SpaceX will conduct Starship's 14th test flight on September 22, attempting for the first time to put the upper stage into Earth orbit and deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites. The launch window is 75 minutes from 7:15 a.m. US Central Time. Super Heavy and the upper stage will not be caught this time.
Cornell University researchers developed the DEER method, which directly restores lithium-ion battery electrodes without smelting. Electrochemical treatment with DMI removes the SEI layer and returns up to 95% of original capacity, with recycling cost estimated at $15.25 per kg versus $26.31 for traditional methods.
Updated Volvo XC60 and XC90 plug-in hybrids offer 78 and 73 miles of electric range respectively, a record among PHEVs in the US. The battery grew from about 15 to 38 kWh, while total output remains 455 hp. The XC60 also received updated design and a new safety suite.
Scientists at University College Dublin led by Louis L'Hote found sheep pox virus DNA in medieval parchments, including the York Gospels. Analysis of Bronze Age sheep teeth from the Eurasian steppes pushed the virus's history back at least 3,700 years. A 2026 outbreak in Greece killed nearly 500,000 animals.
More than 1.8 million electric vehicles were sold from the start of the year through the end of August, but charging infrastructure is lagging behind demand, according to a ChargePoint report. Company head Rick Wilmer noted growing demand for charging solutions and 96% retention of EV owners when switching cars.
Researchers at IBS found that the ERBB4 receptor may link neuronal hyperactivity to Alzheimer's pathologies. In mice, disabling Erbb4 in hippocampal excitatory neurons reduced hyperactivity, decreased amyloid plaques, and improved memory; activating the receptor in healthy mice induced disease symptoms. In 446 people, higher ERBB4 expression in neurons correlated with more plaques and worse cognition.
From September 15 to 17, nine orbital launches are scheduled: two Falcon 9 from California, Vega C with Sentinel-3C and FLEX from French Guiana, five launches from China, and a Soyuz-2.1b with Progress MS-35 cargo ship to the ISS.
According to SEIA, eight of the ten leading US states for solar energy construction voted for Trump. In Q2 2026, the country added over 11 GW of solar capacity, up 45% year-over-year; nearly three-quarters of the growth came from Republican states. Tax credits for most solar projects expired on July 4, 2026.
Startup Deep Fission became the first in the US Department of Energy's pilot program to publish a full Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for the Gravity reactor, to be placed at a depth of about 1.6 km in Parsons, Kansas. The document, approved by DOE, sets design and safety analysis requirements but does not authorize operation.
The US Department of Energy included Utah-based Nusano in the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad program to commercialize HALEU fuel for next-generation reactors. Nusano promises 5.9 tonnes of HALEU per year from its first facility in 2031, while the only current producer, Centrus, has produced less than two tonnes since 2019.
An instrument on a CubeSat can warn of solar flares and geomagnetic storms 10 times longer in advance than existing systems. This gives more time to protect satellites, power grids and communications from space weather.
BMW reported that its new electric crossover iX3 received over 100,000 orders in Europe in a year of sales — roughly every third order for the brand's electric vehicles. In China, the iX3 starts at 269,900 yuan (about $40,000), in Germany from €63,400, and in the US from $61,500.
Phasecraft and NVIDIA announced a 15x speedup in quantum molecular simulation using hardware-adaptive algorithms and the NVIDIA Hopper platform. They built the largest database of over 3000 molecular emulations for 13 systems using VQE, covering 4 to 32 qubits.
A study in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics found that if real black holes violate the no-hair theorem, it would appear in the frequency and damping rate of gravitational waves from mergers. The authors compared standard models with Hayward and Bardeen black holes and found unique signatures for each.
Stellantis Pro One showcased 13 commercial vehicles from Citroën, Fiat Professional, Opel, and Peugeot at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hannover. New models include the three-wheeled Fiat TRIS with a 6.9 kWh battery and up to 90 km range, and the Smart Compact Van with up to 270 km range.
Waymo has opened fully autonomous rides to the public in Las Vegas — its fourth new US city in two weeks. The service area covers nearly 24 miles, and over 100,000 people have registered interest. The company reported over 20 million completed rides.
Volkswagen drove a Mission Efficiency prototype based on the ID Polo 1,278 km from Wolfsburg to Vienna with average consumption of 6.89 kWh/100 km. The car achieved a record drag coefficient of 0.158 and 821 km of range in a test-track run.
Using ALMA, VLA, JWST, and VLT, astronomers observed the protostellar system IRAS 07299-1651, 5,500 light-years from Earth, for nearly 8 years. The pair of massive stars moves in a highly elongated orbit with tilted disks, which is not explained by disk fragmentation and points to core merger.
IAA Transportation 2026 opened in Hanover with 1589 exhibitors from 46 countries. Volvo showed electric FH, FH Aero, FM, and FMX; MAN displayed a lineup from eTGL to eTGX with up to 720 km range; Daimler presented eActros 600 with 160 million km driven by customers. Daimler plans to deploy 100 hydrogen NextGenH2 trucks with over 1000 km range from late 2026.
Researchers from Texas A&M and the University of Mississippi developed a nanometer-scale copper catalyst with nitrogen that yields nearly pure methane fuel from electrochemical CO2 reduction. Mars' atmosphere is 96% CO2, allowing fuel production for the return trip on site. The work was published in ACS Catalysis.
European satellite maker Open Cosmos raised €300 million (about $346 million) in a round led by Lightrock, ETF Partners, ICF and Entrepreneurs First. The funds will scale satellite manufacturing and develop ConnectedCosmos, OpenConstellation and DataCosmos services for government customers in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Greece.
Tesla officially announced the premiere of its electric supercar Roadster for October 1 in Waco, Texas. Elon Musk promises "the most memorable product presentation" and calls the car's technology "out of this world." 0–60 mph acceleration is claimed at 1.1 seconds.
At the AFA conference in Maryland, US Space Force head Douglas Schiess said the agency 'sees a lot' thanks to NRO satellites. Danti received a $2.1 million contract extension for AI geospatial data analysis under the TacSRT program.
SES and Elveo Mobile agreed to establish production of direct-to-device (D2D) satellites and a supply chain in Europe. Satellites based on Elveo's platform will join a multi-orbit architecture with SES's GEO and MEO systems for communications with European governments and NATO.
IBM Research published a paper on September 15, 2026, showing a theoretical separation between small quantum circuits and large language models for one functional and one sampling task. The 60-page paper, 'Separating quantum circuits from classical LLMs,' was posted on arXiv on August 4, 2026. The authors note the results are purely theoretical and do not imply practical advantage due to noisy quantum computers.
The IceCube Observatory at the South Pole received its first upgrade since 2010, adding hundreds of new light sensors that are 2–3 times more sensitive than older ones, along with new calibration instruments. The NSF allocated $53 million for the project through 2031.
Researchers developed reinforced ice called BioPykrete, which is about 10 times stronger than regular ice and absorbs about 70 times more energy before failure. The material solves the main problem of ice—sudden cracking.
Scientists used advanced X-ray crystallography to determine the atomic structure of a macromolecule at unprecedented resolution. The method provides more accurate data on the structure of proteins and their functions.
Kia unveiled the PV7 electric van at IAA Transportation, and a prototype was soon spotted in hot-weather testing in the US. The 5350 mm model will offer 71.5 and 96.2 kWh batteries, up to 460 km WLTP range, and 800V architecture with 10–80% charging in 25 minutes.
Tesla began public rides in two-seat Cybercab robotaxis in Austin on September 4 without announcement or livestream. The fleet is small and limited to a geofence, NHTSA has started a safety certification review, and investors point to risks and capex exceeding $25 billion.
