launch

Airbus wants to launch eAction in 2030

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He A320 It is not just a recognizable aircraft in any European airport. It is one of those platforms that have ended up defining how we fly: short routes, medium distances, low-cost companies, traditional airlines and a huge part of the global single aisle business. That is why his replacement cannot be read as another catalog update. What Airbus is preparing points to a long-range industrial decision: start defining now the aircraft that should take over the baton in the next decade. In an interview with Aviation WeekGuillaume Faury, the CEO of Airbus, talks about a two-stage roadmap. First would be 2030, proposed as the moment to give the green light to eAction, the internal name of the project, and open the decisive phase of the program. Then came the entry into service, located in the second half of the 1930s. We are not facing an immediate replacement, but rather a transition that will last years. The plane that should replace an emblem For now, the work moves in a preliminary phase, more technical than visible. Airbus talks about research, development, simulations and studies with partners to review options in wings, fuselage, propulsion and industrial systems. There is no definitive configuration nor a closed list of characteristics, and that forces each element to be treated as part of a still open process. In this initial kitchen, precisely, a good part of everything that will come later is played out. The figures explain why the handover will be so delicate. The A320 family accumulates 20,169 total orders, 12,670 deliveries and 11,374 aircraft in service, in addition to a pending portfolio of 7,499 units. Within that volume, the A321neo weighs increasingly more, with 5,615 aircraft still to be delivered. The European manufacturer is also working to approach a production rate of up to 75 units per month by the end of 2027, supported by ten final assembly lines distributed between Hamburg, Toulouse, Mobile and Tianjin. With such an industrial load, the change would have to be more like a gradual transition than an immediate replacement. The company itself assumes that the A320 will remain attractive for a long time, even when the new aircraft begins to reach airlines. This will force us to adjust for years the decrease in production of one family and the increase of the other, without breaking deliveries or further straining a supply chain that is already coming from difficult years. The precedent of the overlap between the A320ceo and the A320neo helps to understand the scale of the move. In parallel, Airbus continues to define which technologies should shape this new generation. The company has previously noted that a future single-aisle aircraft could improve efficiency by 20% to 30% compared to current models and operate with up to 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Among the options it is studying also include more efficient engines, a possible open fan architecture, longer wings with folding tips, lighter materials and more connected on-board systems. The planning also gives a glimpse of how Airbus interprets the moment the market is experiencing. After Kelly Ortberg suggested that the schedule for Boeing’s next plane could be moved, the CEO defended that the priority is not to react to the competition, but to take advantage of the company’s position to decide when to launch its next program. That strategy also seeks to concentrate engineering, investment and supplier resources around the project when the time comes. That’s why 2030 works as a departure date, not an arrival date. If Airbus maintains the schedule, that year would serve to formally activate the program that should bring the successor to the A320 to airlines in the second half of the 1930s. Until then, several decisions will remain to be finalized. The internal name is already on the table: eAction. What is missing is for the program that can mark the next exit in the single aisle to end up materializing. Images | Airbus (1, 2) In Xataka | Brazil has achieved something once unthinkable for a Latin American country: assembling its own supersonic fighters

NASA’s launch facilities are too old to travel to the Moon

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The Artemis program is, without a doubt, one of NASA’s most ambitious plans. The agency has invested a lot of money and a lot of effort in ensuring its missions come to fruition. However, to some extent, it is starting to behave like a late model Ferrari on an unpaved trail. It has the capacity to go very far, as long as the setting is right. If not, it can be a disaster. According to the latest statements According to NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), its two main launch sites are overcrowded and have outdated facilities. It must be solved to squeeze out Artemis’s potential; but, at the moment, there is no money. Two facilities reaching the limit. The two facilities referred to by the OIG are the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Both are used by both NASA and private companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin among others. The pace of launches is growing faster and faster. In 2020, 31 rockets were launched from the KSC, but the figure rose to 109 launches in 2025. At Wallop, for the same years, it went from 3 to 17 launches. The latter may seem like a minor difference, but considering Wallop’s pitch volume is lower, it’s a 467% increase. KSC’s is 252%, also quite high. It is estimated that both facilities could be operating at their limits by 2028 and 2029. Artemis IV, the program’s first manned moon landingis scheduled for 2028 and will mark the beginning of a series of trips to the Moon that, according to plans, should become more and more frequent. The platforms would not be able to cope. Obsolete facilities. The problem with these facilities is not only that they are small for so many launches. It has also been warned that they are too old. Most elements were built in the 1960s to support the apollo program. As a result, there are roads that were paved without taking into account the weight of modern rockets, fuel pipelines that cannot supply multiple users at once, and an aging electrical grid. It is true that the problems are more serious at KSC, since Wallop has undergone some renovations, but many improvements will still need to be made in both for the facilities to be up to par with Artemis. Money is missing. According to OIG calculations, $1 billion would be needed to renovate both facilities. However, so far NASA has only received $250 million of the funds allocated in last year’s HR1 2025 reconciliation bill. Clearly, it is not enough. NASA is scheduled to renew all of its facilities every 66 years. However, with the available budget, it would take 260 years to renew all its facilities. Kennedy Space Center Artemis’ demands. The demands of Artemis alone are already very high for the facilities currently available to NASA. It is planned that, before landing, the Orion capsule, with the astronauts on board, will dock in lunar orbit with the SpaceX or Blue Origin human landing system. In some missions it will be one and in others the other. Both must be there by the time Orion arrives, taking astronauts to the Moon and returning them back to lunar orbit. All of this will require several refuelings (15 have been confirmed for SpaceX), so many ships will have to be launched almost simultaneously. Today, it is not viable. In fact, the OIG report casts doubt on whether the protocol can even be carried out. Artemis IIImuch more modest. In your case, it will be necessary to send to Earth orbit Blue Origin and SpaceX human landers to demonstrate their feasibility and docking capabilities. They must be launched almost simultaneously, but this is not possible with pipelines that cannot supply two ships simultaneously or the obsolete electrical grid. It is urgent to improve the facilities and for that we need money. The OIG has made this report to warn about a situation that goes largely unnoticed. We have our sights set on the technologies of the present and the future, but we do not notice that those of the past, which need renewal, are the ones that could ruin NASA’s plans to return to the Moon. Image | NASA | Michael Rivera In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

Isar is the European aerospace company that has the money, the partners and even the rockets. The only thing missing is to launch them

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With its Spectrum rocket, the Isar Aerospace company apparently has everything to succeed. Money, public and private support, several available launch sites… However, it basically lacks being able to launch said rocket. He achieved it in March 2025, but it exploded just a minute later. He has tried again up to 4 times in 2026, but in any case the countdown has been paused due to some technical setback. The last of these attempts was this week, on Monday, June 15. The launch window will remain open until the 21st, but so far it has not been announced if there will be another attempt soon. The company has stated that every mistake is a lesson and that it is learning a lot from them, but the point is that it needs to take flight completely so that all those investors see a return benefit. Time passes and it is important to detect what technical problems are making takeoff so difficult. Five attempts. The explosion of 2025 It was due to the opening of a ventilation valve in mid-flight, which later caused the loss of attitude control of the rocket. Later, on January 21, it was a failure in a pressurization valve that prevented the launch. Then, on March 25, a dangerous increase in the temperature of liquid propane fuel was detected. To top it off, an unauthorized vessel entered the danger zone around the launch site. Logically, that was bad luck, but the problems continued. For example, in the April 9 attempt a possible leak was also located in a pressurized tank. Finally, this last attempt, that of June 15, it was not completed due to a failure in the fluid system. The problems have been of various kinds and it is important to solve them in time. ESA investment. Isar Aerospace is supported by ESAwhich has invested 205 million euros in it through the European Launcher Challenge program. In fact, in this last attempt the Spectrum rocket was loaded with 5 cubesats and an experiment from the European agency itself. Other investors. The company also has received 270 million euros of private investmentcoming from investors such as Island Green Capital, Molten Ventures, HV Capital or Lakestar. With all this, it is expected to reach a production level of more than 30 launchers a year. But of course, for that you have to take off with the first one. More launch locations. Currently, Isar Aerospace launches its rockets from the Andøya spaceport in northern Norway. However, it plans to build a new facility in Canada and has already signed a letter of intent with Maritime Launch Services to incorporate the Nova Scotia spaceport as a second operational site. He has even reached agreements to use the ramp of the old Diamant rocketin it French Guiana Spaceport. The fishermen do not support it. The German company has a lot of support, although it lacks that of the Norwegian fishermenthat they complain of the launch attempts that disrupt their work in Andøya. In fact, this place is also used as a military testing ground, so many complaints have also been issued about it. The money is already there, now the technology is missing. In short, this company has the money and, yes, the technology too, but it clearly fails. There is something that must be solved, because the fishermen’s problem is solved by changing the launch site, but the problem of not taking flight can end up with the loss of investors. Isar Aerospace engineers have a lot of work ahead of them. Image | Isar Aerospace In Xataka | An unknown company from Barcelona has become indispensable for ESA: its software controls the Ariane 6 rocket

For once, NASA has not delayed a launch but has done the opposite: from 2027 to 2026

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NASA already has a date for launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Although this had initially been dated for May 2027, it will finally leave for its workplace this summer, on August 30, 2026. This is something quite unusual. Space agencies usually set very optimistic dates for their launches, so they must then postpone them. On this occasion, the opposite has happened: it has gone ahead. First there was talk of September 2026 and finally it has moved forward a little more, to this final date. Even so, it is something that, in reality, was seen coming, since NASA has worked at all times optimizing its resources and accelerating processes to be able to go into space as soon as possible. A long-awaited date with space. On August 30, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will depart towards the Lagrange point 2 powered by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Its position will not be very far from that of James Webb, which is in the same neighborhood. It’s a good spot because the Sun, Moon, and Earth are right behind it, so the telescope’s instruments stay cool and stable. Thus, he will be able to carry out much better a mission whose planned duration will be 5 years, extendable to another five if all goes well and it is considered necessary. A complement to Hubble and James Webb. The James Webb and Hubble space telescopes are characterized by observing small areas of the sky with great sensitivity. The first works in infrared and the second in visible light and ultraviolet, but in general they do have that point in common. Instead, Roman will simultaneously analyze much larger areas of the sky, thanks to a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble’s. It is not as precise, due to a shallower depth of field, but it can make much larger sweeps of space. If you find something that needs to be analyzed in detail, it would be necessary for one of the other two telescopes to come into action. It’s about teamwork. On the other hand, the Roman is capable of processing the data it collects at high speed. It is calculated that Hubble would take 2,000 years to process what Roman will process in just one. Exoplanets and dark matter. Thanks to its ability to scan large regions of sky, Roman is expected to detect 100,000 exoplanets and 1 billion galaxies. By being able to observe many exoplanets at once, it is easier to make questions such as the proportion of Earth-like planets What lies beyond our solar system. In addition, thanks to that same ability, you will also be able to analyze at a glance the space equivalent to many years of cosmic history, so you could understand much better.the expansion of the Universe and, with it, the possible role of dark matter and dark energy. The telescope was named in honor of astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. Work against the clock. From the first moment, NASA has sought to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as soon as possible. It is urgent to have a telescope in the sky that can lend a hand to Hubble and James Webb and, incidentally, can analyze the information much faster than them. Therefore, many pieces were manufactured and tested simultaneouslyin order to save time. Modular assembly techniques were also carried out, which allowed deadlines to be adjusted even further. On the other hand, public-private collaboration has been used, in order to waste less time searching for government financing. Still, it took 10 years and millions of hours of work to get the telescope ready for launch. It has passed all the relevant tests, nothing has been accelerated in a dangerous way. Simply, this time the predictions were more conservative than optimistic, so the final result has been much more positive. We will have to wait for the big day. Be that as it may, just because the date has been brought forward does not mean that the launch will happen on August 30th. Many launches end up being aborted for various reasons, either before they get underway or during the countdown. Let’s hope that’s not the case with this dark matter detective, but we’ll still have to wait to see what happens. Information bonus. Although it is mainly known as Roman, let’s not forget that the telescope’s full name is Nancy Grace Roman, in honor of the astronomer considered the “mother of Hubble”for the role he played both in its development and in getting the project approved by the United States Congress. Image | POT In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

China is about to launch the most powerful cargo drone in the world. And it will move it with hydrogen

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The aeronautical industry has been researching and experimenting for quite some time. with hydrogen turboprop engines on airplanes. A Chinese company is about to break that barrier, as it has taken off an airplane with one of these megawatt-scale engines. Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has completed the first test flight of the AEP100, installed on a 7.5-ton cargo drone, in an operation that took off from Zhuzhou airport, in Hunan province. what has happened. The device flew for 16 minutes, reached an altitude of 300 meters and traveled 36 kilometers at a speed of 220 km/h before landing without incident. According to AECC, the engine operated stably throughout the flight profile and responded as expected. Chinese state media present it as the world’s first flight with a hydrogen turboprop of this power. Why is it relevant?. Yes, it is a short, unmanned, low-altitude test. But this means that hydrogen aeronautical propulsion leaves the laboratory and test benches to face real flight conditions. AECC maintains that the country already has a complete technological chain for hydrogen aeronautical engines, from essential components to system integration. direct combustion. The AEP100 does not use fuel cells to power an electric motor. It burns liquid hydrogen directly in a turbine cycle, just as a conventional turboprop would burn kerosene. This is the main difference with other bets. Airbus, for example, has prioritized fuel cells on its roadmap to a hydrogen commercial aircraft in 2035, while China has opted for direct combustion. Combustion is more complicated to tame in engineering, but offers much higher power density, something key to scaling up to larger aircraft. What aircraft is it intended for?. The AEP100 is custom designed for the W5000, a twin-engine cargo drone developed by Chinese startup Air White Whale. According to the manufacturer’s data, we are talking about a device with a maximum takeoff weight of 10.8 tons, 5 tons of payload, more than 65 cubic meters of hold and a range of 2,600 kilometers. Just like share from China Daily, when it completes its first flight, it will become the most powerful transport drone in the world, surpassing the Norinco Luca. Deadlines. Yuan An, general manager of subsidiary AE General Aviation Power Tech, has explained The engine is in the final phase of the type certification process and they hope to obtain approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2027. The process is progressing faster than usual because the AEP100 shares a core with the AES100 turboshaft, which shortens procedures. Yuan has also assured that the AEP100 and its variants will “end the heavy dependence on foreign engines” in Chinese general aviation. Where will it be used first?. For now, we have to forget about getting on a hydrogen-powered passenger plane. The bet goes through what they call the “low altitude economy”that is, situations in which unmanned cargo drones, inter-island logistics or controlled transport routes to remote areas are used, being scenarios where hydrogen refueling infrastructure, certification and operational economics are more manageable than in passenger aviation. Yuan remember also that the United States has more than 275,000 general aviation aircraft, while in China there are only a few thousand. The problems that remain unresolved. Burning hydrogen in a turbine is no small feat, as you can imagine. It burns at higher temperatures than kerosene and with a much higher flame speed, which requires the design of systems that avoid autoignition, flame flashbacks and combustion oscillations. Added to this is storage, since liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures close to -253 ° C, heavily insulated tanks and, most likely, redesigning the geometry of the fuselage itself to accommodate it. Sustainability. aviation Today it is around 2% of global CO₂ emissions, a figure that could skyrocket in the coming decades if the sector maintains its dependence on fossil fuels. China aims to reduce its exposure to imported oil in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario, so hydrogen can fit into both narratives. And now what. China’s road map mark 2028 as horizon to validate similar technologies in small unmanned aircraft, helicopters and urban air mobility, 2035 for applications in broader regions and 2050 for large commercial turbofan aircraft. The first flight of the W5000 with the AEP100 installed is expected in the coming months and will be the next litmus test. Cover image | CCTV In Xataka | For China, DeepSeek is more than just AI: it is the key to creating an industry that makes them independent of Nvidia

your own launch pad

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Starship’s twelfth flight is just a few days away. In it, SpaceX will test version 3 of the rocket with which they have applied to take the next batch of humans to the lunar surface. However, while its opponent, Blue Origin, is going from strength to strength, SpaceX has experienced some incidents that could complicate their competition. The last of them took place last weekend. An explosion and a flood that doesn’t work. The incidence took place during a test of the launch pad’s deluge system. This is used to shoot water upwards, thus preventing the ignition of the rocket engines from causing a fire. After activating it, a small explosion occurred, followed by the formation of a column of water vapor. Likely, as explained the youtuber and content creator of the Marcus House space, it could be due to the gas unit losing the lid due to excess pressure. It wouldn’t be a very serious problem. The bad thing is that it is not the first time. More incidents. During two static firings of the B19 booster, in which it ignites without moving from the launch pad, it was necessary to abort the procedure due to a similar problem. There were also failures, both in the deluge system and with the steel plate that protects the launch pad. Learning from mistakes. Both the flood system and that steel plate are the result of forced learning. And, during the first test launch of Starship, a huge roar was generated that ended with the destruction of the concrete structure that makes up the launch platform and a hole in the ground. In addition, a cloud of dust was generated that covered a nearby town. Seeing all this, it is not strange that so many Texans want to denounce SpaceX for damage to their homes. To prevent something like this from happening again, the deluge system was put into operation and the platform was covered with a reinforced steel plate. These decisions were a before and after in the Starship launches. But of course, if they fail, things get very complicated. In the race against Blue Origin. The Starship fulfills both the functions of a rocket and a ship capable of landing on the Moon. It is composed of two phases. The first, called Super Heavy, is the rocket itself. The second is the one that, once separated from the rocket, fulfills the functions of spacecraft and lunar lander. That is the one that is proposed together with Blue Origin to take the Artemis astronauts to the selenite surface. Everything is still going. Despite this hiccup, everything is still on track for the next Starship launch. If all goes well, it will take place on May 15. For its part, Blue Origin has already tested its lunar lander in a NASA vacuum chamber with very good results. That doesn’t mean that Jeff Bezos’ company is going to be the winner, but it’s clear who’s luck is smiling the most right now. Image | SpaceX In Xataka | SpaceX is preparing the largest IPO in history: the fact that it is doing so right now is no coincidence

launch one of the most extreme weapons ever devised

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In 1961, the US Navy lost a nuclear submarine in the Atlantic and spent years trying to locate exactly what had happened under thousands of meters of water. That search left an idea among military strategists: the ocean could hide for decades technologies, accidents or threats capable of altering the global balance without anyone really knowing where they were. The return of weapons designed for fear. In the midst of the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union came to study weapons so extreme that they seemed straight out of science fiction: nuclear torpedoes gigantic, underwater explosions massive or systems designed to destroy entire cities from the ocean. For decades, many of those projects remained relics of another era… until Russia decided to recover part of that logic with a new generation of “superweapons” designed to penetrate modern defenses and return strategic fear to the center of naval warfare. The submarine created around a weapon. He Khabarovsk-class is probably the most radical example of that idea. Russia has built a nuclear submarine whose main mission is not to patrol, escort or combat like a conventional one, but to transport and cast Poseidonthat gigantic autonomous torpedo with strategic nuclear propulsion and capability that we talked about before. In fact, everything in its design revolves around that mission. Their conventional capabilities They exist, but they are clearly subordinated to the true objective of the project: converting the submarine into a platform dedicated to deploying one of the most extreme weapons ever developed. Poseidon and the logic of the apocalyptic weapon. The truth is that Poseidon It is not really a conventional underwater drone, but rather a huge strategic torpedo designed to travel intercontinental distances underwater and threaten coastal cities, critical infrastructure or aircraft carrier groups. Russia presented in 2018 as an “invincible” and impossible to intercept weapon, trying to convey the idea that it can still develop systems capable of breaking any Western defensive shield. Beyond the propaganda, the concept is disturbing because forces NATO to prepare against autonomous underwater threats capable of operating over enormous distances and long periods of time. A design built for an idea. The new satellite images and open analyzes have shown that the Khabarovsk mixes elements of Russian submarines Borei and Belgorodalbeit removing entire parts to focus almost exclusively on Poseidon. The submarine maintains gigantic dimensions, a monster of about 135 meters longand probably carries up to six Poseidon torpedoes in huge compartments located in the bow. Among them there is hardly any room for conventional torpedoes, making it clear that Russia sacrificed versatility and multipurpose capability to prioritize this strategic weapon above everything else. NATO still doesn’t know how much naval warfare will change. Despite the grandiloquent tone with which the Kremlin presented Poseidonthe weapon still raises many questions about its real usefulness, its operational capacity and its true strategic impact. Some analysis considered exaggerated certain Russian claims, especially those related to apocalyptic effects or absolute impossibility of interception. Even so, and as we said, NATO navies are forced to take it very seriously because it introduces an extremely uncomfortable problem: how to detect and neutralize an autonomous underwater nuclear threat capable of operating at enormous distances and for long periods. Simply forcing the West to dedicate resources, surveillance and planning to this scenario is already a partial victory for Moscow. In the end, the Khabarovsk reflects an increasingly visible trend in Russian strategy: compensating for economic or conventional limitations by betting on radical systems, difficult to classify and designed more to alter the psychological and strategic calculation of the adversary than to wage traditional conventional wars. Image | Andrei Luzik In Xataka | Russia has created Poseidon, the largest torpedo in the world (and it works with nuclear propulsion) In Xataka | The “weapon of the apocalypse”: the Poseidon torpedo aboard the newly mobilized Russian nuclear submarine

We already know what happens to the GPU hourly price when OpenAI or Anthropic launch a new model: it doubles

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This week, an analyst named Tomasz Tunguz published in X two revealing graphs. They show the evolution of what it costs AI startups to access cloud computing, and there is bad news. The cost of renting the NVIDIA B200 GPUs with Blackwell architecture has gone from $2.31 per hour in early March to $4.95 per hour this week. It is an increase of 114% in just six weeks and it has a clear cause: the arrival of new models from Anthropic and OpenAI. What the graphs show clearly. Those charts focus on the price index of Ornna cloud computing trading marketplace. The first of them covers the price of renting the B200 chips from the end of 2025 until today, and there are vertical lines showing each release of the latest models from OpenAI and Anthropic. The correlation is almost perfect: GPT-5 Codex, Claude 4.5, GPT-5.3 Codex, Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5 coincide with a jump in price indices. Every time these companies announce a new version of their frontier models, demand skyrockets, and so does the cost. If you want the best, pay (much more). The second graph shows the price difference between renting the previous generation of chips, H200 with Hopper architecture, and the new B200. The historical average of that “spread” is $1.06, but now it stands at $2.09, practically double. That means buyers—startups and AI companies—are paying a record premium for the extra memory and superior computing power of Blackwell architecture chips. Accessing the latest of the latest was already expensive. Now it is even more so. This also makes the H200 in a second class option for the most demanding models of 2026. Action and reaction. There is overwhelming logic here. When OpenAI or Anthropic release a new model, there is an explosion in inference. Developers and companies want to test them as soon as possible and integrate these models into their products (or compete with them). To do this, they need computing quickly, and a simultaneous demand is caused that unbalances the available inventory in the market for renting AI chips by the hour. The problem is that the supply of B200 does not grow at the same rate. Some companies have wanted to anticipate, and we have the perfect example in Google. He has bought all the B200s he can, and that has made these GPUs around now the 500,000 dollars on the secondary market according to analyst Jack Minor. The irony of efficiency. The curious thing is that the more efficient these chips are – and the B200s are – the more companies want to rent them at the same time to take advantage of those efficiency advantages that should lead to cost savings. What actually happens is that the scarcity of these advanced chips cancels out any theoretical savings. Long term contracts. Startups and companies that think in the short term are especially harmed in this area, because they face price jumps that are increasingly difficult to assume. Companies that signed computer rental contracts at the price then can now operate at less than half the cost of their competitors. Thinking in the medium or long term seems reasonable, although once again those who win are the hyperscalers and those companies that have managed to get hold of many B200s. And who wins even more is of course NVIDIA, which cannot cope. Few alternatives. In other markets such as energy or metals there is usually room for maneuver, Tunguz points out, but the same is not happening at the moment in the AI ​​segment. In the oil market, for example, if the price rises 114% in six weeks, companies can buy futures, options or fixed-price supply contracts to protect their margins. In cloud computing rental, those options are much more limited. And the result is a much more volatile segment. This will go further. We are probably facing a peak in demand that will be followed by a correction: the new batch of B200 chips that arrive in the second half of 2026 are expected to cause a drop in current prices. However, that $4.95 is now the new floor, not a peak, because demand for AI computing will continue to grow faster than TSMC’s production capacity. In the absence of the supply of AI chips growing significantly – and there are certainly movements that are trying to achieve this, such as those of Google with its TPUsAmazon with its Trainium or Huawei with its Ascend—, the problem will still be there. In Xataka | Europe is taking its technological independence so seriously that it is aiming for the most ambitious goal: NVIDIA

If you were waiting for Xiaomi to launch cheap cars, its CEO encourages you to continue waiting seated

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Xiaomi has been in the automobile market for a couple of years (although it is still we are waiting for your arrival in Europe), and in contrast to what the brand offers in other areas such as smartphones, the company wants to position itself rather high in the price table of its cars. Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, confirmed during a live broadcast on April 17 that the brand has no intention of launching electric vehicles below 100,000 yuan (about 12,500 euros) in the coming years. Here, as expected from the figures, he talks about the Chinese market. Communication. Lei Jun made these statements during a live autonomy test in which he drove a new generation SU7 Pro from Beijing to Shanghai (1,265 kilometers) with a single stop to charge. On the way, he took the opportunity to chat with the chat, a calculated communication strategy that has been noticed. Luckily, during the talk, we were able to find very interesting statements from the head of the brand himself and get an idea of ​​his roadmap. No to the cheap car. According to counted Jun during the broadcast, today’s competitive electric cars increasingly depend on intelligent driving systems, and that type of technology has a high cost that does not fit with a sales price below that barrier of 100,000 yuan in China. According to collect the media CarNewsChina, Lei himself recognized that the new generation of the SU7 It accumulates more than 100 improvements compared to the previous model, with an increase in material costs of almost 20,000 yuan, but its selling price only rose by about 4,000 yuan. For Xiaomi, the equation applied to an entry-level car simply does not add up. Where Xiaomi does want to be. The updated SU7 starts at 219,900 yuan (around 27,500 euros), and the brand’s direction points even higher, as the firm is ready to launch its SU7 Ultra which already competes in the high-performance segment, and in the not too distant future models such as the YU7 GT or a premium variant of the SU7 will also appear, according to they count from ChinaEVHome. We will have to see prices when the firm lands in Europe with its SU7, but everything indicates that Xiaomi wants to consolidate itself within the field of the mid/high range of automobiles. The Chinese car is not synonymous with cheap. Xiaomi is not the only one that avoids the price war in the entry segment. He Xiaopeng, president of XPeng, declared during the presentation of MONA M03 that his company also has no plans to go below that 100,000 yuan threshold. Among the reasons it gave were too tight margins, unsustainable investment in smart technology and real risk of a destructive price spiral. What the numbers say. Sales data in China reinforce this reading. And it is that according to figures collected by CarNewsChina, entry-level electric cars, such as the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV or the BYD Seagull (Dolphin Surf here in Spain), registered year-on-year falls of almost 58% in the first months of 2026, partly due to the end of tax exemptions on purchases. The sedan and utility vehicle segment as a whole also fell almost 20% year-on-year in March. The volume is there, but the profitability is not. Promises. All in all, Lei Jun left a door ajar in the long term. Their goal is for Xiaomi to be among the five largest car manufacturers in the world. Reaching that scale would, sooner or later, require greater price coverage. But for this scenario to come true, there still seems to be time. Cover image | Xiaomi In Xataka | Journey to the center of the Chinese motor (part 2): I have seen the future of cars in Beijing and yes, it is electric (and very cool)

China has understood better than anyone where the space launch bottleneck is. Your solution: the sea

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On April 18, China will launch a space rocket from open waters for the first time. The Dong Fang Hang Tian Gang vessel has been modified to function as a launch platform, minimizing many of the problems that terrestrial platforms currently represent. The facts. This aquatic launch platform is a vessel that measures 162 meters long and 40 meters wide. The Jielong-3 rocket will be on board31 meters, designed by the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology for commercial flights. It will be launched from the South China Sea, marking the first time a launch has been carried out from open waters. If all goes well, China’s goal is to make it far from the last time. A huge waiting list. China has decided to launch rockets from the sea to address various problems. The first, without a doubt, is the saturation to which conventional launch platforms are currently exposed. The rise of the satellite industry, both for telecommunications as with other crazier purposeshas led to more and more launches scheduled on all launch platforms around the world. As a result, each new release must go onto a long waiting list, which can get complicated when you consider that there is usually only a few days’ release window available. It’s cheaper. Another advantage of aquatic launch pads is that they are very easy to build. To build one on dry land it is necessary to acquire a large amount of land and install all the necessary infrastructure. The result is not only complex. It is also very expensive. In the sea, on the other hand, a platform adapted to the immensity of the ocean is enough. Also safer. On the other hand, these types of offshore launch platforms are much safer than land-based ones for several reasons. To begin with, methane is increasingly being used as fuel. It is very powerful, but also very explosive. Therefore, large safety zones must be established around the launch pad. This is vital in case of an accidental explosion. In the ocean, however, it is not necessary. On the other hand, space launches cause great noise pollution for surrounding populations. If we add to all this that they could suffer the risk of falling parts, the truth is that living near a launch pad is not almost anyone’s dream. All of them are problems that are solved by launching rockets in the middle of the ocean. If there are accidents, the pieces must be removed to avoid contamination, but at least there are no populated areas that are at risk. The rocket to be launched will be a Jielong 3 Proximity to the equator. As a bonus, the ability to move barges wherever needed makes it easier for the Chinese Academy of Sciences to take its launches closer to the equator than land enclaves allow. This is very advantageous, since at this point the benefit of the Earth’s rotation can be maximized, giving greater momentum during launch. It’s not the first time, but there is a nuance. Actually, China has already launched rockets from water platforms in the past. A good example of this is Ceres-1S, which even used the same boat. Gravity-1 was also launched from a cliff. However, there is a difference. While Jielong-3 will be launched from open waters, Ceres-1 and Gravity-1 were launched near the coast, with logistics controlled from land and some of the same drawbacks that a land launch would have. A launch from open water, far from the coast, is another step forward. China continues to advance. In recent years, China has been positioning itself as a major space power. Just look at the progress it has made in lunar exploration. His plan to take humans to the Moon advanceswhile that of NASA does not stop finding impediments. Furthermore, its space station, Tiangong, continues receiving astronauts at a good pace, robotic exploration of Mars It is quite advanced and even They have found in Europe a great partner to explore solar inclemencies. Having an aquatic platform that gives agility to your throws can be another big step forward. Images | Freepik | China News Service In Xataka | China has the Moon between its eyebrows: it has now created the first chemical map of the hidden face

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