Today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and space news:

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife welcome new baby girl
  • California seeks to boost electric-car rebate program
  • Renault-Nissan, China’s Dongfeng announce e-car venture
  • SpaceX launch for satellite for Taiwan

The details:

  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and wife welcome new baby girl

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are welcoming a new daughter in a post — where else — on Facebook.

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan already have a toddler daughter, Max, born in 2015. They named their second child August.

The couple posted a photo of the family Monday, along with a letter they wrote to August hoping she will get to enjoy her childhood. They write that “childhood is magical” and tell her that she only gets to be a child once “so don’t spend it worrying too much about the future.”

Chan and Zuckerberg also wrote a letter to Max when she was born, talking about the world they hope to see her grow up in, with advances in science, medicine and access to education.

  • California seeks to boost electric-car rebate program

California would spend up to $3 billion under a bill to widely expand its fledgling consumer rebate program for zero-emission vehicles.

The state has already spent nearly $450 million in subsidies, but the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/2xC52Ij ) that so far, the rebates haven’t boosted sales much. In 2016, of the just over 2 million cars sold in the state, only 75,000 were pure-electric and plug-in hybrid cars. To date, out of 26 million cars and light trucks registered in California, just 315,000 are electric or plug-in hybrids.

Now the Legislature is pushing forward a bill that would lift rebates from $2,500 to $10,000 or more for a compact electric car. That could, for example, make a Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car cost the same as a gasoline-driven Honda Civic.

Already approved by several Senate and Assembly committees, the bill will go to Gov. Jerry Brown for his approval or veto if the full Legislature approves it by the end of its current session on Sept. 15.

California aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to a level 40 percent below what they were in 1990.

  • Renault-Nissan, China’s Dongfeng announce e-car venture

Automakers Renault and Nissan say they will develop electric cars with a Chinese state-owned partner, adding to a series of tie-ups between global auto brands and local partners in the biggest electric vehicle market.

The venture Dongfeng Motor Corp. aims to develop a vehicle based on an SUV platform shared by Renault and Nissan, the companies announced Tuesday. Production is due to begin in 2019.

Global automakers are investing heavily to develop electric vehicles for China, responding to rising demand and government pressure on the industry to speed up technology development.

Chinese planners see electrics as a promising industry and a way to clean up smog-choked cities. They have supported sales with subsidies to buyers, while a proposed quota system will require automakers to meet targets for electric vehicle production or buy credits from competitors that do.

Sales of pure-electric and gasoline-electric hybrids in China rose 50 percent last year over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, accounting for 40 percent of global demand. U.S. sales totaled 159,620.

Renault SA and Nissan Motor Corp. have a wide-ranging alliance to share technology and production that also includes Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and has more limited ties with other auto brands.

Dongfeng assembles vehicles for Nissan, Kia and other foreign brands and owns a share of France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen.

  • Satellite for Taiwan launched from California

An Earth-observation satellite for Taiwan’s National Space Organization was launched into orbit from California last week.

The Formosat-5 satellite lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully landed its first stage on a drone ship floating in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage continued on and deployed the satellite.

“This is the 15th successful landing of a Falcon 9,” said Lauren Lyons, the SpaceX webcast launch commentator.

Formosat-5 is the first satellite to be fully designed by Taiwan’s space agency and is intended to advance the nation’s space technology and scientific research while providing global imagery with a wide array of uses ranging from natural resource studies to disaster management.

Planned to operate for five years in low-Earth orbit, about 446 miles (720 kilometers) high, its main instrument is a sensor that can produce high-resolution black-and-white and color images.