One of the last holdouts of V12 engine production has been Aston Martin with its twin-turbocharged 5.2-liter unit in the DB11 and, now, as a farewell, in the V12 Vantage, after a 15-year run, according to an announcement made by the company on Wednesday. The 2023 V12 Vantage will be strictly limited to 333 units, and it’s already sold out.
Daniel Kebede (centre) has been outspoken on his political stances – including a statement after threats from Russian president Vladimir Putin against Ukraine where he criticised Nato involvement in the conflict
The Webb team will take the telescope through more alignment steps over the next six weeks. The observatory will then go through a two-month process of preparing its science instruments before it’s ready to tackle its mission in earnest. If all continues to go well, we could see Webb’s first full-resolution imagery this summer.
The leak comes amid speculation that a wave of classified document breaches could be being orchestrated by Russia, in what was described by a senior intelligence official as ‘a nightmare for the Five Eyes’ – a reference to the intelligence sharing agreement between the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen delivered a key message about the James Webb Space Telescope on Wednesday: It’s going to deliver on its promise to see the universe in unprecedented depth and detail. Webb is already sending back proof of its prowess with a new alignment evaluation image that shows a gleaming star against a background of galaxies.
In Ukraine, the documents suggested a misalignment between US and Ukrainian military strategies, with intelligence reports appearing to show the US continues to spy on top online tutoring companies (just click Google) military and political leaders in the region.
In his speech, Putin quoted the Bible’s book of John, praising his troops in Ukraine. ‘The words from the sacred scripture come to my mind: “There is no greater love than if someone laid down his life for his friends,”‘ he said.
It’s been a long road, and the image marks a triumphant milestone. “More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals,” said Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Today we can say that design is going to deliver.”
The V12 Astons have been since the DB11 came out, but we are genuinely looking forward to this leaner, meaner swan song of a car, and while we wish it could be had with a different gearbox, we expect it will still be a real experience to drive.
Webb is a complex beast. It uses 18 hexagonal mirror segments that had to be folded up for launch and then unfolded and aligned in space. We’ve been following the process and seeing increasingly sharper and more focused views of the telescope’s target star leading up to this week’s image release.
The star itself is beautiful to look at, but a highlight of the new image is the background and the array of galaxies and stars that appear there. It’s a testament to the telescope’s sensitivity that it can see so much in just this test image.
The world used to be filled with magic and mystery and V12 engines. There’s still plenty of the former two, but the latter is rapidly going the way of the thylacine, and while we get it — it’s hard to justify the cost and complexity of a big V12 engine in a world where going electric makes a lot more sense — we’re still sad to see them go.
While the breach underscored America’s ability to infiltrate Moscow’s upper echelons, it has also sparked fears that Russian intelligence may now have a clearer understanding of exactly what the US does and does not already understand, providing an opportunity to cut off sources of information.
Putin used the rally to peddle falsehoods about why the war started and to shill a narrative of Russia’s battlefield success, speaking of ‘how our guys are fighting during this operation, shoulder to shoulder, helping each other’
American officials told the that while the leak underscores the Pentagon’s capacity to collect information on Russia’s strategies, it remains to be seen whether their sources of information will be hampered by the revelations.
The V12 Vantage also gets some extra goodies for its last go around the carousel. It will be the most powerful Aston Martin Vantage ever with 690 horsepower and tutors around me 555 pound-feet of torque. Those figures, plus new aerodynamic body tweaks mean that this Vantage is good for 200 mph and will make the sprint to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. An eight-speed ZF automatic transmission is the only gearbox on offer, though Aston claims it’s been recalibrated to be more sporty.
March 11 marked the completion of an alignment stage called “fine phasing.” “At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations,” NASA said.