Astronauts Unroll a New Solar Wing, Mistral Gives Away a Giant AI, and Drones Get Cell Service

Mistral gives away one of the biggest AI models ever made

French company Mistral released the full Mistral Large 4 as open weightsAn AI model whose trained settings, called weights, are published so anyone can download it and run it on their own computers. It is like publishing the recipe, not just selling the dish. In the Glossary on Thursday, meaning anyone can download it and run it on their own machines. It has about 1 trillion parametersThe settings an AI model learns during training. More parameters usually means a bigger, more capable model. In the Glossary, the settings a model learns in training, but uses only about 52 billion for each word, a design called mixture of expertsAn AI model design that sends each word to only a few specialist parts of the model, so just a slice of it does the work at once and it costs less to run. In the Glossary that saves computing power. It reads text and images in more than 160 languages. Mistral says the final version scores 41% on Terminal-BenchA test of whether an AI agent can finish real tasks by typing commands into a computer. In the Glossary 4.0, a test of whether an AI can finish real computer tasks, up from 28% in its October preview, while using 30% fewer words. Mistral also cut the price to use it through its own service to $0.70 per million words in and $2.10 per million out, about half the old price, Fortune reports. Those scores are Mistral's own. Independent tester Artificial Analysis now scores it 26 on its Intelligence Index, where the top model scores 59. Companies that sell it as a hosted service need a separate license.

ULA's Vulcan rocket gets a comeback date: Nov. 13

United Launch Alliance set Friday, Nov. 13 for Vulcan's first flight since February, when a nozzleThe bell-shaped opening at the bottom of a rocket motor that shapes the exhaust into thrust. In the Glossary, the bell-shaped exhaust opening, failed on one of its four strap-on solid rocket boostersA strap-on rocket filled with solid fuel that adds push at liftoff. Once lit, it cannot be turned off. In the Glossary less than 30 seconds after liftoff. A similar problem happened on an earlier flight, and both missions still reached orbit. A team from ULA, boosterThe first and largest stage of a rocket, which gives the push for liftoff. SpaceX and others now land their boosters and fly them again. In the Glossary maker Northrop Grumman and the Space Force found several possible causes and changed the nozzle's design and how it is made, Spaceflight Now reports. ULA has not released detailed findings. The mission, called Vulcan Leo 1, will be the first Vulcan with six boosters and will carry 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites from Cape Canaveral. The Space Force has not said when its own satellites can fly on Vulcan again.

No orbital rockets launched anywhere in the world in the last 24 hours, by the Launch Library 2 count. The next is India's GSLV on Friday.

Drones get permission to use cellphone airwaves

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 0 on Thursday to let drones use 50 MHzThe range of radio frequencies used by phones, TV, Wi-Fi and drones. MHz, or megahertz, measures where a band sits and how wide it is. In the Glossary of the 800 MHz cellular band, radio airwaves that phone companies already use, ending a ban on airborne use from 1991. Drones can now use these licensed airwaves to be steered, to report where they are and to send back video and data, for example a delivery drone flying on a carrier's LTE or 5G network. The FCC's own release calls it a step toward routine drone flights. AT&T, Verizon, Amazon and drone industry groups supported the change, DroneLife reports. The rule takes effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal RegisterThe U.S. government's daily official publication of proposed and final rules, public notices and presidential orders. In the Glossary. It does not change who may fly where: routine flights beyond what a pilot can see still wait on the FAA's Part 108The FAA rule being written to allow routine drone flights beyond what a pilot can see. In the Glossary rule, which the law requires by Dec. 7.

The FDA proposes the first big update to baby formula rules in nearly 30 years

The FDA proposed new nutrient requirements for infant formula on Thursday, the first of three planned rules from its review of the 30 nutrients every formula must contain. It would update the amounts required for iodine, manganese, vitamin A and vitamin D, keep the rules for chloride, potassium, selenium and sodium, and asks the public whether it should require DHA, ARA and L-carnitine, nutrients found in breast milk. The FDA also released testing data on chemical contaminants in formula, saying most samples had low or undetectable levels, and opened an online dashboard of those results. This is a proposal, not a final rule; public comments are open until Feb. 26, 2027.

Britain pays for a spacecraft to study satellites that get too close

The UK Ministry of Defence awarded Astroscale UK 15 million pounds, about $19 million, for Project LEDA, a multi-year mission in which the company will build, launch and operate a spacecraft that practices rendezvous and proximity operationsOne spacecraft moving in close to another, to inspect, repair or refuel it, or for less friendly reasons. In the Glossary, meaning one spacecraft moving in close to another. The goal is to learn how to watch for and respond to other countries' satellites that approach British ones, European Spaceflight reports. Astroscale is best known for spacecraft that inspect and clean up space junk.

The FCC moves gadget testing out of China

The FCC voted Thursday to bar all labs in China, and in other countries that do not give U.S. labs equal treatment, from testing electronics for sale in the U.S., starting in December 2028, Reuters reports. Every phone, router and smart speaker needs FCC approval, based on lab tests, before it can be sold here. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said 82% of U.S. electronics were tested in China in 2025 and about 4% in the U.S. At the same meeting, the commission moved ahead on a plan to auction 25 MHz of airwaves that could carry phone service on the ground, straight from satellites, or both, using 1675 to 1695 MHz and 2020 to 2025 MHz, Via Satellite reports. It also proposed raising the number of bands satellites may use to reach ordinary phones from 5 to 13. Both are proposals open for public comment.

Dozens of big companies say no to tokens of their stock, while one says yes

Walmart, Eli Lilly, Carnival and Cigna are among the newest of 38 companies, out of 62 on the original list, that have objected to having their stock turned into tokens for around-the-clock trading on a new venue from OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, CoinDesk reports. JPMorgan objected earlier in the week. Under the SEC's Innovation ExemptionA conditional SEC permission, for up to five years, that lets approved venues trade tokens of U.S. stocks. In the Glossary, companies get 30 days to object when someone else wants to make tokens of their shares. Going the other way, Nasdaq-listed Canton Strategic Holdings says its own shares could start trading as tokens as early as Nov. 2, with a registered transfer agentA regulated firm that keeps the official list of who owns a company's shares. In the Glossary, the firm that keeps the official list of shareholders, recording ownership on the Canton NetworkA blockchain network built for banks and financial firms that lets them share some data while keeping other data private. In the Glossary. Tokenized real-world assetsIn blockchain finance, a traditional asset that exists outside the blockchain, such as a Treasury bill, a loan or a building, represented by a token on one. Often shortened to RWA. In the Glossary now total $39.54 billion, per RWA.xyz.

A quantum computer gets all 54 of its qubits working together

Finnish company IQM says it entangled all 54 qubits on its IQM Emerald processor, which people can use over the internet, in a single linked state called a GHZ stateA quantum link between particles or qubits so they act as one system. A GHZ state links every qubit in a group at once. In the Glossary. QubitsThe basic unit of a quantum computer. Unlike a normal bit, it can be in a mix of 0 and 1 at the same time. In the Glossary are the basic units of a quantum computerA computer that uses the rules of quantum physics to solve certain problems, such as breaking some codes or simulating molecules, far faster than ordinary computers. Today's machines are still small and make many errors. In the Glossary, and entangled qubits act as one connected system. IQM measured a fidelityIn quantum computing, a score from 0 to 1 for how close a result is to the perfect one. In the Glossary, a score for how close the result was to perfect, of 0.516, just above the 0.5 line that counts as real entanglement, after correcting for readout errors. Until now, users could rely on about 30 of the chip's qubits in a single program. These are IQM's own results.