Bioprinting Blood Vessels in Space Hard Tech Headlines: - America is getting a new robotic shipyard. HD Hyundai and Kiewit have announced plans to build a highly automated shipyard on an existing industrial site with deepwater access to the Gulf of Mexico (exact location undisclosed). The shipyard will use robotic welding, digital twins, and automated production systems to build U.S. Navy auxiliary and commercial vessels. Construction is targeted for 2027, with plans to create up to 3,000 American jobs at full capacity. - The U.S. Space Force has selected six companies to support space domain awareness, including Anduril, LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace, InTrack, Electro Optic Systems (EOS), and NorthStar Earth & Space. The agreements focus on providing surge capacity for tracking satellites and other objects in orbit during crises and periods of increased demand. - @G_Bionics, an Italian robotics startup, plans to build a network of three facilities for collecting humanoid robot training data, starting with a 5,000-square-meter site in Italy. The facilities will recreate real industrial environments to train and test humanoid robots using physical data and digital simulations. - @OrbitalOps_ has secured a DoW award worth up to $35M to develop and demonstrate a reusable spacecraft designed for rapid in-orbit logistics, transporting satellites and other payloads between orbits. - American aerospace company XTI Aerospace has launched Evolver DFR, a drone-as-first-responder program utilizing French-made Parrot drones, autonomous docking stations, and command-and-control software. - Leonardo and Rheinmetall have reportedly secured over $4 billion in contracts with the Italian Army for new main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, according to Italian media reports. - Red Cat has introduced two new autonomous unmanned surface vessels, including an 18-foot vessel designed for one-way attack missions, ISR, and deployment from larger naval ships, and a 39-foot vessel designed for extended autonomous ISR, maritime defense, and logistics operations. - NASA astronauts aboard the ISS began bioprinting blood vessel tissue yesterday, mixing thawed cells with biological printing material. - @AustinSensingCo has announced the deployment of drone detection sensors at 10+ major university campuses across the South and Midwest to secure college football stadiums and surrounding airspace, enabling campus police to detect, track, and identify drones and locate their operators in real time. - Japan is providing the Royal Malaysian Navy with a $10.5M counter-drone system to strengthen its naval defenses against unmanned aerial threats. - KUKA Robotics' industrial robotic arms are being deployed in car washes, using 3D scanning to generate customized washing paths for each vehicle. Unlike traditional systems, the robotic arms adapt to each vehicle's unique contours, cutting wash times from 8 to 4 minutes, with projected water savings of up to 80%. Autowash, the car wash chain piloting the technology, plans to roll it out across all 26 locations.

BREAKING: America is getting a new robotic shipyard. HD Hyundai and Kiewit have announced plans to build a highly automated shipyard on an existing industrial site with deepwater access to the Gulf of Mexico (exact location undisclosed). The shipyard will use robotic welding, digital twins, and automated production systems to build U.S. Navy auxiliary and commercial vessels. Construction is targeted for 2027, with plans to create up to 3,000 American jobs at full capacity.

BREAKING: America is building its first fleet-scale nuclear fuel factory in over 50 years. Westinghouse is deploying $1B to construct a new nuclear fuel manufacturing facility in South Carolina, which will produce low-enriched uranium plus (LEU+) fuel to support existing nuclear reactors and future Westinghouse AP1000 reactors. Production is expected to begin in 2030.