Isar Aerospace has opened a weeklong launch window starting Friday at Andøya Spaceport to try again to send its Spectrum rocket to orbit carrying small CubeSats. The German company's first orbital test failed shortly after liftoff last year, and repeated attempts since January have been delayed by technical issues and range availability. The launch comes as Norway observes a period of mourning for King Harald V, though officials say the mission can proceed as planned.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-04
The Toronto Blue Jays posted an animated promotional clip for a Nestea brand partnership that showed telltale signs of AI generation, including garbled text and a character with three arms. When fans called out the flaws, the team's social media account insisted the video was made by a real animator, a claim a community note later disputed.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-03
NASA has directed Axiom Space to develop a lighter, less complex spacesuit variant called the Sortie Suit for the first crewed Artemis lunar landings, aiming to hit a 2028 target date at the Moon's South Pole. The decision, announced internally by Artemis Program Manager Jeremy Parsons, will see the simplified suit used on both SpaceX and Blue Origin landers, cutting mass and easing integration with the spacecraft.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-02
A technical review examines the ferrocyanide/ferricyanide redox couple, prized in flow batteries for its stability, kinetics and solubility, and asks why no one has built a symmetric flow battery using it on both electrodes. The piece explains that ferrocyanide reacts with heavy metal cations like zinc or iron to form insoluble Prussian blue compounds, blocking the metal-plating side of such a design, and notes that even chelation workarounds using pyrophosphates lead to poor long-term cycling stability, as shown by degradation data after 100 cycles.
chemisting.com
· 2026-09-02
NASA has selected Blue Origin to build the Mars Telecommunications Network, a deal potentially worth $700 million. The orbiter is due to be operational by December 31, 2028, relaying science data, imagery, navigation details, and mission-critical communications for spacecraft near and on Mars.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-01
OpenAI says its upcoming Astra model is the first to reach the company's internal threshold for 'critical' cybersecurity risk, meaning it can independently discover and exploit unknown software vulnerabilities. The firm paused training for several weeks to add safety controls before resuming work, and plans a broad public release soon while limiting the model's advanced cyber capabilities to select partners in its Daybreak Blue early-access program.
wired.com
· 2026-09-01
Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital claims iPhone 18 Pro will launch in three colors: Dark Cherry/Burgundy, Sky Blue, and Black, with Silver unlikely to appear. This would mean Apple drops every iPhone 17 Pro color for an entirely new lineup ahead of next week's Apple event.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-01
A feature traces the experience of Lisa Schrenk, a federal IT worker who battled severe mood symptoms and suicidal thoughts before learning from fellow hikers about hormone therapy for perimenopause. Her account illustrates a broader trend of women turning to hormone treatments after standard care, including oral contraceptives, failed to address their symptoms, often after doctors dismissed their concerns.
wired.com
· 2026-09-01
Pabst Blue Ribbon announced on Instagram that thieves stole roughly 40,000 pounds of its beer, turning the theft into a public marketing moment rather than a quiet internal matter. The move mirrors a growing trend of brands, like KitKat previously, openly acknowledging cargo thefts and using them to generate social media buzz.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-31
Blue Voice, a Boston startup founded by Harvard Law dropout David Lawrence, has emerged from stealth with $6 million in funding led by SignalFire and Las Olas VC. The platform gives police officers instant, real-time access to department-specific policies, laws and protocols, and is already used by officers across 225 county agencies in 25 states.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-31
Thieves used fraudulent subcontracting paperwork to arrange a fake pickup at a Pabst distribution center in Montclair, California, making off with roughly 40,000 pounds of beer worth about $25,000. Pabst responded with a tongue-in-cheek social media countdown demanding the return of its 'truck,' though police clarified no truck was actually stolen, just the cargo. A separate $45,000 shipment bound for Tucson vanished from the same facility the same day, and investigators are exploring a possible link.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-08-31
A University of Georgia study tested 60 young adults on their ability to distinguish two close points of light under different colors, finding that blue light caused the greatest scattering and optical aberration in the eye, requiring points to be farther apart to be seen as separate. Green, yellow, red, and broadband light produced comparatively less scatter. The researchers also found iris pigmentation affected results, with lighter-colored eyes showing different sensitivity.
research.uga.edu
· 2026-08-31
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