After a nine minute trip into orbit and a few hundred mile journey to the coast of Florida, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has finally returned home. The rocket pulled into Port Canaveral aboard the firm's drone ship'Of Course I Still Love You' after launching NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley toward the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon capsule May 30. Falcon 9 pulled into the port as a hero, following the launch on Saturday that brought spaceflight back to US soil. NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX made history with their'Launch America' mission on May 30 that launched Behnken and Hurley from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida to the International Space Station - the first time in nine years an American crew has launched from US soil. Falcon 9 pulled into Port Canaveral aboard the firm's drone ship'Of Course I Still Love You' after launching NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley toward the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon capsule May 30 The launch was initially set to take place May 27 but was scrubbed with 16 minutes and 54 seconds left on the countdown clock due to poor weather.

In this paper we schedule the travel path of a set of drones across a graph where the nodes need to be visited multiple times at pre-defined points in time. This is an extension of the well-known multiple traveling salesman problem. The proposed formulation can be applied in several domains such as the monitoring of traffic flows in a transportation network, or the monitoring of remote locations to assist search and rescue missions. Aiming to find the optimal schedule, the problem is formulated as an Integer Linear Program (ILP). Given that the problem is highly combinatorial, the optimal solution scales only for small sized problems. Thus, a greedy algorithm is also proposed that uses a one-step look ahead heuristic search mechanism. In a detailed evaluation, it is observed that the greedy algorithm has near-optimal performance as it is on average at 92.06% of the optimal, while it can potentially scale up to settings with hundreds of drones and locations.

The recent advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in terms of manufacturing processes, and communication and networking technology has led to a rise in their usage in civilian and commercial applications. The regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US had earlier limited the usage of UAVs to military applications. However more recently, the FAA has outlined new enforcement that will also expand the usage of UAVs in civilian and commercial applications. Due to being deployed in open atmosphere, UAVs are vulnerable to being lost, destroyed or physically hijacked. With the UAV technology becoming ubiquitous, various issues in UAV networks such as intra-UAV communication, UAV security, air data security, data storage and management, etc. need to be addressed.

Momentum is building in the drone industry according to latest data, drone industry insight (DII) has revealed. Venture capitalists are putting significant funding into the segment as world leverage on technologies and related infrastructure. According to the its 2019 report, DII stated that the global market will grow from $14 billion in 2018 to over $43 billion in 2024 at annual average growth rate of 20.5%. Specifically, the drone market which has been evolving, has become clearer as VC funding is focused mainly on drone delivery, security, and mining. This was a year on year growth of 67% with venture capitalist funding standing at $930 million.

The future for contactless product delivery is already here, and a pandemic seems to already be moving this trend forward. It just needs companies to implement and customers to accept the new delivery and tracking methods, along with other innovations, that will make this so. When this happens, we may one day look back and quietly thank the lowly coronavirus for catapulting us into a brighter future. One of the more iconic images from the early days of this disease comes from late March 2020, during San Francisco's citywide coronavirus lockdown, when "aspiring drone racing pilot" David Chen delivered a single roll of much-needed toilet paper to his friend Ian Chan in another part of the city. Chan captured the delivery on video and posted it to his Twitter feed, which ironically went viral.

Air power has played an increasingly important role in the Libyan conflict. The relatively flat featureless desert terrain of the north and coast means that ground units are easily spotted, with few places to hide. The air forces of both the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) use French and Soviet-era fighter jets, antiquated and poorly maintained. While manned fighter aircraft have been used, for the most part the air war has been fought by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. With nearly 1,000 air strikes conducted by UAVs, UN Special Representative to Libya Ghassan Salame called the conflict "the largest drone war in the world".

Drone firm Zipline has been given the go-ahead to deliver medical supplies and personal protective equipment to hospitals in North Carolina. The firm will be allowed to use drones on two specified routes after the Federal Aviation Administration granted it an emergency waiver. It is the first time the FAA has allowed beyond-line-of-sight drone deliveries in the US. Experts say the pandemic could help ease some drone-flight regulations. Zipline, which has been negotiating with the FAA, wants to expand to other hospitals and eventually offer deliveries to people's homes.

While drone delivery services are yet to become a practical reality in the consumer world, they're already proving their mettle in terms of crisis response. After deploying its UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in parts of Africa to facilitate medical care, Californian robotics company Zipline is now using its technology closer to home, to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the US. In partnership with Novant Health, Zipline's drones will undertake 32-mile flights on two routes between Novant's emergency drone fulfilment centre in Kannapolis, North Carolina, and its medical center in Huntersville. Each delivery will ferry personal protective gear and medical equipment to frontline healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients. The two companies were already in talks about a potential partnership prior to the coronavirus outbreak, but the escalating situation helped to catalyze the deal.

A comprehensive new study of North Atlantic right whales has found the species is significantly smaller and less healthy than southern right whales and could be wiped out in the next 20 years without intervention. The study, the largest of its kind, was organized by Dr. Fredrik Christiansen or Aarhus University in Denmark and involved 12 research institutions across five countries. The team used a fleet of drones to capture images of right whales in the North Atlantic and three major regions in the southern hemisphere. A team of researchers organized by Dr. Fredrik Christiansen or Aarhus University in Denmark used drones to photograph right whales around the world and found North Atlantic right whales are far smaller and less healthy than their southern hemisphere counterparts Using a technique called'aerial photogrammetry,' the team correlated basic information about whale width and length to make determinations about the general health of the whales. In an interview with National Geographic, Christiansen said the team was shocked to find the North Atlantic right whales'looked like a runway…you could basically set up a tent on their backs.'

It feels like drones were built for this moment. The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to spend the majority of their time indoors and, where possible, maintain a healthy distance from anyone that doesn't live in the same building. Companies have introduced numerous measures to minimize the threat and spread of infection. Countless stores have acrylic screens, for instance, and many delivery drivers leave orders at your doorstep. But a robot -- or specifically, a drone -- offers a potentially safer and quicker method of exchanging goods and services. It's no wonder, then, that so many commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operators are flourishing at the moment. In a time of crisis, they're keen to step forward and showcase the impact that drone deliveries can have on society.