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First Giga Texas VIN assigned to Model Y Performance reservation holder with March delivery date

After a few dubious claims from Model Y reservation holders that they had received a VIN from Giga Texas, it looks like the first legitimate Austin VIN has been assigned today.

The lucky reservation holder is Jared Wolny, who shared a screenshot from his mobile app on Facebook showing a VIN from Giga Texas – 7SAYGDEF9NA000137.

The important digit in the VIN is the A in the 11th position, which signifies it comes from Austin, and not Fremont (F).

Webb turns those 18 separate star images into a single unified star. Next comes even better focus

It’s coming together! Engineers for the James Webb Space Telescope have now completed two more phases of the seven-step, three-month-long mirror alignment process. This week, the team made more adjustments to the mirror segments along with updating the alignment of its secondary mirror. These refinements allowed for all 18 mirror segments to work together — for the first time — to produce one unified image.

As you can see in the image above, this view of the star HD 84,406 shows one image instead of the 18 views – one from each segment – that we saw earlier this week. NASA engineers say that after future alignment steps, the image will be even sharper.

“We still have work to do, but we are increasingly pleased with the results we’re seeing,” said Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager for Webb, in a blog post. “Years of planning and testing are paying dividends, and the team could not be more excited to see what the next few weeks and months bring.”

ESA to set up committee to study human space exploration options

WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency will establish a committee with representatives from both inside and outside the space industry to develop options for a European human space exploration program.

The creation of what ESA called a “high-level advisory group” was one of the major outcomes of a one-day “space summit” held in Toulouse, France, Feb. 16 that brought together representatives of member states of both ESA and the European Union to discuss future European space initiatives.

Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said the proposal for the advisory group came from French President Emmanuel Macron. “We got a very clear message from President Macron that such a group is needed. He has asked ESA to put the group together,” he said at a press conference at the end of the summit.