SpaceX set a new operational record by launching two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes 31 seconds apart on early morning, UTC, Sunday, (Aug. 16), besting its old record—set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions — by 27 minutes. The Elon Musk's company already launches far more frequently than any other oufit, and operates the largest satellite constellation—about 11,000 satellites and counting.

The first mission, Globalstar 2-R Launch 1, lifted off at 0112 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying eight satellites for the Louisiana-based telecom company Globalstar to replenish its low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster B1090, marking its 14th mission, landed as planned at Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40), Cape Canaveral, about eight minutes after liftoff. The second stage deployed all eight satellites to orbit successfully over a six-minute window beginning 56.5 minutes after launch.

While the second stage was powering its way to LEO to deploy Globalstar 2-R Launch 1, another Falcon 9 launched at 0150 UTC from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on a national security USSF-366 mission carrying a classified payload for the U.S. Space Force.

The national security flight's Falcon 9 first stage booster B1088, which completed its 18th flight, landed on the autonomous droneship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Pacific Ocean about 8.5 minutes after liftoff.

The USSF-366 payload is believed to be a batch of classified LEO satellites using SpaceX's Starshield satellite bus for national security purposes. SpaceX's mission description doesn't reveal when and where the Falcon 9's upper stage will deploy the payloads.

Sunday's launches were part of a busy period for SpaceX, which continues to expand its launch cadence and the Starlink broadband network. The doubleheader brought the tally to 96 Falcon 9 launches in 2026— about 75% of which are Starlink missions—and marked the 650th successful Falcon booster landing in SpaceX history.

Tether has completed its first full independent financial statement audit, conducted by KPMG U.S. for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. The stablecoin firm issued an unqualified audit opinion, the most favorable outcome possible, confirming that Tether International, S.A. de C.V.’s financial statements fairly present its financial position, results of operations, and cash flows in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Tether describes this engagement as the largest inaugural financial audit in history, marking a significant shift from its previous practice of releasing only quarterly reserve attestations. KPMG conducted a comprehensive examination of Tether’s full balance sheet, income statement, changes in equity, and cash flows, rather than limiting the review to reserve snapshots.

The audit involved substantive testing of transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, and ownership records. Notably, auditors physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held in Tether’s reserves to verify existence and identifying information, moving beyond reliance on custodian reports.

The audited financials revealed that Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by $6.814 billion as of December 31, 2025. This surplus validates the company's public attestation reports and provides an independent assessment of its financial health after years of scrutiny regarding the composition and stability of the assets backing USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

The audit process began in March 2026, with PwC previously involved in preparing Tether’s internal systems for the review.

"Despite our Company being subject to several years of detractors’ false claims, competitors lies, political attacks and misinformed coverage by several mainstream newspapers trying desperately to discredit us for the benefit of their friends in the tall ivory towers, Tether delivered what it promised: a full financial audit issued by a Big Four accounting firm, KPMG U.S." CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote in part on X.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) on Thursday announced the formation of Task Force Falcon Strike, described as the first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force in the Middle East. The unit is designed to integrate one-way attack drones operated by U.S. forces and regional partners across air, surface, and underwater domains.

The initiative follows months of intense conflict with Iran, which has strained U.S. drone stocks and necessitated a shift toward low-cost, expendable unmanned systems to maintain operational tempo. U.S. reportedly lost about 25% of its MQ-9 drones in the war so far, each about $33 million. Intercepting cheap, mass-produced Iranian drones with million-dollar surface-to-air missiles proved economically unsustainable.

Falcon Strike builds upon Task Force Scorpion Strike, established nine months prior as the military’s first dedicated one-way attack drone squadron.

Scorpion Strike achieved key milestones, including the first launch of an aerial attack drone from a U.S. Navy warship and the use of LUCAS (Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System) drones during Operation Epic Fury and strikes on Iranian port facilities.

The U.S. deployed the LUCAS—a low-cost attack drone reverse-engineered from captured Iranian UAS platforms—launching it from Navy ships during Operation Epic Fury. In June 2026, CENTCOM deployed Saronic Corsair unmanned surface vessels (USVs) to recover stranded crew in the Strait of Hormuz. By July, Corsair maritime drones were used offensively to strike Iranian naval installations at Bandar Abbas.

Task Force Falcon Strike will be led by personnel from U.S. Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT), which also oversaw the creation of Scorpion Strike. It is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

CENTCOM has begun consulting with and formally inviting regional partners to join. The goal is to scale attack drone capabilities into a unified multinational deterrent, allowing allies to contribute their own systems and innovate alongside U.S. forces, and shifting from ad-hoc experimentation into a formal, persistent strike architecture.

While specific participating nations have not been publicly named, the task force aims to create a cohesive regional network for unmanned warfare, responding to threats such as Iranian drone strikes on Gulf states, naval and missile threats along key transit routes like the Strait of Hormuz.