A French launch startup is scrapping the name of its rocket, apparently due to a trademark issue. Welcome to Edition 8.46 of the Rocket Report! We don’t mention Starship in the body of this week’s report, so I’ll give a brief update here. The next test flight of SpaceX’s…
Researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs. MAJURO, Marshall Islands—Perched on the bow of an aluminum landing craft, Anne Cohen gazed a few yards ahead of the vessel toward a yellow robot gliding across the emerald Majuro lagoon. The unmanned surface vehicle, called Yellowfin, was…
“I consider this a success already, just from the fact that we’re even going to try this.” WALLOPS ISLAND, Virginia—Just 10 months ago, NASA asked three companies if they could do something nobody had done before. Could they build and launch a satellite to save a $500 million astronomy…
Crypto Clipper spreads over USB and communicates over Tor. Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers. The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards…
A new system service will roll out this month ahead of big changes starting in September. Almost 20 years ago, Google pitched Android as the more open alternative to Apple’s walled garden. Last year, Google announced it would begin erecting its own walls through developer verification. The company has…
The vulnerability, disclosed 12 months ago, affects multiple manufacturers. Apple has updated its Beats Studio Buds wireless earbuds to patch a high-severity vulnerability that could be exploited by nearby hackers to eavesdrop on users. The vulnerability, CVE-2025-20701, allowed improper authentication in the firmware running on the Bluetooth-related chips, enabling…
It’s unclear whether the system is currently intact. In May, the federal government announced without warning that it would take apart a network of ocean monitoring systems that it had spent over $350 million to build. No reason was given for the decision to shut down the Ocean Observatories…
One previously unreported SpaceX investor has ties to Chinese military contractors. A businessman with ties to Chinese military contractors was among the overseas investors who acquired stakes in SpaceX while it was still a private company. An entity linked to the Qatari royal family also took a stake. The…
We can’t blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore. Plague swept through groups of hunter-gatherers in southeastern Siberia 5,500 years ago, leaving dozens dead in its wake—with DNA from Yersinia pestis bacteria still trapped inside their teeth. University of Oxford ancient DNA researcher Ruairidh Macleod and his colleagues…
Elsewhere, beyond-classical quantum hardware, plus classical computing fires back. Quantum computing news usually picks up near the end of the year, as companies try to provide evidence that they are hitting benchmarks on time. However, there have been interesting announcements as the summer starts this year, from incremental progress…
