The flight to nowhere

A private venture hailed as the beginning of a new age of cheap and reliable access to space suffered a setback yesterday when its first rocket was lost over the Pacific Ocean about a minute after liftoff last week. The rocket, called Falcon, was being launched from Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands by SpaceX, a company that has 200 million in contracts from the Pentagon, foreign governments and private companies to put small payloads in orbit.

The company said Falcon was carrying an Air Force satellite. The founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, said in a statement, 8220;We had a successful liftoff, and Falcon made it well clear of the launch pad, but unfortunately the vehicle was lost later in the first-stage burn.8221; The road to the first mission had several delays. Charles A. Lurio, a space consultant, wrote in an e-mail message that the Web video from a camera on the side of the rocket showed a sudden swing as if it were pitching over. 8220;I8217;m disappointed by the event,8221; he wrote, adding that it was 8220;a bad day, but only the beginning of the SpaceX assault.8221;

NYT

Charge your cell phone anywhere

You8217;re walking through East Nowhere and the battery in your cell phone or PDA dies. There8217;s no place to plug in a charger, and besides, you don8217;t have time to hang around while the battery recharges. Cell phone battery boosters have been around for a while, but they have built-in batteries that need periodic recharging as well. But with the Turbo Charge from Voxred, you can recharge your phone with a AA battery. The company claims the charger, which you plug into the phone or PDA with an adapter, can give you up to two hours of talk time or 40 hours on standby. It comes with your choice of adapter and a battery. Additional adapters are also available. The lipstick-size charger is available now at turbocellcharge.com, and will be in stores later this year. That means no more missed calls and no more excuses for not returning a call, even if you8217;re stuck in East Nowhere.

NYT