The US space agency NASA has announced an agreement with SpaceX. As part of this agreement, the possibility of launching the Hubble telescope into a higher orbit using the Dragon spacecraft will be explored. The Hubble Telescope was launched in 1990 using the Space Shuttle, and it served the space observatory until 2011, when the use of the shuttles was discontinued. After that, there was nothing to serve Hubble, as a result, the telescope’s orbit gradually decreases as it slows down on the atmosphere. So, now the observatory is operating at an altitude of 540 km compared to the original 610 km. If the telescope is not lifted with a powered ship, it will gradually de-orbit, it is assumed that this will happen in about 15 years.

According to NASA, the agency is working with SpaceX and Polaris to explore the possibility of serving Hubble with Dragon spacecraft. The study is expected to take approximately 6 months. The idea was submitted by Elon Musk’s company, the study will help to better understand the technical problems associated with maintaining the telescope. NASA also notes that if such a mission is implemented, it will become commercial, at no cost to the government. If it is possible to lift Hubble into a higher orbit, then its service life will increase by several years. After that time, NASA plans to safely deorbit the telescope or dispose of it. The agency said the study is not exclusive and other companies may offer similar programs using their spacecraft.

Sales of the GeForce RTX 4090 will not start soon, but sellers are already ready to offer users the latest video cards. In particular, on the American platform Newegg there are already about a dozen models from MIS, Gigabyte and Asus with prices.

Apparently, in the US it will really be possible to buy a GeForce RTX 4090 for the recommended $ 1,600, MSI and Asus have such options. Moreover, MSI has a version of the GeForce RTX 4090 and is not much more expensive – for $ 1650. What’s more, the same company has an all-in-one liquid cooling option for $1,750. Given the TDP of the GeForce RTX 4090, this option may be in high demand, as it should be more efficient than a regular air one.

It is also interesting that the cost of the most expensive option – Asus ROG – does not exceed $ 2,000. However, these are prices in the USA, and in Europe the story is different.

The GeForce RTX 4090 will go on sale on October 12, but the cards are already in stock in stores in Europe. At least in the Proshop chain, which is one of the largest in the region.

Prices for the new Nvidia flagship start at 2,000 euros. Recall that in the US the card is valued at $ 1,600, but this is without taxes. But the above European price is not a result of the seller’s greed, as the recommended price of the RTX 4090 for Europe is 1950 euros.

Liquid-cooled models can be bought for 2300-2400 euros, and the most expensive are Asus Strix cards with a price of 2530 euros.

The Proshop network does not even offer to place a pre-order yet, but now you can be sure that the prices will be at the recommended level, except that the recommended price for Europe is very high in itself.