Finnish Kuva Space completed a pilot with a European customer: Hyperfield-1 hyperspectral images and AI classification identified poppy fields in Afghanistan's Helmand. The system annotated 248,889 plots and marked 8,835 as probable poppy, with accuracy rising to 75% versus 71% for Sentinel-2.
Vantor selected Bulgaria's EnduroSat for platforms and CACI for optical payloads on 24 Pulse small satellites. The 40 cm resolution craft with 15-minute revisit will deploy in 2027-2029, with assembly and testing in the US.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered the McGethin crater, 728 feet (222 m) wide, formed by a rare impact on the Moon in 2024. The event is called 'once-in-a-century'.
China says very low Earth orbit (VLEO) is moving from concept to practical deployment and warns of a critical 2026–2030 window to occupy this orbital niche.
Observations show Pluto's atmospheric pressure has dropped by about 16% as the dwarf planet moves farther from the Sun, indicating the start of an atmospheric collapse.
Volvo announced its largest model lineup overhaul in 99 years: 13 new cars by the end of the decade. Seven models for Europe and the US on SPA2 and SPA3 platforms with 800-volt batteries, and six for China on Geely platforms. The company aims to double market share and raise EBIT margin from 3.5% to over 8%.
According to PitchBook, companies developing brain-computer interfaces have already raised over $1 billion in 2026. For comparison, the previous four years combined saw $1.56 billion. Investments come from Silicon Valley to Beijing.
Analysis of New Horizons images from 2015–2016 showed that liquid nitrogen may rise through cracks and reach Pluto's surface at the northern edge of Sputnik Planitia glacier. Dark streaks on the glacier resemble meltwater traces on Greenland glaciers. The study is published in the Planetary Science Journal.
Scientists at WashU Medicine discovered lymph node-like immune structures in the skull bone marrow of mice that respond to brain cancer earlier than the rest of the immune system. Similar cells were found in human skulls; stimulating these areas with a gel containing three proteins helped mice reject tumors and live longer.
Astrophysicist Mutlu Yıldız of Ege University modeled the Sun swallowing a planet 5.6 times larger than Earth. This explains the lithium deficit on the surface and the anomalous sound speed in the convective zone.
Kanin Energy received up to $100 million in equity financing from S2G Investments and Canada Growth Fund to develop and operate waste heat-to-power projects in Canada and the US. Organic Rankine Cycle systems convert up to 58% of energy lost by industry into electricity without additional fuel.
Purdue University researchers Tim McGraw and Jack Myers presented Dissectible Anatomy: a system that turns cryosections (including Visible Human Project data) into deformable 3D models that can be cut, torn, and separated in real time. The project received the Audience Choice Award at SIGGRAPH 2026.
Lockheed Martin conducted flight tests in Tucson with two F-16s exchanging IR targeting data via Legion pods with a pre-production version of L3Harris's HiveLink. Networking passive IR sensors speeds up range and target coordinate determination without turning on radar.
A 6MW floating solar plant with 9,222 modules on three islands has started operating on a reservoir in Monroeville, Ohio. It occupies 12 acres of water and saves about 30 acres of farmland; it is the largest floating installation in the state and among the top five in the US.
Scientists at DLR's Institute of Planetary Research found that Mercury is contracting 10–30% faster than previous estimates. The planet's diameter has shrunk by about 7.5–23 km instead of the previous 4–16 km, indicating a larger metallic core or higher initial temperature.
Researchers at the University of York and Sheffield used atomic force microscopy and computer modeling to show how divalent metal ions act as bridges between equally charged DNA molecules. The findings confirm the "DNA zipper" model proposed about 20 years ago and could aid cancer research and biotechnology.
IonQ and Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated a generative AI method for synthesizing quantum optimization circuits, replacing manual parameter tuning. On a 100-variable benchmark, tuning time remained ~28 seconds as subproblems grew from 4 to 12 qubits, while the old method grew from 34 seconds to 11 minutes.
According to the annual EV Index from Here Technologies and SBD Automotive, more than 50% of surveyed US drivers are considering switching to an electric vehicle due to rising gasoline prices. The share who consider charging infrastructure sufficient rose from 28% in 2025 to 47% in the current survey, and about 85% among EV owners.
Georgia Power has put the 128 MW Robins Battery Facility into commercial operation next to the Robins Solar plant. The storage delivers up to four hours of energy during peak hours; over 3000 MW of new battery projects have been approved in the state.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said the modern battlefield spans from the seabed to cislunar space. Space Force chief Douglas Schiess acknowledged that the U.S. military already operates orbital weapons, likely electromagnetic type.
The US plans to add 300 GW of nuclear capacity by 2050 and is developing spent fuel recycling. Argonne National Laboratory is working on pyroprocessing, which could cut radioactive waste storage from hundreds of thousands of years to hundreds.
Belgian startup Aerospacelab won a €2.4 billion contract to build 264 IRIS2 satellites in low orbit, beating Airbus. Eutelsat OneWeb will reach 1,300 active satellites by 2030 as an interim step before IRIS2.
Lockheed Martin invested over $35 million in the modular AGM-158 FLEX airframe for the JASSM and LRASM cruise missile family. Interchangeable nose cones and tail sections will allow air, ground, surface, and submarine launches; the JASSM-XR variant will have a range of 206 inches.
SEOPS signed a contract with Isar Aerospace for five Spectrum rocket launches in 2028–2030 from spaceports in Norway and Canada. Including last year's order, the total number of missions reached six; Isar's 2028 manifest is already full.
German submarine UC-30, sunk in 1917 off the coast of Denmark, has been releasing TNT from six torpedoes and 18 mines for decades. Scientists found traces of TNT in water, seabed sediments, and marine organisms; the problem may affect thousands of similar sunken vessels.
Purdue University awarded the first Neil Armstrong Space Prize to five SpaceX employees who created the Falcon 9 first-stage landing system. The ceremony was held September 15 in Washington; the first vertical landing took place on December 21, 2015, and SpaceX has since landed boosters more than 650 times.
AEVEX Corp. received a three-year $92.2 million contract to support the SkyRange program for hypersonic vehicle testing. The company will handle onboard telemetry, payload integration and communications on Range Hawks drones, including converted RQ-4 Global Hawks.
SpaceX confirmed the launch of Starship Flight 14 on September 22 — the first orbital flight with a commercial payload: 26 Starlink V3 satellites. The company also disclosed the cause of Booster 20's loss in Flight 13 (ice clogging) and added filtration on Booster 21.
Five months after canceling the 15-year, $6.27B GPS ground control program OCX without a working system, the US Space Force announced a modular GPS successor built on commercial solutions. The Resilient GPS program has been revived with $15M from Congress and a target launch in 2028.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with the third classified US Space Force mission in five weeks from Vandenberg. The Pentagon is investing $17B in a distributed constellation of hundreds of cheap encrypted satellites in low orbit with laser communication links to defend against anti-satellite weapons.
