck, the Cat® 777, at Luck Stone’s Bull Run quarry in Chantilly, Virginia. This move marks Caterpillar’s entry into the quarry and aggregates industry with autonomous tech, taking automation into a field that’s been all about hands-on, labor-intensive work—until now.
Key Highlights:
First of its Kind: This is Caterpillar’s first autonomous deployment in the aggregates sector, bringing fully autonomous hauling to a new industry.
Powered by Cat® MineStar™ Command: The Cat® 777 is equipped with Cat® MineStar™ Command for hauling, a system that enables autonomous operation in off-highway settings.
100-Ton-Class Fleet Expansion: The deployment adds the 100-ton-class Cat® 777 to Caterpillar’s lineup of autonomous trucks, expanding its offerings in the autonomous heavy machinery market.
Partnership with Luck Stone: Caterpillar teamed up with Luck Stone, the largest family-owned crushed stone, sand, and gravel producer in the U.S., to make this innovation a reality. Since December 2022, Caterpillar and Luck Stone have been working together to accelerate autonomous solutions in quarry applications.
Looking Ahead:
This achievement isn’t just about one truck or one quarry—it signals a shift toward safer, more efficient, and less labor-dependent operations in industries like mining and aggregates. As more companies tap into autonomous solutions, Caterpillar’s trailblazing efforts here could set the stage for broader adoption across various heavy-duty sectors.
Robotics Summit & Expo call for presentations (Deadline: December 4, 2024)
Hard Tech Careers:
SpaceX is hiring a number of roles. See more here: https://x.com/SpaceX/jobs
Market Moves:
Serve Robotics (Nasdaq: SERV), the San Francisco-based autonomous delivery trailblazer, just acquired Vebu, an automation and robotics solutions provider for the restaurant industry. As for the deal price? They’re keeping that under wraps.
Physical Intelligence a robot AI specialist, just secured a hefty $400 million boost in funding. Heavy-hitting investors like Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, and OpenAI joined the round, signaling big ambitions for their next-gen robot software.
CynLr (short for Cybernetics Laboratory) raised $10 million in Series A funding. The goal? To bring robot vision tech closer to creating a “universal factory” setup.
Meme of the week:
