Science

The Pentagon may make a deal where it would pay for billions of dollars of compute from SpaceX, according to The Wall Street Journal.

SPCX sunk another three percent in extended trading after last night’s aborted Starship launch, falling further beneath its IPO price of $135. The record-setting IPO made Elon Musk the world’s first (paper) trillionaire. Today he’s worth $838.1 billion. Concerning.

Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the investigation, the Washington Post reported Thursday night that, based on reports from many of the people who fell ill, investigators “have identified shredded iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bell restaurants by Taylor Farms as a potential source of contamination.”

The thirteenth, and first post-IPO, flight test of SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle was supposed to occur Thursday night, but when the countdown hit zero just before 7PM ET, “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” writes Elon Musk.

AST SpaceMobile was targeting the end of 2026 to begin service, but its low-Earth orbit constellation won’t reach its target of 45 BlueBird satellites until “early 2027.” This is partly due to Blue Origin’s failure to properly deploy one of AST’s giant cell towers, but also a reduction in launch capacity now that the New Glenn rocket is sidelined by a subsequent launch pad explosion.

The $14.8 billion acquisition offer for the German food-delivery giant, would give Uber ownership over services like Glovo and Foodora to expand its reach into 99 markets. In an effort to avoid antitrust scrutiny, it’s selling off operations to an investment firm in 14 markets where Uber Eats and Delivery Hero overlap.

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:

If you are, Withings’ BodyScan 2 is available to buy starting today. Why is the scale $600? Well, it measures 60 biomarkers, and it’s positioned as a “longevity station.”

The “Whoop, but for the Apple Watch” app now integrates with Google Health. If you didn’t think the Fitbit Air was a Whoop competitor before, it sure might be now. Especially considering Whoop is suing them.

In May, the Office of Management and Budget proposed a budget change which would require all research grants to align with “the President’s policy priorities” and give political appointees the ability to veto grants they don’t like — with potentially catastrophic effects. While the OMB is required to review almost half a million comments submitted by the public, you can call Congress to keep up the fight.

The Japanese space agency flight tested its RV-X prototype for the first time, with the reusable rocket rising 36 feet and moving 52 feet horizontally before touching back down, as reported by the Associated Press. China also successfully launched and recovered its reusable rocket last week in a bid to compete with SpaceX.

SpaceX dominates satellite launches because nobody else can match the cost-effective, reusable booster of its Falcon 9. Blue Origin landed its New Glenn booster last year, but then blew up its only launch pad in May. Now it’s China’s turn, although with a bit less finesse, according to the BBC:

Quantum computing hype is everywhere. Trump says we’ll have one by 2028, Microsoft by 2029. IBM is investing billions. Is it really happening? Science journalist Sophia Chen joins us to discuss her article, “What is a quantum computer good for? Absolutely nothing — yet,” and break down what’s real and what’s hype in the quantum computing race.

Lego included a replica of the telescope with its Space Shuttle Discovery set that launched in 2021, but this new 15-inch long Hubble replica is much larger and far more detailed. Inside you’ll find mirrors and gyroscopes, while outside are adjustable solar arrays and antennas. It launches on August 1st for $139.99.

No, not the 2,500 baby jellyfish NASA launched in 1991 to tell us how the human body reacts to spaceflight, but the rocket-launch phenomenon caused by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude rocket gases at twilight, while the observer watches in darkness.

Every heat wave Europe is embroiled in an argument over whether more air conditioning would save lives or simply worsen the climate crisis. Energy-efficient cooling will help, but scientists are also hard at work on new types of coolant to end our reliance on refrigerants, often potent greenhouse gases in their own right.

AI data center projects are continuing to pop up across the US, with frequent opposition from locals concerned about their impact. Here are a few recent articles about the projects:

By looking through data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), researchers uncovered a planet through microlensing for the first time — a concept theorized by Einstein that picks up on planets as their gravity warps space-time.

The company formerly known as xAI has referred to itself as SpaceXAI before following the acquisition by SpaceX. There’s a new logo, too.

The “heat dome” covering the US from the Midwest to the East Coast interrupted the Trump Administration’s Freedom 250 event at the National Mall, which shut down for about four hours, citing the temperatures, and said it would reopen at 5PM ET.