In the tense final hours before Nasa's astronauts were launched into space, a series of technical issues threatened to ground their landmark mission. A faulty toilet and issues involving two safety systems were reported over the radio. Nasa managed to resolve the problems by being "quick on their feet", an official later said. Sensors in the spacecraft's waste‑management system showed some readings they did not expect, according to flight controllers. Astronaut Christina Koch reportedly acted as a plumber, dismantling parts of the toilet under instruction from mission control.

There were also issues reported with the flight termination system and the launch abort system – two safety systems that protect astronauts and the public.

The flight termination system allows engineers on the ground to destroy the rocket if it veers off course. It reportedly had a communications issue, which was resolved by using hardware from the previous Space Shuttle programme.

The launch abort system is Orion's emergency escape tower, designed to pull the crew capsule away from the rocket in the event of an emergency during launch or ascent. It reportedly gave a higher-than-expected temperature reading, but it was judged that it wouldn't affect the launch.

With these issues resolved, the launch went ahead and successfully took the astronauts into earth orbit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36rxe9w97zo

img: NASA public domain

The first crewed mission to travel to the Moon in over 50 years is underway with Artemis II having successfully launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre. Following a nervous countdown – where multiple minor faults were identified and solved by NASA – lift-off took place on 1st April 2026 at 11:35pm BST.

The Orion spacecraft carrying the mission’s four astronauts was propelled to space by NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and begins its mission with an elliptical orbit around Earth. Over the following 10 days, Orion will travel more than 400,000km to the Moon, performing a lunar fly-by before returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/artemis-ii-moon-mission-launches-successfully

img: NASA public domain

The US artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic is looking to hire chemical weapons and high-yield explosives experts to try to prevent "catastrophic misuse" of its software. The company fears that its AI tools might tell someone how to make chemical or radioactive weapons, and wants an expert to ensure its guardrails are sufficiently robust.

In the LinkedIn recruitment post, the firm says applicants should have a minimum of five years experience in "chemical weapons and/or explosives defence" as well as knowledge of "radiological dispersal devices" – also known as dirty bombs.

But some experts are alarmed by the risks of this approach, warning that it gives AI tools information about weapons - even if they have been instructed not to use it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74721xyd1wo

img: midjourney

A new class of cybersecurity vulnerability has emerged, known as environmental indirect prompt injection, where physical road signs are used to hijack the decision-making processes of autonomous vehicles and drones.

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) developed a method called CHAI (Command Hijacking against Embodied AI). This attack exploits Large Vision-Language Models (LVLMs) that power "embodied" AI – systems that interact with the physical world. Unlike traditional prompt injection, which occurs via text files or web pages, CHAI uses visual cues in the environment.

By placing specific text on road signs, attackers can force an AI to interpret the sign as a direct command rather than a piece of passive environmental data. In tests, the researchers successfully tricked self-driving cars into ignoring stop signs or driving through pedestrian crossings even when pedestrians were present.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/30/road_sign_hijack_ai

img: midjourney