The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published its response to Blue Origin's and Dynetics' protests over the lunar lander contract granted by NASA to competitor SpaceX. The protests were filed in late April, resulting in NASA temporarily pausing the lunar lander contract given to SpaceX while the GAO resolved the two formal protests.
Rocket Lab has successfully launched a payload for the US Space Force, the private space company announced today. The mission, which is called "It's a Little Chile Up Here," sent a demonstration satellite called Monolith to space for the US government. Unlike the company's May launch, this one happened without incident.
It's official: "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" by the Wu-Tang Clan has been sold by the United States government. An announcement from the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York made it official that the album was sold to an anonymous buyer. The album had previously been purchased by one Martin Shkreli for a winning auction bid of $2-million USD. The album was seized by the government after Shkreli's arrest and sold after convictions on counts of fraud in Shkreli's associated pharmaceuticals company Retrophin.
In a new media briefing today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave its latest update on the COVID-19 pandemic, including the current state of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the United States, the vaccination program, and the ways in which the two intersect. As expected, the update also includes the CDC's latest information about its face mask guidance.
US Customs and Border Patrol has announced the discovery of yet another huge batch of fake AirPods shipped to the US, the latest of many similar discoveries the agency has reported over the past several months. This latest discovery was made by the CBP in Cincinnati, Ohio, where officials seized five shipments containing more than 6,000 counterfeit 'AirPods' products.
Amid growing ransomware attacks, New York City is the first major metro region in the US to launch a cyberdefense center, one that is, in this case, located in a Manhattan skyscraper. A mix of private and government entities are working together to help prevent similar future cyberattacks, including everything from Amazon to the NYPD.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has activated a powerful new system that'll enable it to track rocket launches in near-real-time, as well as spacecraft when they reenter Earth's airspace on their way to the ground. The new program is intended to increase the safety of the US's National Airspace System, according to the agency, joining the FAA's existing air traffic management efforts.
Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released a nine-page preliminary unclassified report on unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP), the government's term for UFOs. This report wasn't as exciting as some had hoped, though it is the start of what may prove to be an interesting development over the coming months and years. One tidbit from the report hints at how the government plans to learn about UAPs: by using artificial intelligence.
After half a year of waiting, the US government has released a report on unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs), the new term used for what has been popularly referred to as UFOs. The unclassified version of the report made available to the public is only nine pages long and, well, it's not quite as exciting as some may have hoped. Still, there's a bit we can learn from what was released.
It looks like Verizon will soon hop on the smart display bandwagon. The company is apparently creating its own smart display based on Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, and while it sounds like this new smart display will share a lot of its features with its competitors, there is one feature that might give it an edge in the smart display space.
The United States Navy is testing whether its latest and greatest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is ready to take on the trials of war. To do this, the Navy is detonating explosives near the ship in order to make sure it can handle the kind of events that may be encountered during an actual war. The explosions were strong enough to register as small earthquakes.
Chinese government officials cut power to cryptocurrency mining operations on Monday morning, resulting to an immediate drop in price for the coin and related cryptocurrency. This is the latest in a line of similar targeted operations in China aimed at cutting down on mining operations throughout the country here in the year 2021. Officials suggested this year that cracking down on crypto mining is aimed at bringing the country closer to environmental goals as a significant amount of the energy used was (and continues to be) generated by coal power stations.