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The original Looney Tunes animated shorts that aired between the 1930 and 1969 are no longer available to stream on Max, Deadline reports. Warner Bros. Discovery removed them from the streaming service as part of its ongoing shift away from children's shows and towards adult and family programming. For now, newer Looney Tunes series and spin-offs remain, like New Looney Tunes and Baby Looney Tunes, but the decision still feels odd because Warner Bros. Discovery just released The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Story in theaters on March 14. Of course, the company is no stranger to ill-conceived (frequently anti-art) decision making. The original Looney Tunes were last on the chopping block in 2023, when a press release covering shows and movies that were being added and removed from Max included the iconic animated shorts. Warner Bros. Discovery walked back that announcement, saying it was an error, but apparently plans change. While it seems strange to remove something Warner Bros. Discovery owns and doesn't have to pay an exorbitant licensing fee to offer, pulling shows and scrapping the release of movies has been the company's recent strategy to save money and earn tax breaks see another Looney Tunes-related release, Coyote vs. Acme, or Batgirl. As far as this recent deprioritization of children's programming on Max goes, Warner Bros. Discovery has been working on it for a while. The company shutdown Boomerang, Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service for classic cartoons, in 2024. Warner Bros. Discovery decided to not renew its distribution deal for Sesame Street last year, too, but removing around 200 old episodes of the show in 2022 was probably a good sign the company had lost interest way earlier.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/warner-bros-discovery-pulled-the-original-looney-tunes-shorts-off-max-190500556.html?src=rss
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Those stranded Starliner astronauts are finally coming back to Earth, with a touchdown expected on Tuesday evening. Coverage begins on Monday night at around 10:45PM ET, with streams available on NASAs website and via the NASA+ app. Monday nights stream will focus on the hatch closing and the undocking procedure. The stream will go dark until 4:45PM ET on Tuesday as the crew approaches splashdown. The arrival is scheduled for around 5:57PM ET and a live press conference is set for 7:30PM ET. The two NASA astronauts returning (Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore) were part of Boeings Starliner crew to the ISS. This was supposed to be a one-week stay but, just like Gilligan and the rest, was extended to nine months when the ship was deemed unfit for a crewed return to Earth. Five of the thrusters failed enroute. This is forcing the pair to hitch a ride on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX also ran into a delay, as this mission was originally scheduled for February. The Starliner returned, but without the crew. NASA planned to retrieve Williams and Wilmore back in September via a crewed mission with two empty seats. However, that launch faced technical issues and was delayed until April. This partnership with SpaceX will bring the pair home a couple of weeks early.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/you-can-watch-the-starliner-astronauts-return-to-earth-after-an-unplanned-nine-month-visit-185308418.html?src=rss
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Eight days. Thats how long Boeing Starliners mission its first flight test with crew aboard was supposed to last. But this mission has been singular in almost every way, and astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have instead spent the past nine and a half months aboard the International Space Station. Now, finally, they're headed home. Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is slated to begin undocking from the ISS at 1:05 am ET Tuesday and is scheduled for splashdown at 5:57 pm ET, according to NASA's timetable. (Portions of the mission will stream live on the agency's website.) The Starliner crew was never truly stranded, to be clear. They always had a way off the space station in an emergency. But if this mission's foibles taught us one thing, it was to expect the unexpected. Even now, six months after the troubled spacecraft autonomously undocked from the ISS and landed at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, leaving its crew behind and effectively ending the flight test, the mission is still making headlines. Boeing Starliner CFT went from a symbol of the myriad struggles in Boeings aviation business to a political punching bag, courtesy of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Why did it take so long to bring the astronauts home? And did NASA cave to political pressure in setting the return date? Lets take a look at how we got here and what the evidence suggests. Starliner was floundering well before liftoff Boeing Starliner had a long, troubled history before it even got off the ground. Back in 2014, the Space Shuttle era had ended, and the United States was dependent on Russian Soyuz capsules to fly its astronauts. To remedy this, NASA awarded two companies Boeing and SpaceX Commercial Crew contracts to build new spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. The official target date for a crewed flight test for these two companies was flexible. But, according to a 2016 report from William Gerstenmaier, the agencys head of human spaceflight at the time, it was clear NASA expected these demonstration flights to occur in 2017. (Gerst now works for SpaceX.) Obviously, that did not happen. SpaceXs uncrewed orbital test occurred in 2019, while the crewed demonstration flight was in 2020. Boeing also finally launched its Starliner capsule to the ISS for an uncrewed test in December 2019. However, that flight went so badly (the capsule did not reach its intended orbit or dock with the station) that NASA required Boeing to implement fixes and perform a second test in May 2022. That test went mostly well, though two of the capsules thrusters failed during the orbital insertion burn, and post-flight inspections revealed nearly a mile of flammable tape in the capsule wiring which required removal. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner attached to an Atlas V rocket.ASSOCIATED PRESS The May 2024 launch was delayed a few times due to rocket issues and problems with ground systems. NASA and Boeing also detected a helium leak in the propellant system (helium is used to push propellant to the thrusters). They attributed it to a defective seal, but after the spacecraft launched on June 5, it sprung a total of five helium leaks. Whats more, five thrusters failed on approach to the ISS. Astronauts Wilmore and Williams were able to successfully dock with the ISS, but their mission changed significantly in those few hours; they had to figure out what, exactly, was wrong with the spacecraft and whether it was safe to bring them home. Its important to remember that NASA has only tested six total new crewed spacecraft (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, SpaceX Crew Dragon, and Boeing Starliner). Its a very difficult process, and everyone expects there to be problems thats why NASA does these tests. But even for a test flight, this was bad. Eight days to nine months Over the summer of 2024, NASA quietly tested and re-tested Starliners thrusters, both in orbit and on the ground, to find out why the thrusters failed. In the absence of meaningful updates from NASA, people started to seriously question whether the agency thought Starliner was safe to bring the astronauts home. In mid-July, NASA paid SpaceX to study bringing more than four astronauts home on a single Crew Dragon capsule, as well as launching two astronauts on a Crew Dragon instead of the usual four. The agency insisted this was related to Frank Rubios extended stay on the ISS the year before. However, at a press conference in early August, Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich confirmed that, in July, NASA had started working with SpaceX on contingency scenarios for Butch and Sunis possible return, as they continued to troubleshoot Starliners faulty thrusters. Finally on August 24, NASA announced that Starliner would return to Earth uncrewed. There were serious issues with Starliners propulsion system. NASA was concernedabout a worst-case scenario in which the thrusters failed and, at the same time, the helium leak rates increased. This could have left the astronauts in orbit, unable to perform a re-entry burn. Butch and Suni would become part of SpaceX's ninth Commercial Crew flight (aptly named Crew-9), which would launch on September 28 with just two astronauts. They would serve out the remainder of this mission, which would keep them on the ISS through mid- to late-February. But why leave them in space until 2025? The bottom line is that the agency chose the least risky option. An extra return mission would have added unnecessary complexity. Relative to sending up a new Dragon so that Butch and Sunny didn't have to stay up until February, we really never considered that option, Steve Stich, the program manager for NASAs Commercial Crew Program, explained at a press conference on August 7. Plus, it takes around four months to prepare a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for launch, and the extra cost would have been too much for NASA to absorb. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the ISS.ASSOCIATED PRESS Astronauts are accustomed to mission delays and extensions; Frank Rubio had his ISS long-duration stay extended from 6 months to over one year because of a leaky Soyuz capsule, finally returning to Earth after a record-breaking 371 days in space. NASA astronauts can handle a year in space. While it's not great to stay up there longer, the ISS has the appropriate countermeasures to maintain their health out to a year at least, Dr. Dan Buckland, a space medicine researcher at Duke University explained to Engadget in an email. Put another way, the expected recovery time on Earth might get longer the longer they stay, but the health plateau they are currently at is probably sustainable for the next few months at least. This was NASAs return plan for the Starliner astronauts, which it began working on in July 2024 and announced to the public that August. Fast forward to March of 2025 and almost nothing has changed, except that the mission has become a political punching bag. Delays and political posturing The story got even more complicated in mid-December, when NASA announced that Crew-9s return would be delayed because of a problem with the Crew-10 SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. When a relief crew arrives at the International Space Station, NASA schedules their missions to overlap for a few days. These are called handovers, and they typically run about five days long. Crew-10 was scheduled to fly on the brand new Crew Dragon, but problems with the batteries on the spacecraft meant that it wouldnt be ready for a mid-February launch. As a result, Crew-10 wouldnt launch until late March, and Crew-9 wouldnt return until after the in-person handover. Delays with space missions are extremely common, so no one expected that on January 28 Boeing Starliner would come roaring back into the headlines. On Truth Social, President Trump posted the following: I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to go get the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!! The same day, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, published a post on X claiming that the Biden administration had left the astronauts aboard the ISS. He later said in a Fox News interview on February 18 that the decision to leave Wilmore and Williams in orbit until the end of the Crew-9 mission had been politically motivated. However, Steve Stich confirmed in a March 7 press briefing that the decision to return Butch and Suni as a part of Crew-9 was made between himself and ISS program manager Dana Weigel, after which it was run up to the administrator. This was not a top-down decision. What about the return date for Crew-9, though? After this political kerfuffle with Trump and Musk, NASA announced February 11 it was swapping the Crew Dragon capsule for Crew-10 to a previously flown spacecraft. This meant that they could move up Butch and Sunis return date by two weeks, to mid-March. Well, as far as anyone can tell, this was also not the result of political pressure. At a Crew-10 media briefing on Friday, March 7, Stich made it clear that the capsule swap was driven by other motivations, including needing to fit the Crew-10 launch in between the Intuitive Machines mission which launched on February 27 from the same pad (RIP Athena) and the Soyuz handover on the ISS in April. Officials were discussing swapping the capsules a month before the presidents Truth Social post (though it's possible the President was aware of the discussion when it was happening.) Intuitive Machines' Athena lander nearing the lunar surface.ASSOCIATED PRESS The presidents interest sure added energy to the conversation, said Ken Bowersox, NASAs associate administrator for space operations, during that media teleconference. In the end, its hard to believe any narrative in which the timeline of Butch and Sunis return was politically motivated, whether by the Biden administration or the Trump administration. Its incorrect to say that NASA isnt subject to political whims, because its a government agency, with a budget proposed by the president and determined by Congress. The agency is bracing itself for drastic budget cuts to its science operatons this year. Generally speaking, that means its likely that if NASA can safely and reasonably do something that the president asks for, it will try. But changing around mission timelines and sending up rescue missions for astronauts who arent in danger? A NASA spokesperson refused to comment on this directly.. But its unlikely this was the case, especially considering they stuck with a flight plan thats been in place since August 2024. They simply make the best decisions based on the evidence that they have at the moment, taking into account that their top priority is the lives of the astronauts, Laura Forczyk, founder of the space consulting firm Astralytical, explained. NASA makes the best decisions that it can in the moment, regardless of what the popular opinion is. What's next for NASA and Boeing? Once the Crew-9 capsule splashes down, that will truly bring an end to the Boeing Starliner mission, but its ramifications will be felt for a very long time. There are serious questions about the direction of the agency going forward, given the political climate and the new administrations priorities. NASA acting administrator Janet Petro has already eliminated the Office of the Chief Scientist, in compliance with the Trump administrations Reduction in Force order. More cuts are likely; rumors suggest that as much as half of NASAs science budget will be slashed. This raises questions about whether NASA will be able to operate iconic observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. And NASAs incoming administrator, Jared Isaacman, is a friend of Elon Musk and works closely with SpaceX. Isaacman conducted the first private spacewalk with Sarah Gillis on Polaris Dawn, a flight he paid SpaceX for, last year. Isaacman still hasnt been confirmed as administrator, but if he is, he will likely change NASAs human spaceflight program, starting with the return to the moon: The Artemis III moon landing is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027). Whats more, we still dont know the fate of the Starliner program. While NASA continues to work with Boeing to close out in-flight anomaly investigations, its uncertain when (or if) the next flight of Starliner might occur. There are also questions surrounding whether Boeing even wants to fly another mission. Back in October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing which also built many modules for the ISS was considering selling off its space business altogether. As of February 2025, Boeings total losses on Starliner had reached $2 billion. Whatever happens with Boeing Starliner, the massively disproportionate political backlash to a routine NASA decision that prioritized the health and safety of their astronauts is a troubling indicator of whats to come for the agency.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/boeing-starliner-astronauts-finally-head-home-nine-months-later-184546850.html?src=rss
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