September 2026
All columns and Brief analyses.
10 results
FAA SMART software is due over Washington as early as Monday
The Independent reported on 18 September that federal officials plan to launch Air Space Intelligence's SMART air-traffic tool in the Washington, D.C., area as early as Monday. TechCrunch, citing the Wall Street Journal, put the contract at 875 million dollars over 12 years. In this phase the software is a disruption decision aid using schedules, weather, airport capacity and constraints.
Greensand is due to start burying carbon dioxide in the Danish North Sea
Reuters said INEOS plans to open Greensand off Denmark on Friday. Year one is drawn at 400000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Later years are drawn between 4 million and 8 million tonnes. Cargo leaves Esbjerg, travels about 250 kilometres, and is injected about 1800 metres down at Nini West. Norway's Northern Lights started in August 2025; Reuters noted Norway sits outside the EU, so Greensand is framed as the Union's first full-scale store.
Italy will not wait for Aspides to escort ships at Bab el-Mandeb
Crosetto said Italy is standing up its navy so Italian merchant ships keep moving at Bab el-Mandeb. He said Italy will not wait for Aspides. ANSA's 17 September headline names the same refusal to wait for the EU. Al Jazeera recorded Bergamini in Djibouti and no fewer than ten Italian merchant ships seeking protection. The government and parliament have not set the mandate.
Japan CPI stays at 1.9% as energy flips to -0.7
The Statistics Bureau of Japan said August national CPI 2025=100 was 102.2, up 1.9% year on year, while the ex-fresh index was 102.0, up 1.7%. Energy’s year-on-year rate flipped to -0.7% from +0.6%. Bloomberg’s feed said Japan CPI slows before an expected BOJ hike.
Landsat shows Lake Powell still sitting at a record-low water level
NASA Earth Observatory paired 2017 and 2026 Landsat views showing Lake Powell at 3,517.24 feet on 10 September 2026, below the April 2023 record. International Business Times echoed NASA's elevations while noting Upper Basin snow drought and Bureau of Reclamation releases.
Lee keeps South Korean troops out of the Iran war
President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul will not send troops into the Iran war and will limit any activity to protecting South Korean merchant ships and oil routes. Speaking at the Blue House on Friday, he said Donald Trump wants dialogue with Pyongyang and that a meeting remains difficult but not impossible. Al Jazeera recorded Yonhap quoting him that a Hormuz contribution is possible without joining the fighting. Trump's claim of 57 North Korean nuclear weapons sits beside Seoul's range of about 80 to 120 warheads.
Madrid signatures lock in IRIS2 low-orbit study teams
ESA dated 18 consolidation awards at Madrid's ESAC on 17 September. Nearly 80 firms sit on those awards, together worth 20 million euro. The work is Low-LEO study work that could shape the EU IRIS2 constellation. Teams will weigh governmental broadband, sea and air uses, plus relay and tasking. ESA plans buy-ins in 2027-2029 for on-orbit checks; a later join to the live IRIS2 baseline stays a future programme call.
McGetchin crater is 222 metres across, a 132-year lunar impact
FOX 35 said scientists found a McGetchin moon crater about 222 metres across, formed in spring 2024 and spotted in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images. Scripps News said the hole is up to 43 metres deep and estimated at once every 132 years.
NASA books a Falcon 9 rideshare for the StarBurst gamma-ray watcher
NASA picked SpaceX to fly StarBurst on a shared Falcon 9 Bandwagon ride, no earlier than 2028. The craft is meant to watch merging neutron stars and the first bright flash of short gamma-ray bursts. The flight is a fixed-price VADR order run from Kennedy. The pad named is Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
Nestlé Russia plants move to LEV; Russia is 1% of group revenue
A 17 September presidential decree placed Nestlé and Auchan Russian operating companies, plus former Leroy Merlin and FM Logistic, under LEV Management. Interfax names AO L.E.V. Management and six Nestlé plants. France 24 cites Vontobel: Russia is just over 1% of Nestlé group revenue, down from about 2% before the war. Nestlé said it was assessing options to protect its rights.