


New versions of the Mustang muscle car will begin shipping next week and more than two thirds of the orders include the big, 5-liter V-8 engine, Ford said Friday.
Demand for roaring engines remains strong in an era when Detroit automakers are starting to phase out the rumbling gas burners and transition to electric vehicles in order to meet strict government emissions and fuel economy requirements.
There are about 13,000 U.S. orders for the 2024 Mustangs, Ford says, which also can be equipped with a four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Of those orders, 67% have the V-8, and more than a quarter of the people seeking that Mustang want the six-speed manual transmission, spokesman Mike Levine says.
A rocket carrying a lunar landing craft blasted off Friday on Russia’s first moon mission in nearly 50 years, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft.
The launch from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the Far East of the Luna-25 craft to the moon is Russia’s first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union.
The Russian lunar lander is expected to reach the moon on Aug. 23, about the same day as an Indian craft which was launched on July 14. The Russian spacecraft will take about 5.5 days to travel to the moon’s vicinity, then spend three to seven days orbiting at about 100 kilometers (62 miles) before heading for the surface.