delays Archives

Amazon is facing a ‘high-stakes shipping gauntlet’ just months after recovering from widespread delays, as it attempts to pull off its biggest Prime Day ever

Posted on October 13, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

a person riding on the back of a truck: Amazon is bracing for its biggest Prime Day ever. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day event started early Tuesday morning.
Moody’s analyst Charlie O’Shea told Business Insider that Prime Day will serve as a litmus test to see if Amazon is able to keep up with its exponential growth.
The sales event will trigger a surge in orders that will weigh on Amazon’s delivery network, with Moody’s estimating that the company’s fourth-quarter shipping expenses could reach nearly $20 billion.
“They’re doing the best they can,” O’Shea said. “It’s almost like trying to plug a dam with your finger.”
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Amazon just kicked off what Moody’s says will likely be the biggest — and most challenging — Prime Day of all time.

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The e-commerce giant’s 48-hour Prime Day began early on Tuesday morning. The annual sales event

SpaceX rocket issue delays astronaut launch

Posted on October 12, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Astronauts make round trip to space station from U.S. soil

NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley (C) waves to onlookers as he boards a plane at Naval Air Station Pensacola to return him and NASA astronaut Robert Behnken home to Houston a few hours after the duo landed in their SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft off the coast of Pensacola, Fla,, on August 2, 2020. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

NASA delays commercial crew mission to study Falcon 9 engine issue

Posted on October 10, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying the launch of the first operational SpaceX commercial crew mission to the first half of November to provide more time to review a problem during a recent Falcon 9 launch attempt.

NASA announced Oct. 10 the Crew-1 mission, which was scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 in the early morning hours of Oct. 31 from the Kennedy Space Center, will now launch no earlier than early to mid-November.

The delay, the agency said, will provide more time for SpaceX “to complete hardware testing and data reviews as the company evaluates off-nominal behavior of Falcon 9 first stage engine gas generators observed during a recent non-NASA mission launch attempt.” NASA did not identify the specific launch attempt in question, but an Oct. 2 launch of a Falcon 9 carrying a GPS 3 satellite was scrubbed just two seconds before liftoff because of SpaceX Chief Executive

After a string of delays, SpaceX launches 13th batch of Starlink internet satellites

Posted on October 7, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Shrugging off a Falcon 9 launch abort last week and a scrub Monday, SpaceX fired 60 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit Tuesday, the thirteenth batch in a fast-growing global network of broadband relay stations. The rocket’s first stage, making its third flight, flew itself to an on-target landing on an offshore drone ship after lifting the upper stage out of the lower atmosphere, chalking up the company’s 61st successful booster recovery.

Michael Seeley, co-founder of We Report Space, posted a stunning photo of the rocket launch silhouetted by the sun.

Good morning, #Falcon9.

That’s not a huge sunspot, it’s the #SpaceX #Starlink launch.

(Pic: me / @WeReportSpace) pic.twitter.com/Qvic66Z5tR

— Michael Seeley (@Mike_Seeley) October 6, 2020

The launch ended a frustrating stretch of delays dating back to mid September that included back-to-back Falcon 9 launch aborts last Thursday and Friday that grounded the Starlinks and a Space Force

Google delays mandating Play Store’s 30% cut in India to April 2022

Posted on October 5, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

Google is postponing the enforcement of its new Play Store billing policy in India to April 2022, days after more than 150 startups in the world’s second largest internet market forged an informal coalition to express concerns over the 30% charge the Android-maker plans to mandate and started to explore an alternative store for their apps.

The company, which is going live globally with the new Play Store rule in September 2021, is deferring the enforcement of the policy only in India, it said. It is also listening to developers and willing to engage to allay their concerns, it said.

Last week, Google said it would no longer allow any apps to circumvent its payment system within the Play Store. The move, pitched by Google as a “clarification” of its existing policy, would allow the company to ensure it gets as high as a 30% cut on in-app purchases made

After lengthy delays, ULA’s most powerful rocket poised to launch classified spy satellite

Posted on October 1, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

After many weeks of delays due to faulty equipment and bad weather, the United Launch Alliance is set to launch its most powerful rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The mission is finally ready to fly a full month after the rocket’s first launch attempt, which was aborted just three seconds before liftoff.

The rocket going up on ULA’s mission is the Delta IV Heavy, a giant vehicle that consists of three rocket cores strapped together to provide extra thrust. It’s one of the most powerful rockets in the world, though it falls short of the power packed into SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. ULA doesn’t fly the Delta IV Heavy very often, as it’s an expensive vehicle to make, but the company uses the rocket for large, heavy satellites headed to super-high orbits.

The rocket’s payload is NROL-44, and like all NRO

Germany Says Delays in EU Recovery Fund May Be ‘Unavoidable’

Posted on September 30, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

(Bloomberg) — Germany warned that disputes over the governance of the European Union’s virus recovery fund make it almost inevitable that it won’t be operational by the Jan. 1 target date, raising the risk of setbacks in the flow of much-needed funds to the continent’s battered economies.

a group of people sitting at a table: Partition screens set up for social distancing measures divide customers eating and drinking on an outdoor restaurant terrace in Munich, on Sept. 24.

© Bloomberg
Partition screens set up for social distancing measures divide customers eating and drinking on an outdoor restaurant terrace in Munich, on Sept. 24.

“Delays with consequences for Europe’s economic recovery will most likely be unavoidable,” German ambassador to the EU, Michael Clauss, said in a WhatsApp message sent from his spokesman. Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU until the end of the year, is coordinating talks related to the bloc’s 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) recovery fund and long-term budget.

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EU governments are split over tying disbursements from the jointly financed economic recovery package with the adherence

SpaceX delays next Starlink satellite fleet launch due to bad weather

Posted on September 28, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

SpaceX postponed the launch of a new fleet of Starlink internet satellites today (Sept. 28) due to bad weather at the mission’s Florida launch site.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch 60 Starlink satellites from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT), but thick clouds over the launch site prevented the flight.

“Unfortunately, it looks like due to weather violations, we’re going to to have to scrub today,” Alex Seigel, a senior material planner with SpaceX, said in live commentary. “But again, the most important thing is reducing as much risk on the mission as possible, and with that comes waiting for a window of good weather.”

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink internet satellites stands atop Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida during a Sept. 28, 2020 launch attempt. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink internet satellites stands atop Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida during

Trump Blesses Oracle’s TikTok Deal, Delays App Store Ban

Posted on September 20, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump gave his blessing to Oracle Corp.’s bid for the American operations of TikTok, putting the popular video-sharing app on course to escape a U.S. ban imposed as part of his pressure campaign against China.

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“I approved the deal in concept,” Trump told reporters Saturday as he left the White House for a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “If they get it done, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s OK too.”

The new company, which will be called TikTok Global, has agreed to funnel $5 billion in new tax dollars to the U.S. and set up a new education fund, which Trump said would satisfy his demand that the government receive a payment from the deal. “They’re going to be setting up a very large fund,” he said. “That’s their contribution that I’ve been asking for.”

Oracle plans to take a 12.5% stake in

EBay activates plan to shift more business to UPS and away from Postal Service because of mail delays

Posted on September 20, 2020 / by [email protected]_84 /

The company said that by the end of September, eBay sellers will be able to print out discounted UPS shipping labels, at a cost up to 62 percent cheaper than typical UPS rates.

For the Postal Service, the loss of eBay revenue could be substantial: A spreadsheet of the Postal Service’s largest customers prepared last spring showed the e-commerce site was agency’s second-largest retail customer, shipping more than 130 million items up to that point in the fiscal year. The USPS generated more than $743 million in revenue from eBay packages in that fiscal year while grappling with a $160.9 billion deficit.

EBay is second only to Amazon, which generated more than $2.3 billion in revenue for USPS during the same time frame, and whose business top Postal Service managers were fearful of losing, The Washington Post reported this week.

EBay facilitates online sales by private individuals and businesses across