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Rad Tech News: Dancing Droids, Olympic Air Taxis, and Missile Shields 2.0
Feed The AI Team
May 16, 2025
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Today’s Mission Brief
Hey RAD Readers!
From Amazon’s latest pinch-grip bots to flying taxis for the Olympics, and the Pentagon dusting off Reagan-era missile shield dreams—this week was peak RAD.
Let’s break down what mattered across robotics, aerospace, and defense tech.
Robotics Roundup: Droids with Grace, Warehouse Wars, and Underwater Moves
Tesla’s Optimus Robot Does Ballet
Musk dropped new vids of Optimus twirling untethered, calling it "far from final form." Still, those pirouettes show big gains in balance and actuator finesse.
Amazon’s Stow & Pick Bots Hit Beta
Robots scored 85–91% accuracy in test tasks, but books still get bruised.
India’s IIT-Kharagpur Unveils Crop-Savvy Farm Bot
Tracked bot with 3 chemical tanks and 360° rotation identifies crop diseases and applies pesticide precisely.
Nauticus Robotics Buys SeaTrepid for $14.4M
ROV veteran SeaTrepid joins Nauticus’ autonomy stack, ToolKITT.
Richtech Expands Robot Assembly Capacity
Snagged a 20k sq ft Vegas plant and new lease in Newark. Stock rose 7%.
All World Machinery Acquires CNC Solutions
Adds turnkey robot machine-tending to its hydraulic workholding lineup.
Aerospace Adventures: Olympic Taxis, Supersonic Hype, and NASA Contracts
Archer Named Official Air Taxi for 2028 Olympics
Midnight eVTOLs will ferry VIPs at LA 2028.
Norway Signs Artemis Accords
Becomes nation #55 to back NASA’s lunar exploration framework.
Boeing Delivers 45 Jets in April
That’s almost double YoY, marking four straight 40+ months.
Rocket Lab Wins NASA Aspera Launch
A 2027 Electron launch will send the smallsat to L2.
Virgin Galactic Stock Pops 35%
Delta-class suborbital flights teased for next year, with higher prices.
Boeing Opens Huge Parts Warehouse in Germany
215,000 sq ft Leipzig facility supports same-day spares for EU airlines.
UK Gov’t Puts £20M Behind Flying Taxis
Joby, Vertical Aerospace, and NATS are onboard.
Defense Dispatches: Missiles, EW Trucks & Tactical AI
“Golden Dome” Missile Shield Revived
Pentagon aims to fuse space sensors, hypersonic interceptors, and drone defenses into one integrated net.
Adyton Raises $11M + $7M Navy Contract
Secure comms startup lands capital and credibility.
Army Readies 2 EW Prototypes for FY25
Lockheed’s TLS-EAB truck and TMNT mobile node to test mobile jamming and SIGINT.
Qatar Buys $3B in U.S. Military Kit
Includes MQ-9Bs and counter-drone systems.
Hypersonic “Discriminating Sensor” Cleared
Satellite-based tracker will detect low-flying glide vehicles.
Startups Tackle Hypersonic Gaps
Venture money is pouring into testbeds and exotic materials.
Meme of the Day:
Stay RAD, stay ahead!
That’s a wrap for this week, RAD Readers! Don’t forget to share your thoughts, stay curious, and keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in hard tech. We’ll be back next week with more insights, more innovation, and of course, more RAD news.