What caught your eye this week? (Yangtze NAND, Quadrature encoders, Inmarsat acquisition)

David Manners, components editor

What caught my eye this week was Apple dropping its plan to buy Yangtze NAND, which, after the Sea Turtles saga, is another sign that the future of China’s most successful chip company is now uncertain.

Steve Bush, technology editor

As a very nice touchy-feely user interface, Anders has sourced a range of chunky rotary knob quadrature encoders that have a circular colour display in the middle – hundreds of pixels across. The knobs also act as a push button, and so can be clicked down as well as clicked around through 30 positions. There are some interactive display suggestion videos on its website.

Alun Williams, Web editor

Viasat’s bid to buy Inmarsat suffering a further setback and delay. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided to deepen its investigation of the deal. The companies were given a short time to allay the “Phase 1” concerns of the regulator but it has now decided to advance to “Phase 2” and the more detailed consideration of the deal that will involve. It could take as long as 30 March 2023, it says.

Offsite links

• The UK’s Defence Select Committee has delivered a damning report on the country’s space efforts entitled “Defence Space: through adversity to the stars?” No punches are pulled in the report, with the committee declaring the “lack of progress” it has seen as “unacceptable” and describing the UK, at best, as a third-rank space power. The UK doesn’t compare favourably with peer nations in terms of spending, for example.
• Space News reports that the Canadian government will the fund development of a satellite and instruments for a NASA-led Earth science program. They will spend more than $200 million Canadian ($145 million) on High-altitude Aerosols, Water vapor and Clouds (HAWC), one element of NASA’s proposed Atmosphere Observing System (AOS) mission.
• Nasa has set the date for the next launch attempt for its Artemis I Moon mission. “NASA is targeting the next launch attempt of the Artemis I mission for Monday, Nov. 14 with liftoff of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft planned during a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. EST.”