Welcome to Edition 8.29 of the Rocket Report! We have a stuffed report this week with news from across the launch spectrum. Long-term, probably the most significant development this week was a subscale version of the Long March 10 rocket successfully launching and then executing a picture-perfect ocean landing. China is catching up rapidly to the United States when it comes to reusable launch.
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.
Orbex is going away. The UK-based launch company Orbex has entered insolvency proceedings after a planned takeover by European space logistics startup The Exploration Company fell through, European Spaceflight reports. In a statement, Orbex said the decision came after all “fundraising, merger and acquisition opportunities had all concluded unsuccessfully.” For anyone paying attention, this decision should not come as a surprise. A decade into its existence, Orbex had yet to produce demonstrable, ready-for-flight hardware.
Pressure is mounting on tech companies to shield users from unlawful government requests that advocates say are making it harder to reliably share information about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) online.
Alleging that ICE officers are being doxed or otherwise endangered, Trump officials have spent the last year targeting an unknown number of users and platforms with demands to censor content. Early lawsuits show that platforms have caved, even though experts say they could refuse these demands without a court order.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) accused Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of coercing tech companies into removing a wide range of content “to control what the public can see, hear, or say about ICE operations.”
Strava will begin to end its support for Facebook login, starting from 16 March, which means you’ll have to change how you log in if you use this method.
The fitness and cycling app is moving away from Facebook in another way. It will no longer make friend suggestions based on your Facebook connections. Instead, you will have to use Strava’s own ‘in-app friend search’ to connect with other people.
Your current connections, activity history and profile will stay the same.
What should you do if you use Facebook login for Strava?
If you use Facebook login to access Strava, you will need to confirm or update your email address in your Strava account settings to keep access to your account.
Strava says this will also ensure faster account recovery if you ever need it.
If you’re unsure which email address is connected with your Strava account, it will be the email you had set on your Facebook account when you signed up for Strava.
“You can log in to Facebook to check which email address may be connected,” Strava says. If you’ve changed or lost access to that email since signing up for Strava, you can visit Strava’s help centre for support.
After 16 March, you will be able to log in to Strava using one of the following methods:
Your email and password
A one-time code sent to your email
Sign-in with Google if you use Gmail
Why is Strava dropping Facebook login?
Strava said it was dropping Facebook login via an email sent to users on Friday, but it didn’t say why it’s moving away from Meta.
BikeRadar put this question to Strava, but the platform hasn’t yet responded. However, it isn’t the first website to move away from social logins, despite the method once being prevalent across the internet.
In 2022, Dell dropped Facebook logins from its consumer website. Jen Felch, Dell’s chief digital and chief information officer, told CNBC that people stopped using social logins over concerns about security, privacy and data sharing.
“I just think we’re observing people making a decision to isolate that social media account versus having other connections to it,” Felch said.
One could argue that these issues continue with using Google logins, but another reason why Facebook logins have fallen out of favour is due to the dwindling popularity of the platform itself and a decline in reputation.
Logging in with a Facebook account might simply add more confusion, too. When we’re used to a seamless experience with apps and websites, who wants to try to remember that old Hotmail address and password for a social media account you no longer use?
Whatever the reason, all moves by Strava are piquing our interest at BikeRadar right now as cycling’s most popular app edges closer to going public – even if that’s heavily allied to the popularity of running rather than life on two wheels.
There’s a new AAA John Wick game coming with Keanu Reaves portraying the main character both in voice and likeness, Lionsgate and Saber Interactive announced. Currently untitled, it’s in development for PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, and will be a single-player third-person experience designed for “mature” audiences. So far, there’s no release date.
“The new single-player third-person action game will combine John Wick’s unparalleled, adrenaline-fueled ‘gun-fu’ fighting style with Saber’s proven reputation for creating thrilling gaming experiences that leave players craving more,” the companies said in an announcement post. They added that franchise director Chad Stahelski and star Keanu Reeves are both involved in the game’s production, with Reeves reprising his character’s look, voice and more.
The story is original and “addresses a significant time in John Wick’s life,” according to the game’s director Jesus Iglesias. It will include both familiar film characters and new ones created for the game. As for gameplay, it will offer “a hard-hitting gun-fu combat system, jaw-dropping camerawork, intense driving experiences, cinematic storytelling, and a bold range of atmospherically immersive environments,” the team said.
Saber Interactive is the developer behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and is also developing the upcoming titles Jurassic Park: Survival and John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando. It will be the first John Wick game since John Wick Hex, which came out in 2019 but was recently delisted.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/theres-a-new-john-wick-game-on-the-way-103900064.html?src=rss
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls was first announced last year as a tag fighting game feature superheroes including Captain America, Ms Marvel and Spider-Man, with a launch sometime in 2026. We expected more details to be revealed at Sony’s State of Play yesterday and indeed they were. The game will arrive August 6 on PS5 and PC and include the Unbreakable X-Men’s Storm, Magik, Wolverine, and Danger.
The trailer teases each character’s fighting style, with Magik and Wolverine using a more in-your-face melee fighting style. Storm and Danger, meanwhile, offer more diverse attack abilities, with Storm manipulating wind and lightning and Magik deploying sorcery skills. We also saw a team-based finisher attack with all four characters joining forces to unleash a flurry of attacks. The trailer also revealed that Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls will offer an Episode Mode with a “new form of storytelling adapted for a modern video game format” that marries Manga with American comics.
MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls launches on August 6, 2026 for PS5 and PC. Pre-orders open February 19, 2026 at the PlayStation Store and PC storefronts. It will be sold in three versions: the $60 Standard Edition, $85 Digital Deluxe Edition (includes the full game, all pre-order incentives, a Year 1 Characters and Stage Pass) and Howard the Duck and Cosmo. Finally, the $100 Ultimate Edition includes all the preceding, plus costumes for Storm, Captain America, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, along with an Animated Chromatic color unlock for all 20 launch characters.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/marvel-tokon-fighting-souls-lands-on-ps5-and-pc-august-6-with-x-men-in-tow-095235773.html?src=rss
Death Stranding 2: On the Beachwill be available on PC starting on March 19, Kojima Productions has announced at State of Play. The studio worked with Dutch video game developer Nixxes Software, which Sony acquired in 2021 to help bring PlayStation games to PCs. The sequel to the first Death Stranding is set in Australia almost a year after the events of the original game. It still features a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by strange creatures, and you’ll still control Sam Porter Bridges to connect survivors in the continent to the chiral network communications system.
Kojima Production says the PC version of the game will come with a bunch of improvements, will work with NVIDIA, AMD and Intel Upscaler and FrameGen, and will have uncapped framerates. It will support 4K gaming and will come with support for ultrawide monitors with 21:9 aspect ratio, as well as for super ultrawidescreen monitors with 32:9 aspect ratio for PC. When it comes to audio, the PC version of the game supports 3D audio via Dolby Access and DTS Sound Unbound, as well as Windows Sonic for headphones. You can play using a mouse and a keyboard if you wish, but you can also play with a DualSense controller.
You’ll be able to pre-purchase Death Stranding 2: On the Beach starting today for $70 on Steam or Epic Games and receive extra in-game items. The Digital Deluxe edition, which comes with more in-game extras, will set you back $10 more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/death-stranding-2-for-pc-arrives-on-march-19-095157946.html?src=rss
Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company that works with law enforcement agencies, Ring has announced it is canceling the integration. From a report: In a statement published on Ring’s blog and provided to The Verge ahead of publication, the company said: “Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated. We therefore made the joint decision to cancel the integration and continue with our current partners … The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”
[…] Over the last few weeks, the company has faced significant public anger over its connection to Flock, with Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and some announcing on social media that they are throwing away their Ring devices. The Flock partnership was announced last October, but following recent unrest across the country related to ICE activities, public pressure against the Amazon-owned Ring’s involvement with the company started to mount. Flock has reportedly allowed ICE and other federal agencies to access its network of surveillance cameras, and influencers across social media have been claiming that Ring is providing a direct link to ICE.
At Sony’s State of Play yesterday, developer Nomada Studio revealed a DLC prequel to its gorgeous and award-winning puzzle platformer Neva. Entitled simply Neva: Prologue, it tells the story of how Alba and her wolf companion Neva met, while introducing new gameplay mechanics, locales and challenges.
“In Neva: Prologue, players follow Alba as she chases a trail of white butterflies deep into the corrupted swamps, only to discover a frightened wolf cub, lost and alone,” Nomada writes. “To survive, Alba must earn the cub’s trust and guide them both through the blighted wetlands and the dark forces that stalk them.”
The developer adds that Neva: Prologue is designed to be experienced after completing the main game. It adds three new locations, “each featuring unique gameplay mechanics, alongside new enemies and intense boss encounters.” Completionists will also get five hidden challenge flowers.
In her review of the original game, Engadget’s Jessica Conditt found Neva “faultless” thanks to the exquisite swordplay and intuitive platforming action, along with the “stunning” world composed of “lush forests, sun-drenched valleys, soaring mountains and twisting cave systems.” Neva: Prologue will released as a standalone DLC on February 19.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-neva-prequel-is-arriving-next-week-081239628.html?src=rss
Rapha’s latest kit for Team Amani is said to pay homage to East Africa’s “rich cultural traditions in cloth textiles”, while expressing the belief that the region will become for cycling what it has for running.
“East Africa is a heartland of record-breaking runners responsible for incredible feats of human endurance but the region’s potential for cycling is largely untapped. That’s where Amani comes in. Based for much of the year in Iten’s “Home of Champions”, Amani riders train in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley at 2,400m above sea level,” Rapha says.
Team Amani was founded in 2020 and addresses the inequalities that have kept African cyclists out of the top tier of the sport, Rapha says.
The launch campaign includes a headpiece made from Sisal, a fibre used across Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Rapha
“From limited access to international races and lack of high-performance infrastructure, to barriers in visa, travel, and sponsorship systems, the obstacles have been many – but not insurmountable,” Rapha continues.
Having started in gravel racing, the women’s team stepped up to the UCI Women’s Continental last year. It now aims to take its success to the road, and to reach the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by 2028, alongside the Giro d’Italia Women and La Vuelta Femenina.
Team Amani’s 2026 kit features recurring motifs representing sunshine, peace and energy. The Adey Abeda flower, an emblem of the Ethiopian new year, is used across garments.
The kit has repeating patterns, but with irregularities. Rapha
There is also an alternate red jersey. Rapha
“Inspired by multi-hued fabrics that reflect centuries of craftsmanship, Rapha’s 2026 collection for Team Amani brings the heritage of East African printing and materials to proven aerodynamic apparel. From the Kanga of Kenya to the Congolese Kuba, in East Africa, cloth is culture. Patterns and materials are passed through generations,” Rapha says.
Reflective of this craft heritage, Rapha has introduced irregularities into the design to represent hand-woven textiles based on natural dyes that have been tweaked to match a “contemporary palette”.
A close-up of the Team Amani bib shorts. Rapha
To launch the new kit, Rapha worked with former bike racer and photographer Finley Newmark and Nairobi-based stylist Kennedy Mirema. They incorporated the “foundational materials of East Africa”, including Sisal, a fibre common across Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia for making traditional attire. This is used in the campaign to create a headpiece as “a tribute to the craftsmanship and textures that define the region”.
Rapha has been an official sponsor of Team Amani since 2024, despite a shake-up elsewhere at the brand.
Last year, Rapha ended its partnership with EF Pro Cycling after seven years, before announcing a new partnership with Team USA.
Rapha’s CEO Fran Millar said the relationship with EF Pro Cycling had “gotten tired” and that working with Team USA is a way to speak to a “new and different demographic”.
The ETMO looks to offer great versatility, with the 400 EQ and 500 EQ coming equipped with mudguards and a rack, opening the door for e-bikepacking.
Prices start at £3,650 / €4,380 for the ETMO 400, and top out at £5,250 / €6,300 for the more aggressive, trail-ready ETMO 800.
Bosch power meets alloy know-how
The Performance Line CX motor is better suited to trail riding. Merida
Merida says it has used long-standing expertise in aluminium frame design and manufacturing to hit this aggressive price point with the ETMO.
It says the cheaper frame retains the ride quality and durability riders expect from its eMTB range.
At the heart of the ETMO sits a Bosch Performance Line drive system, bringing full-power assistance to the platform.
The system depends on the model, with the ETMO 400 Pro, 500 Pro, 700 and 800 featuring the trail-oriented Performance Line CX, while the 400 and 500 models use the more utilitarian Performance Line PX model.
There’s a variety of battery sizes through the model range, too, with the smallest being the PowerTube 540 and the largest the PowerTube 800.
The bike takes design cues from the eONE-EIGHTY. Merida
The goal, according to Merida, was to create a bike that could be “used in anger” by newer riders and experienced eMTB users alike.
The geometry and suspension kinematics are designed to deliver stable, confidence-inspiring handling without sacrificing playfulness on the trail.
140mm and 160mm travel options
There are two travel options. Merida
Depending on the model, the ETMO platform delivers either 140mm or 160mm of suspension travel from its all-aluminium frame.
The longer-travel versions, 700 and above, are positioned as aggressive all-rounders, suited to enduro-style terrain, bike-park sessions and bigger mountain adventures.
Meanwhile, the 140mm options, the 400 and 500, are intended to strike a balance between efficiency and capability for trail riders looking for a versatile do-it-all machine.
SUV eMTB
The ETMO 500 EQ looks similar to Specialized’s Terro X. Merida
The EQ models come equipped with mudguards and pannier racks, which could make them capable all-terrain commuter bikes.
Canonical released today Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS as the fourth point release of the long-term supported Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) operating system series.
An anonymous reader shares a report: U.S. messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, has been completely blocked in Russia for failing to comply with local law, the Kremlin said on Thursday, suggesting Russians turn to a state-backed “national messenger” instead. “Due to Meta’s unwillingness to comply with Russian law, such a decision was indeed taken and implemented,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, proposing that Russians switch to MAX, Russia’s state-owned messenger.
NetworkManager 1.56 has been released as the latest stable version of this popular open-source software for managing network connections inside a Linux-based operating system.
Microsoft has patched a high-severity vulnerability in Windows 11’s Notepad that allowed attackers to silently execute local or remote programs when a user clicked a specially crafted Markdown link, all without triggering any Windows security warning.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20841 and fixed in the February 2026 Patch Tuesday update, stemmed from Notepad’s relatively new Markdown support — a feature Microsoft added after discontinuing WordPad and rewriting Notepad to serve as both a plain text and rich text editor. An attacker only needed to create a Markdown file containing file:// links pointing to executables or special URIs like ms-appinstaller://, and a Ctrl+click in Markdown mode would launch them. Microsoft’s fix now displays a warning dialog for any link that doesn’t use http:// or https://, though the company did not explain why it chose a prompt over blocking non-standard links entirely. Notepad updates automatically through the Microsoft Store.
Ring has canceled its partnership with Flock Safety, after receiving backlash for running a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party feature. If you’ll recall, Ring revealed back in October 2025 that it was entering a partnership with the surveillance company, which would make it possible for law enforcement to ask smart doorbell owners for videos captured by their devices. In its announcement, the company said that the “planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated.” The decision to call off the partnership was mutual, Ring added, and Flock Safety’s integration was never launched. Apparently, no Ring customer footage was ever sent to Flock.
Under the partnership, law enforcement agencies using Flock’s Nova platform or FlockOS would have been able to use Ring’s Community Requests to ask for doorbell videos from users. They would have been asked to specify the location and timeframe of the incident, as well as provide a unique investigation code and the details about what is being investigated. Their requests would then be forwarded to relevant users, who could choose to share footage from their doorbell. Ring said the whole process would have been anonymous and optional.
Ring was known to have shared security cam videos to law enforcement without a court order or the device owner’s consent at least 11 times in the past. In 2024, however, it seemed to have walked back its police-friendly stance and said that it would stop sharing videos with the police without a warrant. This alliance with Flock would have marked a return to police collaboration after the company distanced itself from law enforcement. Flock is known for its automatic license plate readers and for centralizing the information it collects into a database that police can search without a warrant. While law enforcement says the system can help them solve crimes like kidnapping. 404Media reported last year that ICE has been using the database, citing immigration-related reasons.
While Ring’s official reason was that the Flock partnership would need more resources than expected, it’s worth noting that the company recently got flak for its Super Bowl Search Party ad. Ring touted it as a way to find lost dogs by using its cameras’ AI to identify pets running across their field of vision and then pooling feeds together to identify missing pets. While Search Party isn’t new and was announced last year, the ad sparked concerns about surveillance and how the tech could be misused, leading users to disable the feature for their cameras altogether.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html?src=rss
Google’s YouTube has launched an official visionOS app.
While it was already possible to access YouTube on Apple Vision Pro headsets through the Safari web browser, the new official app offers a streamlined native-feeling interface, support for watching 180° and 360° immersive video (including 3D), and, for YouTube Premium subscribers, the ability to download videos for offline viewing.
The official YouTube visionOS app on Apple Vision Pro.
The player also adapts to the varying aspect ratios of videos on YouTube, avoiding the black-bars problem and revealing more of your real or virtual environment.
On the M5 Apple Vision Pro, the app supports up to 8K, while the original M2 Vision Pro is limited to 4K.
The official YouTube visionOS app on Apple Vision Pro.
YouTube first announced that it planned to build a visionOS app just days after the original headset’s launch.
In the two years since, multiple third-party apps have emerged to fill the gap, including firstly and most prominently the $5 app Juno, built by the same developer as the Apollo phone app for Reddit. But in late 2024 YouTube forced Juno off the visionOS App Store.
Other third-party offerings include Tubular Pro, which has advanced features including SponsorBlock integration and its own theater environments.
The official YouTube visionOS app on Apple Vision Pro.
The official YouTube app for Apple Vision Pro is available for free on the visionOS App Store, with offline downloads enabled by a YouTube Premium subscription.
While its arrival on visionOS could be considered surprising by some because of Google’s competing Android XR, YouTube operates somewhat independently from Google, and Google has offered iOS versions of its most popular services for almost two decades now.
YouTube is also available on Meta’s Horizon OS, including with co-watching support, but the app on Quest is visually less polished compared to visionOS and Android XR.
Meta and EssilorLuxottica sold more than 7 million smart glasses in 2025, and they were the “dominant driver” of the Ray-Ban owner’s wholesale growth in H2.
Exactly one year ago, EssilorLuxottica told its investors that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had sold 2 million units so far, a period spanning from the launch in October 2023 until February 2025.
Now, during its Q4 2025 earnings report, the company announced that it sold 7 million units of Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses in 2025 alone – meaning more than triple that of 2024. This suggests that around 9 million have been sold to date since the launch of Ray-Ban Meta two and a half years ago.
For comparison, Quest 2 sold an estimated 20 million units in two and a half years, while Steam Deck sold around 4 million units over the same timespan.
EssilorLuxottica says smart glasses drove significant growth for both its wholesale and retail business, describing the former in North America as “exponential”.
What Is EssilorLuxottica?
The French-Italian giant EssilorLuxottica is the largest eyewear company in the world by far. It owns iconic brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, and Persol, and has exclusive licenses with major fashion companies like Prada, Armani, Burberry, and Chanel. It also owns Sunglass Hut, and has almost 18,000 retail stores in total worldwide.
Meta has so far partnered with EssilorLuxottica for six smart glasses products:
The sales figure comes one month after Bloomberg reported that Meta and EssilorLuxottica were discussing doubling or even tripling smart glasses production capacity.
When announcing the 2 million sales mark a year ago, EssilorLuxottica told investors that it planned to increase annual production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2026, citing the “great success” of the product. Bloomberg’s report suggests that target is being increased to 20 or 30 million.
It’s undeniable at this point that smart glasses are an appealing consumer product. The question now is whether Meta will maintain its lead once serious competition from Apple and Google arrives.
Google has repeatedly teased smart glasses with a HUD at events like TED and I/O, and announced last year that it’s working with the eyewear companies Gentle Monster and Warby Parker on Gemini smart glasses, and will work with Kering Eyewear in the future. Multiple South Korean news outlets have reported that Samsung plans to launch a Meta Ray-Ban Display competitor this year, powered by Google software, a similar strategy to the Galaxy XR headset.
Meanwhile, in October Bloomberg reported that Apple moved staff off the cheaper and lighter Vision headset project to prioritize shipping smart glasses sooner. Apple’s first glasses could be revealed as soon as this year ahead of a release in 2027, the report claimed.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Just weeks after a dramatic purge of China’s top general, the CIA is moving to capitalize on any resulting discord with a new public video targeting potential informants in the Chinese military. The U.S. spy agency on Thursday rolled out the video depicting a disillusioned mid-level Chinese military officer, in the latest U.S. step in a campaign to ramp up human intelligence gathering on Washington’s strategic rival.
It follows a similar effort last May that focused on fictional figures within China’s ruling Communist Party that provided detailed Chinese-language instructions on how to securely contact U.S. intelligence. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the agency’s videos had reached many Chinese citizens and that it would continue offering Chinese government officials an “opportunity to work toward a brighter future together.”
