DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency is investigating complaints that engines can fail on as many as 1.4 million Honda and Acura vehicles.
The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers the 2016 through 2020 Honda Pilot and Acura MDX, as well as the 2018 through 2020 Honda Odyssey and Acura TLX. Also included is the 2017 through 2019 Honda Ridgeline.
The agency says in documents posted on its website Monday that connecting rod bearings on vehicles with 3.5-liter V6 engines can fail, leading to complete engine failure. Connecting rods link the pistons to the crankshaft and convert vertical motion to move the wheels.
Honda recalled about 250,000 vehicles in November of 2023 to fix the same problem. But the agency says it has 173 complaints from owners who reported connecting rod bearing failures, yet their vehicles weren't included in the recall. One owner reported a crash with no injuries.
The agency said it's opening a recall query to determine the severity of the problem in vehicles not included in the 2023 recall.
Honda said it will cooperate with NHTSA on the investigation.
In documents explaining the 2023 recall, the automaker said had 1,450 warranty claims due to the bearing problem but no reports of injuries. Dealers were to inspect and repair or replace the engines if needed.
FILE - People walk near the logo of Honda Motor Company at a showroom on Feb. 8, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A pair of European satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through fancy formation flying in space.
Each fake eclipse should last six hours once operations begin next year. That's considerably longer than the few minutes of totality offered by a natural eclipse here on Earth, allowing for prolonged study of the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere.
The launch took place from India.
“We are a very happy science team here” in India, the European Space Agency's mission scientist Joe Zender said via email.
Billed as a tech demo, the two satellites will separate in a month or so and fly 492 feet (150 meters) apart once reaching their destination high above Earth, lining up with the sun so that one spacecraft casts a shadow on the other.
This will require extreme precision, within just one millimeter, equivalent to a fingernail's thickness, according to the European Space Agency. To maintain their position, the satellites will rely on GPS, star trackers, lasers and radio links, flying autonomously.
Each cube-shaped spacecraft is less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) across. The shadow-casting satellite holds a disk to block the sun from the telescope on the other satellite. This disk will mimic the moon in a natural total solar eclipse, with the darkened satellite posing as Earth.
“This has a huge scientific relevance” in addition to testing high-precision formation flying,” said the European Space Agency’s technology and engineering director Dietmar Pilz.
Scientists need the glaring face of the sun completely blocked in order to scrutinize the wispy crown-like corona encircling it, getting an especially good look close to the solar rim on this mission. They're particularly interested to learn why the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun, and also want to better understand coronal mass ejections, eruptions of billions of tons of plasma with magnetic fields out into space.
The resulting geomagnetic storms can disrupt power and communication on Earth and in orbit. Such outbursts can also produce stunning auroras in unexpected places.
With a lopsided orbit stretching from 370 miles (600 kilometers) to 37,000 miles (60,000 kilometers) away, the satellites will take nearly 20 hours to circle the world. Six of those hours — at the farther end of certain orbits — will be spent generating an eclipse. Other orbits will be strictly for formation flying experiments, according to the European Space Agency.
The first eclipse results should be available in March, following checkout of both craft.
Zender said eclipses will be created at least twice a week, with six hours of totality each time for corona observations. The frequency will depend on solar activity, he noted, and prove a boon for scientists who now must travel across the world for a mere three to five minutes of totality during the occasional eclipse.
The $210 million mission, dubbed Proba-3, is aiming for at least 1,000 hours of “on demand” totality during its two-year operation. Once their job is done, both satellites will gradually drop lower until they burn up in the atmosphere, likely within five years.
Liftoff was delayed a day by a last-minute issue with the backup propulsion system of one of the satellites, crucial for precision formation flying. The European Space Agency said engineers relied on a computer software fix.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image provided by the European Space Agency shows a pair of probes creating an artificial total solar eclipse through formation flying. (European Space Agency via AP)
