August 9, 2026

Supersonic Flight Is Making a Comeback Decades After the Concorde. But One Big Hurdle Remains (Source: CNN)
The skies of Oklahoma City roared for six months in 1964 as military aircraft intentionally rattled the population below with a daily barrage of thunderous sonic booms. It was a controversial test — the consequences of which have lingered to this day. The booms — 1,253 in total — were part of an effort by the FAA to gauge the public’s attitude toward supersonic flight. A survey of 3,000 Oklahoma City residents at the end of the 1964 test found that 73% felt they could live with sonic booms.

However, the program generated immediate lawsuits to stop the flights, and the FAA received about 12,400 calls from people complaining about the noise. The agency eventually had to compensate some locals for damage to windows and walls. The FAA's new proposed rule indicates the exact threshold of sound pressure at the surface that any aircraft flying over land in the US would be allowed to produce 0.11 pound per square foot, which is equal to a moderate thump. By comparison, the Oklahoma tests produced booms as intense as 1.6 pounds per square foot, over 14 times more than the FAA’s proposed new limit.

“Manufacturers have demonstrated it is possible to fly supersonic aircraft without sonic booms reaching the surface by using sonic boom abatement techniques, making complete prohibition on civil supersonic flight outside of test areas no longer appropriate," according to the FAA. (8/7)

Chinese Company Landspace Targets Aug. 10 for Historic Launch and Landing Attempt (Source: Space.com)
The Chinese commercial launch company Landspace is set for a second attempt at catching an orbital booster. The startup launched its first Zhuque-3 rocket in December 2025, in what was a milestone for Chinese rocket reusability efforts. While the Zhuque-3 second stage successfully reached orbit, the first stage exploded in a dramatic fireball during its final powered descent toward the landing pad. Now, Landspace is poised for a second attempt at liftoff and landing. (8/7)

Environmental Groups Challenge FCC Approval of Startup’s Plan to Beam On-Demand Sunlight From Space (Source: NBC)
Four environmental organizations filed a petition Thursday asking the Federal Communications Commission to reverse its approval of a startup’s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space to Earth, arguing the agency ignored the project’s potential impacts on wildlife, astronomy research and eye safety.

DarkSky International, Environment America, the American Bird Conservancy and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility called on the FCC to overturn a decision last month authorizing Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 demonstration satellite, which will carry a 59-foot-wide mirror to reflect sunlight onto a specific spot on the planet during periods of darkness. (8/6)

Cursor Says SpaceX Deal Could be Done by End of Next Week (Source: Seeking Alpha)
SpaceX could finish its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor as soon as the end of next week. The Cursor brand name will likely be phased out for new products in the coming months, according to a report from The Information on Friday, which cited people familiar with the matter. Cursor's upcoming general-purpose agent could be branded as Grok Bot. (8/7)

SpaceXAI Sues Contractor for Unpaid Data Center Work (Source: ABC24)
SpaceXAI is suing the contractor that claims that SpaceXAI owes nearly $570 million for unpaid labor performed at its Memphis and DeSoto County facilities. Tuesday, SpaceXAI filed a federal lawsuit against Darana Hybrid, Inc. Darana Hybrid, based in Ohio, has filed several liens claiming that SpaceXAI owes millions for work done at Colossus I and Colossus II in Memphis and several facilities in DeSoto County, including its power plant on Stanton Road.

Darana Hybrid claims that SpaceXAI owes a total of $569,348,213.76. In its complaint, SpaceXAI alleges that Darana Hybrid overbilled by hundreds of millions of dollars while "selling out their own suppliers and subcontractors along the way." (8/7)

Pentagon Releases New Batch of UFO Files (Source: CBS)
The Pentagon on Friday released a new batch of documents and images related to UFOs, also known as unidentified anomalous phenomena or UAP, including a military pilot's recollection of a huge, strange triangle that blocked out the stars over Afghanistan in 2002. The 41 new files, posted on the Pentagon's UFO website, include a mix of documents, images and videos. The records come from the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, State Department and Executive Office of the President, with the oldest being from 1950 and the most recent being from this year.

Six of the videos show different versions of the same incident — an encounter over the Gulf of Oman by Special Operations forces on an AC-130J gunship in September 2021. The report said the forces onboard a C130 gunship "observed approximately 25 instances of UAPs while conducting a live fire exercise in the Gulf of Oman... The UAPs were observed as cold orbs flying at lower altitudes between 250 to 1300 MPH in different formations as well as maneuvering aggressively. UAPs also appeared to react to the aircraft firing its main cannon," the report said. (8/7)

NASA Funds Research into Advanced Solar Sails (Source: Douglas Messier)
Artur Davoyan of UCLA received a NASA Innovative Advanced Projects (NIAC) award worth up to up to $175,000 to conduct a nine-month investigation. NIAC projects are focused on early-stage concept development and are not considered official NASA missions. "Our concept integrates two core technologies: (i) A lightweight, coilable truss structure that deploys a stack of sail membranes, each with an area between 50–150 m² (limited by the rocket fairing), and (ii) Tensegrity engineering to maintain the structural integrity and shape of the deployed system,” the project summary said. (8/8)

Once-Abandoned Spanish Village Becomes NASA's Eclipse Hotspot (Source: EuroNews)
A tiny village in the province of Burgos, brought back from the brink of extinction, is about to have its moment in the "shadow" — NASA has picked Villalibado as one of its ringside seats for the total solar eclipse on 12 August. Villalibado will now host one of the US space agency's broadcast teams as the Moon takes center stage. The feed will beam out worldwide via NASA's digital platforms and San Francisco's Exploratorium, giving Villalibado more screen time than most villages get in several centuries. (8/7)

EU Lays Out $18B Satellite Constellation Plan, with Spanish Firm Winning Key Role (Source: Breaking Defense)
European officials have agreed to a rollout plan for the continent’s flagship satellite constellation, adding 66 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to the hundreds already envisioned and naming a Spanish firm as prime contractor for ground-based communications and networking. Altogether, the plan for the European Union’s (EU) answer to SpaceX’s Starlink broadband communications network, called Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS2), is valued in excess of €15.6 billion ($18 billion).

The first satellite launches are slated for 2029, according to HispaSat, part of Spain’s Indra Group, which said it had been selected as the prime contractor for the ground portion of the effort. (8/7)

Rocket Lab Unveils Game-Changing Flatellites (Source: Motley Fool)
Rocket Lab introduced Flatellites last February, but it hasn't produced any of those next-gen satellites yet. But it's been acquiring smaller companies and developing its own components to support the expansion of that vertically integrated satellite manufacturing business. Rocket Lab believes that approach will enable it to produce high volumes of Flatellites "without compromising performance or reliability". It also expects more of its customers to use Flatellites to rapidly deploy their own low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. (8/8)

Alan Shepard's Lunar Golf Shot (Source: Times of India)
Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard paused near the end of the mission's second moonwalk on February 6, 1971 and attached a Wilson six-iron club head to the handle of a lunar sample collection tool. It was hidden inside his spacesuit until that moment, and the improvised club had been approved by NASA but kept secret from television viewers. Shepard dropped a golf ball onto the Moon's surface and swung one-handed because his bulky spacesuit made a normal golf swing impossible. The first shot barely traveled after landing in a nearby crater, but the second flew much farther. (8/9)

Reduced Gravity Pushes People Toward Simpler Movement Patterns, Experiments Suggest (Source: Phys.org)
From reaching for a cup of coffee to tying your shoelaces, gravity shapes nearly all human movement. So how do our bodies react when that familiar force begins to change? Texas A&M University researchers are exploring the answer through a multiphase project supported by NASA. Their latest work examines how the body performs in altered-gravity conditions to identify challenges astronauts encounter in space and how the human body adapts when environments change. (8/8)