Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to the FBI and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expressing his "concerns" over the popular FaceApp app that has proliferated across social media channels.

Schumer's scrutiny over the app stems from its origins in Russia; he believes its use by Americans "could pose national security and privacy risks for millions of US citizens."

"FaceApp's location in Russia raises questions regarding how and when the company provides access to the data of US citizens to third parties, including potentially foreign government," Schumer said, adding that "Russia remains a significant counterintelligence threat."

"It would be deeply troubling if the sensitive personal information of US citizens was provided to a hostile foreign power actively engaged in cyber hostilities against the United States," the letter added.

The Democrat urged the FBI to assess whether the data and images used by the app could find "its way into the hands of the Russian government." Separately, Schumer asked the FTC to see whether there were "adequate safeguards" to protect users' privacy.

"In the age of facial recognition technology as both a surveillance and security use, it is essential that users have the information they need to ensure their personal and biometric data remains secure, including from hostile foreign nations," Schumer said in the letter.

Read more: Viral app that makes you look old with shocking precision may be quietly keeping all your data

FaceApp, an AI-powered photo editing application, makes a user look older or younger using their photos. The Russian-developed application was released in 2017, and became widely used after social media influencers began uploading photos of themselves. It was the most popular free app in the Apple Store and Google Play as of Wednesday afternoon.

According to FaceApp's terms of service, users grant the company permission for it use their voice, name, photos, and other data for commercial purposes in perpetuity — even after users delete the app.

The company claims none of its data is currently "transferred to Russia" and that it does not "sell or share any user data with third parties," according to TechCrunch. FaceApp's privacy policy claims it "will not rent or sell your information" to a third party without a user's consent.

On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee issued warnings to the 2020 Democratic candidates about the app and urged them not to use it.

"If you or any of your staff have already used the app, we recommend that they delete the app immediately," the committee's chief security officer said in the alert, according to CNN.

"It's not clear at this point what the privacy risks are, but what is clear is that the benefits of avoiding the app outweigh the risks," DNC chief security officer Bob Lord reportedly said.

In a bid to make users feel more comfortable sharing, Instagram has announced Australia will - at least for a short time - have the total number of user likes removed from its posts.

From Thursday, Australian users will see the following message in their news feeds notifying them of the move.

The trial comes just a few months after Canada became the first country to experiment with the feature.

The move is designed to offset some of the social pressure people feel on social media sites, the social media platform, which is owned by Facebook, said in a media statement.

"We want Instagram to be a place where people feel comfortable expressing themselves. We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love," Facebook Australia and New Zealand director of policy Mia Garlick said.

"We are now rolling the test out to Australia so we can learn more about how this can benefit people's experiences on Instagram, and whether this change can help people focus less on likes and more on telling their story."

While Instagram hopes the feature will make people focus on the content they create, rather than its reception, users will still be able to privately see how their own posts have done.

It will also not affect analytic tools 'Insights' and 'Ad Manager' used by businesses and creators on the platform.

The serious players in the self-driving-vehicle game are starting to emerge.

Over the past few years, Alphabet's Waymo, GM's Cruise, Argo AI (funded by Ford and VW), Intel's Mobileye, and Tesla have all pushed forward in the autonomous-mobility business.

We're well past science projects at this point, as billions in investment dollars have flowed into these companies.

With great funding comes the responsibility to put highly capable executive teams in charge. Here are the leaders who are steering the self-driving industry into the future.

SpaceX filled the South Texas air with the roar of a Raptor engine last night. However, Elon Musk's rocket company also set off a fireball that briefly engulfed the rocket ship the engine was attached to.

The rocket, called Starhopper, is a squat six-story prototype of a larger interplanetary launch system known as Starship that's being designed to take people to and from Mars. That system (and its prototypes) will use a new rocket engine called Raptor.

The Tuesday evening test-firing of the engine was meant to set the stage for Starhopper's first big and untethered launch, which was scheduled for today.

The engine firing started at 11:24 p.m. ET (10:24 p.m. CT) and lasted about five seconds, throwing up a cloud of flames, dust, and fumes. The test seemed to work aside from a couple of lingering flames.

But a few minutes later, a giant fireball erupted and briefly engulfed the vehicle.

A neighbor of SpaceX's rudimentary launch site, which is at the southern tip of Texas, recorded the incident during a live video feed (below).

If you turn on the sound, you can hear one of the announcers say, "Oh my god, it caught fire."

The video shows a fire suppression system — essentially a robotic firehose — starting to douse Starhopper and its launch pad with a stream of water. The system was ostensibly used to put out some flames coming from the rocket's side.

But when the water touched the vehicle, a fireball erupted, shooting flames more than 100 feet into the air. The vehicle is fueled by liquid methane, a main ingredient in natural gas, and turns into a volatile and highly flammable gas when it's exposed to air.

Tim Dodd, who runs the Everyday Astronaut channel on YouTube, was also recording the event on-site. His video, shown below, captures both the test and fireball in ultra-high-resolution, slow-motion video.

In the wake of the fireball, SpaceX has postponed the big "hop and hover" launch of the Starhopper.

That launch was supposed to send the rocket about 65 feet (20 meters) into the air, where it would hover, move sideways, and then land back on its launchpad, as Musk tweeted last week.

Starhopper is made of a rugged steel that's similar to the kind used in pots and pans, but it's unclear if the rocket was significantly damaged by the incident, or how much. SpaceX has thus far declined to provide details to Business Insider about the incident.

However, people who visited the company's launch site this morning posted detailed pictures of the vehicle, and the images did not appear to show any major structural damage.

Read more: Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing giant Mars rockets in a sleepy town in southern Texas. Here's what it's like to visit.

Nonetheless, SpaceX appears unlikely to reschedule the big launch for any time this week: road-closure notices for the area around SpaceX's site vanished from a local government site after the fireball. (Every time SpaceX wants to launch from the area, it must ask a judge in Cameron County to close Highway 4 — the only road into and out of the site — for safety.)

SpaceX's earliest Mars rocket ship prototype, called Starhopper, sits on a launchpad after its first launch in April.Dave Mosher/Business Insider

This week's Starhopper "hop" would not have been its first. SpaceX fired up Starhopper in April, but those tests tethered the rocket ship to the pad via bike-chain-like metal ropes on its legs.

The company may eventually launch Starhopper to a height of about 3.1 miles (5 kilometers).

A spokesperson for SpaceX previously told Business Insider that the planned Starhopper launch is "one in a series of tests designed to push the limits of the vehicle as quickly as possible to learn all we can, as fast as we safely can."

They added (and prophetically): "As with all development programs, the schedule can be quite dynamic and subject to change."

President Donald Trump has demanded more information about a $10 billion cloud contract from the Pentagon that will be awarded to either Microsoft or Amazon, Bloomberg reported.

Trump did not say whether he would take the unprecedented move of intervening and blocking the contract from being awarded to either Microsoft or Amazon, the two remaining companies in the race, according to Bloomberg. However, Bloomberg cited a person familiar with a call between Trump and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida who said that it sounds like the president is thinking about canceling the deal.

This contract, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), is a winner-take-all contract to build a cloud infrastructure for the Department of Defense to hold sensitive military information. It could be worth as much as $10 billion over the next 10 years.

Google dropped out of the race in October, and IBM and Oracle got knocked out of the bid in April. Now, it's down to Amazon and Microsoft — with Amazon and its market-leading Amazon Web Services platform widely expected to win.

Bloomberg reported that Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin wrote a letter to the Pentagon expressing concerns over the contract and spoke with Trump about the matter. Rubio, meanwhile, went so far as to write a letter to national security adviser John Bolton, asking him to delay the awarding of the contract entirely over concerns that there wasn't enough competition. Rubio spoke with Trump about his concerns, Bloomberg reported.

The letters in question expressed concerns that the terms of the JEDI deal made it so that some companies, including Oracle, could not win the bid. Trump asked his aides to show him these letters and expressed frustration that he didn't know about these concerns earlier, according to Bloomberg.

Previously, Oracle filed a lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's bidding process, saying that "JEDI is riddled with improprieties," and "[Amazon Web Services] made undisclosed employment and bonus offers to at least two DoD (Dept. of Defense) JEDI officials."

In June, the Pentagon denied these legal allegations and defended its decision to narrow down the race to Microsoft and Amazon.

"Oracle is not in the same class as Microsoft and AWS when it comes to providing commercial IaaS and PaaS cloud services on a broad scale," the filing said, referring to two key cloud technology offerings — "infrastructure as a service" and "platform as a service."

On July 12, a federal judge ruled against Oracle's protest about the bid process favoring AWS. Court of Federal Claims Judge Eric Bruggink rejected Oracle's arguments, saying "individual conflicts of interest did not impact the procurement."

In April, Bloomberg reported Trump dined with Oracle CEO Safra Catz, who was part of his presidential transition team in 2016, during a time when Oracle was still in the JEDI race. The White House did not disclose what was discussed at the meeting, although Trump has been openly critical of Amazon. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also the owner of The Washington Post, which has published news coverage critical of Trump and his administration.

Oracle and Microsoft declined to comment. Business Insider has reached out to the Department of Defense, the White House, and Amazon for comment, and will update this story if we hear back.

Amazon had a blockbuster, record-breaking Prime Day, the largest in the company's history. But it's a win that comes as the tech giant is under increased scrutiny over antitrust concerns, with regulators questioning whether its size and role as both a storefront operator and a seller make it difficult for rivals to compete.

Prime Day, a deals event that ran this year from July 15 through 16, is essentially Amazon's version of Black Friday in July. Except for Amazon, it's even bigger than the annual post-Thanksgiving shopping event; the company said sales surpassed that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. During the sale, the company offers thousands of deals for members of its Prime subscription service across a variety of categories, including electronics, toys, fashion, and home.

But, of course, there's a major difference between Black Friday and Prime Day. The former is a widely recognized shopping holiday that many retailers large and small participate in through their own stores and platforms, while the latter is specific to Amazon's store and its Prime members. Since Prime Day's introduction in 2015, it has become just as synonymous with online spending and bargains as Black Friday, and its popularity has been growing since.

Read more: 5 hidden Amazon pages for scoring deals and discounts that you didn't know about

As the inventor and proprietor of this shopping holiday, Amazon obviously stands to benefit tremendously. It's true that many of the deals available on Prime Day were from third-party companies, and Prime Day's status as a new shopping holiday benefits other retail platforms, too. Amazon said independent sellers surpassed $2 billion in sales on Prime Day, and worldwide sellers that predominantly included small- and medium-sized businesses saw the biggest 24-hour sales day in Amazon's history. Large retailers in general saw a 72% increase in online sales compared with an average Tuesday, according to data from Adobe Analytics reported by MarketWatch.

But the record-breaking sales and massive success of Prime Day — the fact that it's become a shopping holiday just as big as Black Friday — also proves just how influential Amazon is when it comes to the way people shop. Prime Day has become so popular that competitors like eBay, Best Buy, and Target have even launched their own special sales events in response.

It also gives Amazon an opportunity to further expand its Prime and Alexa services and provides shoppers with more incentive to pick up an Echo, since those using Amazon's voice-activated speaker get early access to deals. More people signed up for Amazon's Prime service on July 15 than on any other day, and Prime Day was the biggest sales event ever for Amazon's own devices, with the Echo Dot and Fire TV sticks ranking as some of the top-selling deals. Amazon sold more than 175 million items to Prime members during the two-day event.

Amazon's size and success certainly invites scrutiny among critics. The company is expected to account for 38% of online commerce in the US in 2019, according to eMarketer, which represents a decrease from a previous estimate of 47%.

But what matters is whether or not Amazon is leveraging its position as both a major player in the online retail market and a seller on that same platform to gain an unfair competitive advantage. "In principle, there is nothing wrong with doing both," Nicholas Economides, a professor of economics at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, said. "But the crucial question is whether Amazon used its dominant position in the electronic commerce to thwart rivals."

As Amazon was breaking Prime Day sales records on Tuesday, David N. Cicilline, chair of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, grilled Amazon on just that. Nate Sutton, Amazon's associate general counsel, litigation and regulatory legal, testified along with executives from Apple, Google, and Facebook before the House Judiciary subcommittee in a hearing held to examine the influence large tech firms like Amazon have on innovation and entrepreneurship in the industry. During the hearing, Cicilline asked Sutton whether Amazon uses sales data from sellers to compete with other companies' products on its platform, which he said Amazon does not do.

On Wednesday, the European Union also formally announced plans to launch an investigation into Amazon over the same issue, following reports that it would do so on Tuesday. The commission will examine how the seller data that Amazon gathers affects the competition, and it will specifically look at the agreements Amazon has made with third-party sellers and how it selects items for its "Buy Box" feature. Amazon could face a fine of $23 billion if the investigation finds that Amazon violated European competition laws.

It's not the first time firms like Amazon have been scrutinized over competing in the same marketplaces in which they operate. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate, proposed a sweeping plan in March that would prevent big tech firms like Amazon from selling in the same stores that they operate.

Those who subscribe to Amazon's Prime membership, which provides the foundation for Prime Day, get many perks, such as access to Amazon's streaming-video service, its photo-storage app, and discounts at Whole Foods grocery stores, among others.

The inclusion of such services like these that have nothing to do with package delivery and e-commerce, particularly video streaming, could also raise antitrust concerns, Economides said. "Once you start bundling irrelevant stuff like video service, which retailers cannot match, that creates the possibility of an antitrust issue, and this is something that may be investigated," he said.

It's unclear what will come of the EU's investigation of Amazon. But the success of promotions like Prime Day and Amazon's continued growth are sure to invite only more scrutiny among critics and antitrust regulators.

Now tell us what you think!

There's no more free lunch at Google— at least if you're among some of the unlucky engineers who belong to the company's vast workforce of contractors and vendors.

Google recently relocated a group of these so-called vendor workers from the tech giant's sprawling Silicon Valley headquarters to a nearby facility in San Jose, California. Along with the change in location, the group of roughly 100 workers discovered that they could no longer enjoy the various free company restaurants that have become emblematic of the Google work experience.

Instead of the bountiful free meals, the workers had access to an office refrigerator stocked with a grim selection of prepackaged sandwiches and other items. A hot pocket costs $2.59.

The free Google meals represent a meaningful perk — along with extended vacation policies and world-class health insurance — that the company is increasingly reserving for its full-time employees.

For Google's temporary, vendor, and contract workers, known internally as TVCs, who by some accounts represent more than half the company's workforce, the changes are the latest sign that working for Google is not necessarily the perk-filled dream job it's often portrayed to be.

"It's really like working at a completely different company," said one person who recently moved from one of Google's Silicon Valley campuses to the San Jose offices.

2020 presidential campaigns reportedly received an alert from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday advising them to delete FaceApp, the viral Russian photo-editing app whose terms of service allow it to use a person's photos and likeness for unspecified purposes.

"If you or any of your staff have already used the app, we recommend that they delete the app immediately," DNC chief security officer Bob Lord reportedly said in the security alert obtained by CNN.

In the alert, Lord reportedly explained that "FaceApp was developed by Russians" and that he had "significant concerns" about the app "having access to your photos, or even simply uploading a selfie."

"It's not clear at this point what the privacy risks are, but what is clear is that the benefits of avoiding the app outweigh the risks," Lord said in the alert, according to CNN.

FaceApp, currently the most popular free app on the Apple App Store and Google Play, alters users' faces by using artificial intelligence. The app is blowing up on social media now because of its filter that can instantly age users.

Ben Gilbert/Business Insider/FaceApp

By agreeing to FaceApp's terms of service, users give the company permission to use their voice and likeness for commercial purposes; FaceApp has the right to store this data even after users delete the app.

Forensic News reported on Wednesday that FaceApp moved to Moscow's Skolkovo Innovation Center in 2018.

"We are not associated with Skolkovo Ventures in any way," FaceApp CEO Yaroslav Goncharov wrote in an email to Mashable reporter Karissa Bell, according to Bell. "Skolkovo is a business park with a lot of different companies. We have not received any funding from any funds associated with any governments."

According to a statement from FaceApp published by TechCrunch, the company said "the core R&D team is located in Russia" but "user data is not transferred to Russia." Yet, FaceApp's privacy policy indicates that data collected by the app can be transferred and stored in countries from which the app operates.

The DNC has reason to be wary of any potential Russian interference in the 2020 presidential campaign. In 2016, WikiLeaks published thousands of DNC emails that had been hacked by Russians. The DNC hired Bob Lord to strengthen cyber defenses in January 2018.

The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kevin Webb contributed to this report.

Read more: Viral app that makes you look old with shocking precision may be quietly keeping all your data

Read more: Everyone from Drake to the Jonas Brothers is posting photos where they look old — these are the best ones

Prime Day 2019 took place on July 15-16 for a full 48 hours.

We spent the days sifting through the hundreds of thousands of deals to find the best ones to share with you, our readers. While the event may be over, you can still snag some residual deals over the next few days.

Whether you got all you need this Prime Day or didn't shop at all, it's fun to look back on the event and see which products, out of the millions sold, stood out. Prime Day deals were shopped in 18 countries around the world, by shoppers with all different needs and desires. We're sharing the best-selling Prime Day purchases from 18 different countries.

Keep reading to find what deals Prime shoppers from Mexico, Japan, Australia and more loved most:

For reference, some deals we were unable to access and share with you from the Amazon US Site. You'll see those noted with "n/a" and we've provided alternatives if you'd like similar products. Additionally, some products are listed in different currencies, to reflect their real price on their original Amazon site.

Liquid Death, a canned water startup that went viral for its punk-style imagery and aggressively metal cartoon commercials, is in talks to raise as much as $10 million in Series A funding just two months after taking the internet by storm with $1.6 million in seed funding.

Axios reported earlier on Wednesday that the company was in fundraising talks, pegging the amount at $10 million. A source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the fundraising talks to Business Insider, but stressed that the talks were still in early stages and that the size and terms of the deal could change.

Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario is meeting with interested investors but has yet to sign a term sheet, according to the source. It could not be learned who the investors are.

Cessario did not immediately return a request for comment.

Liquid Death announced $1.6 million in Seed funding in May with backing from Science Inc., Dollar Shave Club's founder and CEO, Michael Dubin; the Twitter cofounder Biz Stone; and Jen Rubio, the cofounder of the buzzy luggage startup Away. Cessario has raised $2.25 million for Liquid Death to date.

Read More: This tech exec quit his job so he could invest in 'sexual wellness' startups, and he says cannabis investors showed him how to do it

Cessario, a former Netflix creative director, embraced the debate on Twitter following May's funding announcement. Supporters were in favor of the tallboy cans' eco-friendly materials, but detractors were concerned about the overly "macho" branding and wondered aloud on Twitter whether Liquid Death represented everything wrong with venture capital.

Update: After this article was published, the source clarified to Business Insider that the "target" size for the funding round was $10 million, and that their earlier comment about the funding potentially reaching $20 million was a miscommunication on their part.

Netflix is ad-free and likely to stay that way.

The streaming-video giant said it still has no plans to start selling advertising, in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, which also reported weaker than expected subscriber growth for the second quarter.

Read more: Netflix plunges more than 10% after a huge miss on subscriber growth during Q2

Speculation was renewed after media executives at the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival debated whether Netflix was fated to get into the advertising business eventually, as CNBC reported.

Analysts at Nomura also estimated in June that a free, ad-supported package, similar to Spotify's freemium model, could bring Netflix roughly $1 billion more in revenue a year.

Read more: Netflix could drastically cut its cash burn with a Spotify-like model that includes an ad-supported free tier

"When you read speculation that we are moving into selling advertising, be confident that this is false," Netflix said in the investor note. "We believe we will have a more valuable business in the long term by staying out of competing for ad revenue and instead entirely focusing on competing for viewer satisfaction."

The company compared itself to premium-TV network HBO, which also doesn't air commercials.

Netflix has been working more publicly with brands recently in other ways, such as through merchandising and partnerships to promote its original shows and movies. But it said it's not pursuing those relationship to make more money.

Netflix said it "is optimizing for fan and viewer engagement over revenue maximization," with those efforts, including its co-marketing deals with companies like Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Baskin-Robbins around the recent return of "Stranger Things."

Netflix lost 126,000 subscribers in the US in the second quarter of 2019, the company said in its Q2 earnings report on Wednesday.

It's the first time Netflix has lost subscribers in a quarter in the US since 2011, when it tried a disastrous brand split effort with "Qwikster" and raised prices (it ended up losing 800,000 subscribers in one quarter).

Netflix gained 1.7 million US subscribers in the first quarter of this year, and 670,000 US subscribers in the second quarter of 2018 (Q2 tends to be slower for Netflix because of its content release schedule).

Overall this quarter, Netflix added 2.7 million total paid subscribers worldwide, significantly missing its forecast of 5 million.

READ MORE: Netflix plunges more than 10% after a huge miss on subscriber growth during Q2

The subscriber losses in the US are a sign that the service's domestic growth could be slowing as more companies enter the streaming game with their own platforms and pull licensed content from Netflix.

Consulting firm PwC said in a report last month that Netflix could be "nearing its peak subscriber point in the US."

"The first-mover advantage in streaming video that Netflix has capitalized on to date continues to be eroded, as the industry begins to fragment, with more and more companies entering the market, from pay-TV heavyweights to specialized, niche players," PwC said.

But Netflix pushed back against that narrative strain in its earnings report.

"While our US paid membership was essentially flat in Q2, we expect it to return to more typical growth in Q3, and are seeing that in these early weeks of Q3," Netflix said.

Netflix also said it didn't "believe competition was a factor" in its subscriber shortfall this quarter, since there "wasn't a material change in the competitive landscape during Q2."

After four years running, Amazon's retail holiday Prime Day has essentially spurred a second Black Friday in the middle of summer.

The pressure of 100+ million US shoppers with access to Prime Day benefits potentially spending their money at a single online marketplace, on one particular day in July, has forced the hand of retail competitors to run their own competing sales — some of which were offering (and some are still currently offering) better deals than Amazon.

Amazon has its own well-hidden gems too. Prime Day 2019 is over, but some of its most popular Prime Day deals are still live on the site. But other retailers are making it easy, and you can find a list below of the competing sales — which ones are still running and what they're selling, as well as those that are now over.

For the best overall deals, head to eBay and Walmart right now (we suggest checking out the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Link air purifier for $360 off or the Apple Watch for $80 off). For the best fashion deals, use a Nordstrom card to get early access to the Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale right now, or wait until July 19 for it to open to the public. For the best in startup goods, head to Everlane's Choose What You Pay event. For athletic wear, head to Outdoor Voices up to 50% off sale.

Elon Musk may be the most notorious name in the Musk family, but he's not the only to one to have started his own company.

The younger sister to two older brothers, Elon and Kimbal Musk, is Tosca Musk, who cofounded her own company in 2017. She serves as the CEO of Passionflix, a streaming platform that distributes movies and TV series that are based on romance novels.

Passionflix costs $6 a month to access the 31 movies and three TV series currently available on the platform. Some of the titles on the platform are well-known movies, like the Best Picture-nominated film "Chocolat", and Audrey Hepburn's "How to Steal a Million." Users can search through the available content based on a "barometer of naughtiness," ranking movies on a scale of 1 to 5.

The platform also produces its own original content based on romance books. Tosca Musk has produced more than 30 movies, which she's been doing since 2001, according to her IMDb page.

Read more: The 30 most popular shows from Netflix and other streaming services in 2019, so far

Business Insider first was made aware Passionflix when it was mentioned Wednesday in a New York Magazine article. The story cites rumors that media company First Look Media, which runs investigative outlet the Intercept, may have acquired Passionflix.

Neither Passionflix nor First Look Media responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Musk launched Passionflix in September 2017 along with cofounder Joany Kane, a screenplay writer. The platform raised $4.75 million in a round of seed funding that included Tosca Musk's brother, Kimbal.

Tosca Musk is not the only sister of a prominent tech CEO to become a purveyor of racy content. Business Insider reported in March that Caroline Spiegel, the sister of Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, was launching an audio porn website geared toward women that's called Quinn.

SpaceX thinks it may know what caused its new Crew Dragon spaceship to explode during a test on April 20.

The capsule-like ship is designed to ferry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but first it has to pass a series of major tests.

In April, SpaceX conducted an uncrewed ground test that was a warm-up to an in-flight abort test on a rocket. The abort test is designed to prove the spaceship's escape thrusters can whisk astronauts to safety (in case there's a problem with a rocket).

But instead of showing that the escape thrusters operated normally, the procedure sent clouds of noxious pink smoke billowing into the air above Cape Canaveral, Florida.

SpaceX called the incident an "anomaly" on the day it happened, and a video leaked the next day appeared to show the Crew Dragon blowing up on its test stand. In May, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of mission assurance, confirmed that the test had indeed destroyed the company's ship.

Now, nearly three months after the accidental blast, Koenigsmann said that investigators are about "80% done" with their work and believe they've discovered what went wrong.

"We know that we had a leaky component on the system," Koenigsmann told reporters during a teleconference on Monday. This "caused a violent reaction" once the escape system was activated, he added.

Kathy Lueders of NASA also joined Monday's press call. She manages the agency's Commercial Crew Program, through which SpaceX is being paid to develop, build, and test Crew Dragon.

"In a lot of ways, this was a gift for us, because it was a test on the ground," Lueders said. "We had the ability to find an issue with the hardware, and be able to find the hardware, and be able to assess the hardware."

What SpaceX thinks a leaky valve destroyed its Crew Dragon ship

SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship on a recovery boat after returning to Earth on March 8, 2019. Its burnt marshmallow look comes from the hot plasma it experienced during atmospheric reentry.NASA TV

In March, the Crew Dragon capsule in question launched into orbit, docked with the space station, and then returned toEarth. The mission was one of a few uncrewed demonstration tests that NASA requires. SpaceX then recovered the vehicle from the ocean, checked it out, and refurbished it.

Leading up to the company's next milestone — its in-flight abort test originally planned for the summer — SpaceX workers bolted the refurbished capsule to a test stand.

The test had two stages. The first was to fire low-pressure thrusters, called Dracos, to show they could maneuver the capsule in space. The next was a test-firing of high-pressure engines called Super Dracos, which power the spaceship's escape system.

The smaller Draco engines fired for about five seconds, and Koenigsmann said this test succeeded. However, all hell broke loose when the spaceship started pressurizing its Super Draco system.

SpaceX, NASA, the US Air Force, and other members of an investigation team spent weeks picking up the pieces of Crew Dragon. They also reviewed spacecraft data and replayed high-speed videos in search of a cause.

Koenigsmann revealed on Monday that investigators found burn marks inside the pressurization system's check valves: a component designed to keep out liquid oxidizer until the system can shoot it into the engines at the correct speed. The blast also coincided with activation of the system, he added.

The investigators' best hunch at this point, SpaceX said in a statement, is that during the processing of the used spaceship, a "slug" of the liquid oxidizer for the Super Dracos — a toxic substance called nitrogen tetroxide — leaked through the check valve and into the pressurization tubes.

When that system turned on, it almost instantly cranked the pressure up to 2,300 pounds per square inch (more than 150 times normal air pressure at sea level). At this point, the liquid slug shot toward the safety valve like a bullet.

"That basically destroyed the check valve and caused an explosion," Koenigsmann said. "This effect was not expected."

Super Dracos are used on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of the vehicle's launch escape system.SpaceX

Although the investigation is ongoing, Koenigsmann said the planned fix is to replace the check valve — which can be turned on and off — with a "burst valve" that opens one-way at a high pressure. A burst valve won't permit any leaks, he said, but the component is harder to test because it's single-use. (The workaround is to test many other valves manufactured in the same batch.)

SpaceX was hoping to launch its first astronauts by the end of the year, but Koenigsmann expressed doubt about keeping that schedule.

"We'll fly when we are ready," he said.

SpaceX and NASA did not immediately respond to additional questions regarding the failure and its plan to re-test the escape system's engines following a fix.

What else SpaceX said about the Crew Dragon's explosion

Below is SpaceX's full and detailed statement on the matter:

On Saturday, April 20, 2019 at 18:13 UTC, SpaceX conducted a series of static fire engine tests of the Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort test vehicle on a test stand at SpaceX's Landing Zone 1, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Crew Dragon's design includes two distinct propulsion systems - a low-pressure bi-propellant propulsion system with sixteen Draco thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering, and a high-pressure bi-propellant propulsion system with eight SuperDraco thrusters for use only in the event of a launch escape. After the vehicle's successful demonstration mission to and from the International Space Station in March 2019, SpaceX performed additional tests of the vehicle's propulsion systems to ensure functionality and detect any system-level issues prior to a planned In-Flight Abort test.

The initial tests of twelve Draco thrusters on the vehicle completed successfully, but the initiation of the final test of eight SuperDraco thrusters resulted in destruction of the vehicle. In accordance with pre-established safety protocols, the test area was clear and the team monitored winds and other factors to ensure public health and safety.

Following the anomaly, SpaceX convened an Accident Investigation Team that included officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and observers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and began the systematic work on a comprehensive fault tree to determine probable cause. SpaceX also worked closely with the US Air Force (USAF) to secure the test site, and collect and clean debris as part of the investigation. The site was operational prior to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch of STP-2 and landing of two first stage side boosters at Landing Zones 1 and 2 on June 25, 2019.

Initial data reviews indicated that the anomaly occurred approximately 100 milliseconds prior to ignition of Crew Dragon's eight SuperDraco thrusters and during pressurization of the vehicle's propulsion systems. Evidence shows that a leaking component allowed liquid oxidizer - nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) - to enter high-pressure helium tubes during ground processing. A slug of this NTO was driven through a helium check valve at high speed during rapid initialization of the launch escape system, resulting in structural failure within the check valve. The failure of the titanium component in a high-pressure NTO environment was sufficient to cause ignition of the check valve and led to an explosion.

In order to understand the exact scenario, and characterize the flammability of the check valve's titanium internal components and NTO, as well as other material used within the system, the accident investigation team performed a series of tests at SpaceX's rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. Debris collected from the test site in Florida, which identified burning within the check valve, informed the tests in Texas. Additionally, the SuperDraco thrusters recovered from the test site remained intact, underscoring their reliability.

It is worth noting that the reaction between titanium and NTO at high pressure was not expected. Titanium has been used safely over many decades and on many spacecraft from all around the world. Even so, the static fire test and anomaly provided a wealth of data. Lessons learned from the test - and others in our comprehensive test campaign - will lead to further improvements in the safety and reliability of SpaceX's flight vehicles.

SpaceX has already initiated several actions, such as eliminating any flow path within the launch escape system for liquid propellant to enter the gaseous pressurization system. Instead of check valves, which typically allow liquid to flow in only one direction, burst disks, which seal completely until opened by high pressure, will mitigate the risk entirely. Thorough testing and analysis of these mitigations has already begun in close coordination with NASA, and will be completed well in advance of future flights.

With multiple Crew Dragon vehicles in various stages of production and testing, SpaceX has shifted the spacecraft assignments forward to stay on track for Commercial Crew Program flights. The Crew Dragon spacecraft originally assigned to SpaceX's second demonstration mission to the International Space Station (Demo-2) will carry out the company's In-Flight Abort test, and the spacecraft originally assigned to the first operational mission (Crew-1) will launch as part of Demo-2.

Luckily, many of the top-rated products from our more than 1,000 buying guides are on sale during Prime Day. Our buying guides feature the best products in their respective categories, which we've meticulously researched and tested.

On this page, we will be listing the best deals in various categories, from home and kitchen to tech and outdoors, and much more. Be sure to check back often during Prime Day for new deals, which we will be updating frequently. We will also be removing items that are out of stock or no longer on sale.

To take advantage of any of these deals you'll need to be an Amazon Prime member. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial that lets you take advantage of Prime Day deals and dozens of other perks.

Stay up to date on the latest deals by checking out this page, which is where you can find all of our Prime Day 2019 coverage, and you can also see our list of the best competing Prime Day deals on the internet.

Keep scrolling to check out the best deals on the products in our buying guides.

Amazon's newly-extended Prime Day event yields 48-hours of mindless browsing through the online marketplace. While there are plenty of Prime Day deals to discover, there are also troves of wacky products to find.

Here are 12 bizarre items you can buy on Amazon:

A great pair of headphones can open you up to a whole new world of music-listening. There are a ton of great headphones out there, but the best of them can often get expensive. For Amazon Prime Day 2019, however, there are discounts on a ton of awesome headphone models, making now perhaps the best time of the year to buy a new pair of headphones.

Whether you're looking for a new pair of true wireless headphones or a pair with noise cancellation, there should be something on this list for you. Here are the best headphone deals for Amazon Prime Day 2019.

Best Prime Day 2019 true wireless headphones deals

True wireless headphones have gotten increasingly popular over the past few years, and there are some great options out there for those who want great-sounding true wireless headphones at a great price. Here are the best true wireless headphone deals for Prime Day 2019.

Amazon

The Jabra Elite 65t are some of the best true wireless headphones of the past few years, thanks to their awesome design and relatively secure fit. The headphones also sound pretty great, as they have plenty of bass. They're available for an impressive $50 off.

Buy for $119.99 (you save $50)

Amazon

Bose has a history of delivering high-quality headphones that will last for years, and the Bose SoundSport Free true wireless headphones are no exception to that rule. The headphones have a pretty awesome design that's exclusive to Amazon, and it'll help make them stand out amongst all the other true wireless headphones out there.

Buy for $139 (you save $60)

Best Prime Day 2019 gaming headphones deals

Perhaps you're a gamer looking for a great gaming headset, in which case it's worth considering these gaming headset deals. There are quite a few deals on gaming headphones available for Prime Day 2019, and the best ones are below.

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HyperX has a history of delivering ultra high-quality headsets at a reasonable price, and the Cloud Stinger is no exception to that rule. The headset is built with a super comfortable memory foam and will work perfectly with any gaming console, including the Nintendo Switch to your smartphone.

Buy for $39.99 (you save $10)

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SteelSeries is arguably the top player in the gaming headset world, and the Arctis 7 is one of the best headsets the company has to offer. The Arctis 7 offers an incredibly comfortable design, along with an excellent, natural sound quality that puts emphasis where it counts, making for a great gaming experience.

Buy for $99.99 (you save $50)

Amazon

HyperX has a history of delivering ultra high-quality headsets at a reasonable price, and the Cloud Stinger is no exception to that rule. The headset is built with a super comfortable memory foam and will work perfectly with any gaming console, including the Nintendo Switch to your smartphone.

Buy for $83.93 (you save $16.06)

Amazon

Razer has been stepping up its gaming headset game over the past few years, and the Kraken Tournament Edition is a great example of that. The headset offers an awesome green design and can play audio in 7.1 Surround Sound, making for a much more immersive gaming experience than what you would otherwise get.

Buy for $61.99 (you save $38)

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The Razer Nari is a step up from other Razer headsets, thanks to its super comfortable design with plenty of padding, and even better sound quality. The device has a retractable microphone and will work perfectly fine with your computer, PS4, or Xbox One.

Buy for $99.99 (you save $149.99)

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If you want an even bigger step up in the Razer lineup, then it's worth checking out the Nari Ultimate. This headset has even better padding, which is cooling-gel infused, meaning that you should be able to game for hours before there will be any discomfort. The headset is even wireless, which should make for a more convenient gaming experience.

Buy for $149.99 (you save $50)

Best Prime Day 2019 wireless headphones deals

True wireless headphones are great, but not everyone needs headphones so small. Plenty want a great pair of over-ear headphones or on-ear headphones with wireless connectivity, and there are some great deals on standard wireless headphones too. Check out the best deals on wireless headphones below.

Beats

Beats makes great headphones and the Solo3 wireless on-ear headphones are a great deal on Prime Day. The sound good, they look great, and they're comfortable to wear.

Buy for $139.99 (you save $159.96)

Amazon

If you're looking for a pair of reliable headphones that should last for a few years, then we recommend the Bose SoundLink over-ear headphones. The headphones are wireless, and should be relatively comfortable thanks to their over-ear design. Not only that, but they're available for a whopping $70 off their original price.

Buy for $159 (you save $70)

Amazon

If you're looking for a great pair of sports headphones, then we recommend checking out the Jabra Elite Active 45e headphones, which have a wire than wraps around the back of your head, out of the way, and an ear-hook design that's aimed at keeping the headphones squarely on your ears, even during relatively heavy movement.

Buy for $68.99 (you save $31)

Amazon

If you're looking for a great pair of on-ear headphones that are portable enough to take on the road with you, then the Jabra Move Style Edition headphones are worth considering. The headphones offer a great design, and they sound pretty great too - offering plenty of bass and some detail in the high end.

Buy for $78.99 (you save $21)

Amazon

Sony has been building some amazing noise cancelling headphones over the past few years, and the Sony WH-CH700N are an excellent example, offering a great sound-quality and stunning design at a reasonable price. The headphones are available for $78.99, which is $21 off their original price.

Buy for $89.99 (you save $110)

Best Prime Day 2019 wired headphones deals

Wireless headphones have a ton to offer, but if you're an audiophile, then it's likely you'd prefer to keep the fidelity that wires bring. Non-audiophile wired headphones have some great things to offer, too — namely the fact that they're generally quite a bit cheaper than their wireless counterparts. Thankfully, there are a few great deals on wired headphones, too. Here are the best of those deals.

Amazon

Looking for a decent pair of headphones that are ultra-cheap? The AmazonBasics on-ear wired headphones come in at just over $10, and while they don't sound great, they don't sound bad at all given their price tag. These are perfect for the kids, or for something you can take on the road without fear of losing them or them breaking.

Buy for $11.19 (you save $4.80)