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The U.S. Space Force is adding three dozen spacecraft to its growing constellation designed to detect and track incoming missiles from orbit. The Space Development Agency (SDA) announced the agreements, worth a combined $1.75 billion, on July 14, naming L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space as the recipients.

Each company will provide 18 Accelerated Missile Defense Tranche 3 (AMDT3) spacecraft, for a total of 36 satellites that will grow the SDA Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture's Tranche 3 Tracking Layer constellation, part of the Trump Administration's Golden Dome initiative. All 36 are expected to be ready for launch by the end of 2028, according to an SDA statement .

SDA's contracts with each company differ slightly. One calls for "18 missile warning and missile tracking variant space vehicles" from Sierra Space, while the other requests "18 missile defense variant space vehicles" from L3Harris, all equipped with infrared sensors to add to the constellation's global network.

L3Harris will receive up to $955 million for its 18 satellites, which the Space Force describes as "Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor-like" (HBTSS) spacecraft. Sierra Space's agreement has the potential to reach $798 million for its 18-satellite contribution. Altogether, the 36 spacecraft will be distributed across four orbital planes as part of a hybrid missile-defense architecture designed to provide "global stereo coverage" of next-generation missile threats.

The Tracking Layer uses infrared imaging in low Earth orbit to detect and track missiles, and it transfers that data in real time through a low-latency communications network to military forces on the ground. According to the agency, the new satellites will increase the constellation's coverage and integrate into the spacecraft of SDA's first three Tranches.

“AMDT3 expands upon SDA’s previous and current Tracking Layer generations — Tranches 1, 2 and 3," said SDA Director G.P. Sandhoo, "marking another milestone in delivering a resilient, global missile warning, missile tracking, and missile defense capability.”

Sierra Space will base its satellites on the Horizon vehicle, from the company's Eclipse satellite series, which it also used in the design of the spacecraft it provided for the Tranche 2 Tracking Layer program, according to a Sierra Space release .

Stack of Satellites from Sierra Space. (Image credit: Sierra Space) L3Harris plans to build on the success of the HBTSS satellites the company developed for the Military Defense Agency, according to an L3Harris release . The company "has more than 70 missile tracking and defense satellites on order, including five on orbit, between MDA’s HBTSS program and SDA’s Tracking Layer across Tranche 0, 1, 2 and 3," the company said.

The 36 satellites from L3Harris and Sierra Space are in addition to the 72 Tranche 3 Tracking Layer spacecraft SDA ordered in December 2025, via contracts worth $3.5 billion. L3Harris was included in those agreements as well, along with Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab and Northrop Grumman. In total, the two rounds of awards bring the Tranche 3 constellation to a planned 108 satellites, worth about $5.25 billion. If all goes to plan, all of them will be available to launch by the end of 2029.

The newly contracted satellites from L3Harris and Sierra Space could begin heading to space sooner than that, however. SDA describes the new contracts as "accelerated," though a launch timeline has not been established to the overall group. Once in orbit, the Space Force will assume responsibility for the satellites' operation and integration "in support of joint force operations and delivering warfighting capabilities," the SDA statement said.

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Runoff from Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet could severely disrupt currents in the Atlantic Ocean that regulate the global climate, researchers say. But the fresh water won't trigger the complete and irreversible collapse of the circulation that some research predicts, a new study suggests.

By 2100, Greenland meltwater could cause a reduction in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) equivalent to an additional 10% to 20% on top of the weakening that many scientists already expect for this huge system of currents, researchers found.

Previous research suggests the AMOC, which moves heat from the tropics to the Northern Hemisphere and cold water back south toward Antarctica, is at its weakest in more than 1,000 years due to Arctic ice melt and soaring ocean temperatures. Models indicate that the circulation will continue to weaken for decades to come , potentially unleashing freezing weather in Northwest Europe, additional sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast and droughts around the equator.

The AMOC loops around the Atlantic Ocean, bringing warm waters north along the ocean's surface and cold waters south along the ocean floor. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) The new study revealed that by 2300, Greenland's ice sheet could cause a whopping 40% of AMOC weakening on top of the declines projected by some climate models if we continue to cook the planet. The results highlight the effects on the AMOC of a growing freshwater pulse from Greenland that most climate models currently don't take into account, the authors said.

"By the year 2100, yes, we have something, but the greatest fraction is what we add later," study co-author Jost von Hardenberg , a professor in the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy, told Live Science.

Meltwater from the Arctic and Greenland slows the AMOC by preventing the formation of deep currents in the North Atlantic that drive the circulation south toward Antarctica. Deep currents form when masses of cold, salty water sink to the seabed, but inputs of fresh water and rising water temperatures are blocking this step by diluting and warming surface waters.

While Arctic meltwater is commonly integrated into climate simulations, researchers have been slower to include runoff from the Greenland ice sheet in models, partly because this runoff may not be as disruptive as Arctic meltwater on shorter timescales, von Hardenberg said.

"In order to represent correctly the Greenland melt, you need a specific, dynamic model for the Greenland ice sheet. It's nice to have, but it requires a lot of resources to develop," von Hardenberg said

The Community Ice Sheet Model version 2 (CESM2) is one of the few available simulations of the Greenland ice sheet. For the study, von Hardenberg and his colleagues used a global climate model called EC-Earth3, which does not include the Greenland ice sheet. The team added the ice sheet from CESM2 to explore how it might affect the AMOC over the next few centuries. Adding the ice sheet separately enabled them to compare AMOC weakening with and without Greenland, clearly revealing the impact of the ice sheet on the AMOC's strength.

The results, published June 19 in the journal Science Advances , suggest the Greenland ice sheet will have a big influence on Atlantic ocean currents, especially after 2100.

"Greenland starts really melting strongly only after that date," von Hardenberg said. "If you go farther in our simulation — we go up to the year 2300 — that is also when this meltwater really becomes extremely strong."

Yet unlike other studies that show the AMOC collapsing irreversibly under climate change, in this model, the circulation recovered once the team switched off the meltwater or dialed down greenhouse gas emissions. Both the simulations that didn't include the Greenland ice sheet and those that did had similar results, recovering partially when the meltwater was turned off and fully when greenhouse gas emissions were stopped.

The recovery in the model suggests that the AMOC is more stable than previously thought and doesn't suddenly flip from an active state into a collapsed one, von Hardenberg said. "It's consistent with a strong weakening, but not a shutdown," he said.

Overall, the findings show that it is important to include the Greenland ice sheet in climate models — something von Hardenberg and his colleagues are planning to do in the next version of the EC-Earth3 model.

"It's really something which is worthwhile doing to better constrain the uncertainty of these future simulations," von Hardenberg said. "If we have a larger set of models which include this component, we will be in a better position to try to answer the question, 'How much do we expect AMOC to decrease in different scenarios?'"

Other experts agreed that integrating the Greenland ice sheet in climate models will increase the accuracy of AMOC predictions.

"What makes the study particularly interesting is that it directly tests a process that has often been highlighted as an important source of uncertainty in future AMOC projections," said Jonathan Baker , a senior climate scientist at the Met Office in the U.K. who was not involved in the study.

The results are consistent with previous research showing that Greenland meltwater causes additional AMOC weakening, but whether the system could collapse is still uncertain, given that the team used only one model, Baker told Live Science in an email. "Repeating these experiments across a wider range of models will be important to assess how robust the findings are," he said.

Nicholas Foukal , an assistant professor at the University of Georgia's Skidaway Institute of Oceanography who was not involved in the study, said he doesn't think the use of a single model limits the analysis.

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"I think this result is robust and I am glad to see the authors come to this conclusion in such a high-resolution and realistic coupled climate model," Foukal told Live Science in an email. "This finding also agrees with other modeling results that require immense amounts of fresh water, much more fresh water than is available on Greenland, to cause irreversible change in the AMOC."

However, a third expert said the model used in the study is unrealistic, because its parameters make the AMOC more resilient than those of other models. Therefore, the study should be replicated in other models to draw unbiased conclusions.

"While the experiment reported is interesting, its outcomes are neither surprising nor should be interpreted as exemplary for the whole model ensemble," Sybren Drijfhout , a professor of physical oceanography at the University of Southampton in the U.K., told Live Science in an email.

Researchers should investigate the impact of the Greenland ice sheet on the AMOC further, von Hardenberg said. "It would be interesting in the future to check it [the AMOC's recovery with Greenland meltwater] with other models, but of course it's encouraging to see it in one case," he added.

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About once a week I head on over Steam to peek at the most wishlisted games because I want to know: what are PC gamers looking forward to most? Are there any highly anticipated games on the brink of release? And is anything new blowing up

This week I definitely spotted something new: Dear Passengers, a co-op game about running "the world's worst airline" with your friends, is now seated comfortably at number 12 on Steam's top wishlists . That's impressive because the chaotic friendslop game was only announced a week ago. Here's the trailer if you missed it:

"You and your friends are the crew," says developer Flexus. "Your job is to deliver passengers and cargo to their destination. Preferably in one piece. While one of you pilots the plane, the others keep the cabin together, serve the passengers, and deal with whatever goes wrong before it gets much worse."

And things definitely look like they get worse. Turbulence, bad weather, bird strikes, and dangerous cargo can lead to all sorts of disasters while in flight, and of course there's no greater threat than your friends who might open the doors at altitude and get everyone sucked out of the plane.

It looks like chaotic fun, and the internet agrees: Dear Passengers was added to 700,000 wishlists in just 36 hours after the trailer premiered on July 14, and has more than doubled that since, collecting over 1,500,000 wishlists a couple of days ago.

It's not an entirely smooth takeoff to Mount Wishlist, however: in the same week, the Kyiv-based studio also received some backlash over its edgelord humor—players in the trailer are named "Epst.J" and "PDaddy," not-so-subtle references to the notorious sex traffickers, and one passenger on the plane appears to be modeled after Donald Trump. (He is thrown out of the plane by Epstein.)

"All characters are fictional, and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental," a developer posted in the game's official Discord. "Flexus Games strongly condemns the actions of Jeffrey Epstein, as well as any crimes and individuals involved in breaking the law."

More backlash came following a job advertisement posted by Flexus on its website looking for a "2D Artist skilled in bringing game ideas to life and adept at using generative AI for concept creation"—which led to speculation that Dear Passengers uses AI-generated assets despite the game's Steam page displaying no AI disclosure.

The developers had a response to that, too: "No AI was used in the creation of Dear Passengers," Flexus said on Steam. "That was an old job posting related to marketing assets for some of our mobile projects. It has nothing to do with Dear Passengers. This game was created without generative AI."

The job posting has now been revised to state "Looking for a 2D Artist skilled in bringing game ideas to life."

That's a whole lotta stuff to happen in just one week, huh? We'll see how the rest of the year goes: Dear Passengers is set to release sometime in 2026.

2026 games : All the upcoming games

Best PC games : Our all-time favorites

Free PC games : Freebie fest

Best FPS games : Finest gunplay

Best RPGs : Grand adventures

Best co-op games : Better together

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Modern OTA systems improve security as often as they introduce new risks.

Remote vehicle hijacking remains significantly harder than many headlines suggest.

Fleet disruption and data theft pose more realistic cybersecurity threats.

Over-the-air (OTA) updates for cars are often lauded as a sign of the future, yet plenty of people worry they are creating a new safety concern of their own. Practically all new cars sold today are connected to the internet, and cybersecurity experts don’t love that. What happens if bad actors compromise those systems? It’s a good question, but for now, the answer is considerably more nuanced than “hackers could take over your car while you’re driving.”

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More: Panic In Russia As Hundreds Of Porsches Mysteriously Shut Down

The technology has become one of the industry’s largest shifts over the last decade. Once largely a Tesla calling card, it lets manufacturers squash bugs, sharpen features, and pile on new functions without anyone setting foot in a dealership. It also hands automakers a fast way to patch security holes, which matters more than the convenience does.

Where The Real Risk Lives

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A new report from CNBC largely focuses on those potential vulnerabilities. After all, it’s technically possible that connected vehicles could become targets for hackers or even hostile governments. One Norwegian investigation into Chinese-built electric buses found that manufacturers retained remote access to certain vehicle systems through a cellular connection, prompting further reviews in the UK and Denmark.

Security analysts have also warned that internet-connected vehicles represent an increasingly attractive target for espionage and large-scale cyberattacks. Those concerns deserve attention, but they’re also easy to misunderstand.

Hollywood Vs Reality

Ford Pro

The image plenty of us have when thinking of a hacker and a modern car is pretty worrying. A person with bad intentions sits behind a computer, gains access to your car, and steers it into a ditch or a wall or something. Modern vehicles simply aren’t designed that way. Sure, they’re connected to the internet, and they’re full of ECUs that help control everything from steering to braking to acceleration. But there are several reasons a hacker isn’t about to take over.

That doesn’t make connected cars impossible to compromise. It simply means an attacker would likely need to defeat multiple layers of security before reaching safety-critical systems. Even then, if that were to happen, it’s unlikely that a hacker could manipulate a car the way a real driver can. The actual danger here is scale and inoperability.

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The Bigger Threat Is A Kill Switch

The Norwegian investigation mentioned above demonstrates this perfectly. Authorities weren’t worried that a Chinese business or governmental agency would take over control of the buses and drive them around. It was concerned that a foreign actor could shut them down at will. Imagine police cars or public buses that suddenly refuse to start, delivery fleets rendered inoperable, electric vehicles unable to charge, or critical vehicle data quietly siphoned from millions of connected cars.

Attacks like that could wreak economic havoc without anyone ever grabbing the wheel of a moving vehicle. The saving grace is that the same OTA pipeline used to break in is also how automakers slam the door shut, pushing fixes to millions of cars overnight. The catch is that this is an arms race with no finish line. Every new connected feature is another door to guard, and the automakers only have to leave one unlocked.

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