News

• Northrop Grumman's MRV launched with two satellite-servicing robotic arms
• Mission Extension Pods can stretch a satellite's working life by eight years
• The spacecraft can inspect, refuel, tow, and relocate active orbital satellites or even destroy enemy satellites

Northrop Grumman has launched its first Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV), equipped with two robotic arms to inspect, repair, refuel, and relocate satellites already operating in orbit.

The spacecraft also carries three Mission Extension Pods (MEPs) that can extend a satellite's operational life by as much as eight years after installation.

Although introduced as a commercial servicing platform, the spacecraft's ability to operate alongside other satellites has already raised questions about possible military applications.

The MRV launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, carrying MEPs intended for commercial satellites operated by Australia's Optus and Luxembourg's SES.

Northrop Grumman says the spacecraft can inspect satellites, install life-extension modules, tow spacecraft between orbital positions, and assist with clearing debris already circling Earth.

Those missions depend on two robotic arms that allow the vehicle to maneuver extremely close to other satellites without relying on direct physical contact.

The robotic arm system was developed through the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program led by DARPA together with the United States Naval Research Laboratory.

Because those same capabilities allow precise movement around spacecraft, a future version could disable hostile satellites if governments requested such capabilities.

"I will leave it up to the U.S. government to decide how that capability might fulfill mission objectives that they have in that regard," said Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden.

"It's our objective to offer our clients options for technology deployment, and for them to determine policy for when and how they might deploy that technology."

United States Space Force officials have repeatedly argued that rival nations already possess satellites capable of approaching and interacting with other spacecraft operating in orbit today.

The service says those developments require greater attention because several countries continue expanding technologies capable of operating near valuable military and civilian satellites.

"We're basically responding to a warfighting domain where our adversaries have already put interceptors in space, and we want to make sure that we rebalance that in terms of deterrence," said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.

A Space Force spokesperson later cited China's Shi Jian 21 satellite, equipped with a robotic grappling arm, while explaining examples of orbital interceptor capabilities already available.

Officials have also warned that close-proximity satellites could collect intelligence, interfere electronically, damage spacecraft components, or deliberately move another satellite from its assigned orbit.

Those evolving capabilities have prompted the Space Force to expand its focus on orbital warfare alongside traditional space operations.

The service's Space Delta 9 unit develops tactics for both defensive and offensive missions in orbit as those threats continue evolving.

The military is also planning larger space-based defense networks through the proposed Golden Dome missile defense architecture.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the concept could require about 7,800 space-based interceptors if the program moves forward.

For now, the MRV remains a commercial tool, but how governments will apply comparable space security tech with AI tools and autonomous systems remains to be seen.

• AppleCare One is launching in the UK from August
• It'll be available for older devices as well as new purchases
• It's £16.99 per month for three devices, £4.99 p/month for each additional device

AppleCare, Apple's extended warranty for its devices, is expanding. A new AppleCare One bundle comes to the UK on August 4 2026 and could make it cheaper for you to cover multiple Apple products. It also lets you cover older devices rather than just new purchases.

At the moment, you've got 60 days from purchase to take out AppleCare+ coverage. That gives you free 24/7 tech support, subsidised battery replacements if your device's battery drops below 80% capacity, and unlimited accidental damage repairs including liquid damage.

AppleCare One expands the eligibility to cover devices up to four years old (one year for AirPods) provided they're in good condition. In some cases that may require a trip to the Apple Store to check the condition of an older device before you can add it to the plan.

One of the important changes is that Apple has expanded Theft and Loss coverage, which protects you for up to two incidences of theft or loss per year, to cover the Apple Watch and iPad as well as the iPhone. You can get that cover as part of AppleCare One, or take out a standalone plan for a single device.

The other key difference is that AppleCare One is a rolling subscription rather than a fixed term extended warranty — for example, if you upgrade your iPhone and trade in your old one, the AppleCare One plan will now cover your new iPhone.

As ever with bundles, how much you save depends on the particular products you have. But you can potentially save up to £11.48 per month compared to the cost of individual AppleCare+ subscriptions.

AppleCare One is £16.99 per month to cover three devices. You can add additional cover for £4.99 per month per additional device.

Let's say you have an iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a 13-inch M5 iPad Pro. Individually, AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss will cost you £11.99, £4.99 and £8.49 per month. That's a total of £25.47, so the AppleCare One bundle is going to save you £8.48 per month.

For more modest devices the savings are smaller, but the additional device eligibility may still make AppleCare One an attractive option.

For example I have an iPhone 16 Pro and an Apple Watch Series 10, both of which are currently covered by AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss, but I didn't take out cover for my iPad Pro and the 60-day window has long closed. I'm currently paying £15.98 per month to cover my phone and watch; it'd cost just £1.01 per month more to cover an eligible iPad or iPad Pro — although sadly my iPad is an M1 so it's too old to be included.

It's worth noting that the AppleCare One bundle is for devices on the same Apple account. That means you can't cover family devices linked to other Apple accounts, even if they're in your Family Sharing group. And for some older devices you may need to confirm that they're in "good condition" by taking them to the Apple Store.

As a long time AppleCare customer I think AppleCare One looks good, and it'll save you money if you have three or more devices to cover. My only worry is that it's a subscription, and if there's one thing we know about tech giants' subscription services is that their prices always go up.

AppleCare One launches in the UK on August 4 2026.

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As the world's fastest and most glamorous sport, Formula 1 has long attracted fans of all ages around the globe - and in recent years, the success of Netflix's Drive to Survive series has helped this grow even further.

With CEO Stefano Domenicali recently stating his hope for over a billion Formula 1 fans within the next few years, the need for a resolute technology stack to handle all of the data for these fans is more important than ever.

The organization has been working with Salesforce for some time now to do just that, and at the recent Salesforce World Tour London 2026 event, I sat down with key Formula 1 tech minds to find out more.

Having first started working together in 2019, the 2026 season marks the next level of Formula 1's partnership with Salesforce, Claire Sparks, its Head of Tech Initiatives, says, bringing in, “a maturity, a shift, a re-energization of the work we do to together…really challenging one other to do things differently, to think differently, to deliver new things.”

2026 is a key year for Formula 1 in more ways than one, as the biggest shake-up in rules and regulations for several seasons has meant major changes up and down the grid.

To help explain the changes, Formula 1 developed Tech Director, a new application built on AgentForce to take complex technical rules and distil them down for fans of all levels of expertise.

This service also looks to provide a single location for fans to get the information they need, so there is no need to switch between different apps, building customer loyalty with real-time, accurate data in a sport where change happens fast.

Matt Kemp, Head of Customer Data Operations at Formula 1, notes that when looking to improve and upgrade its tech stack, the organization has the view of "how does technology disrupt technology".

“We use the technology to augment our teams, to improve the way we’re thinking about how we engage with our fans, and really take it to the next level," he notes.

In particular, Kemp highlights how Salesforce's Data360 platform has brought together all of the company's tools in one platform, massively reducing complexity, especially when working alongside its other data partner, AWS.

Sparks agrees, saying that this move away from individual solutions towards a platform-based landscape has shifted how Formula 1 thinks about technology as a whole, moving from previously wanting a point solution for everything, towards now wanting a platform-layer of technology that can bring cross-functional tools across the business.

“The strategic shift with Salesforce has also meant that we’ve had a mental model shift on how we approach technology, our choices, our evaluation, our view of it, and how we talk about it in the business," she says.

"We’re now joining the dots in all of our solutions and all of our functions within the business to really start to see this technology in a much more powerful way."

So what does this partnership look like in action for Formula 1 fans? Quite simply, Kemp and Sparks say, it should mean that fans get quicker access to more accurate data, and a much smoother all-round user experience.

Kemp notes that a million data points are being generated each minute of a Formula 1 race, which can now be made customer-ready within three seconds.

Push notifications are a common way that Formula 1 delivers these updates to its fans, but previously, some of these alerts had been taking up to 20 minutes to deliver due to the sheer scale of the fandom. However Kemp notes that Salesforce was able to develop a new push notification system which can push millions of notifications in a minute

"In a sport where every millisecond can make a difference, that’s massive for us to engage with our fans on that sort of speed," Sparks adds.

Overall, working seamlessly is the key for Formula 1, especially when it comes to making the fan user experience a more engaging and enriching experience.

"Ultimately sport is about connection," Sparks says, outlining the ongoing challenge for Formula 1 of bringing in new fans, with a roadmap of moving from, “a sort of fairly clinical personalization, to focusing on how do we really connect on an emotional level with our fans."

As Kemp adds, “when you stop thinking of customization as a one-way traffic, and start to think of it as a conversational piece, that will really open up the doors and tap into emotions/find out what a fan wants as opposed to what we think they want."

In such a data-driven sport, the goal will always be getting the most out of every bit of information, whether it's the teams and drivers searching for marginal gains to push performance, or the Formula 1 organization looking for a way to better communicate with its fans thanks to Salesforce's suite of tools and services.

As Kemp puts it, “we want to manage it all together - that sounds really hard, and really complex, because it is today, but with the agentic layer on top of that, and all of these tools…all of a sudden it becomes a reality."