Blast-Off Breakthroughs: Fusion Lasers, Space Feats & Tech Triumphs in Weekend Roundup (July 19–20, 2025)
July 19–20, 2025 – This weekend saw a flurry of technological advancements and news spanning from orbit to the lab. In space, new satellites roared skyward and policymakers moved to save key missions. Computing hardware reached record extremes while analysts hyped the next computing revolution. A major biotech buyout validated gene-editing’s promise for disease, and the energy sector delivered breakthroughs in both renewable storage and futuristic fusion. Meanwhile, engineers pushed the frontiers of transportation with quiet supersonic flight tests, and a humanoid robot achieved a real-life “Iron Man” moment. Below is a comprehensive roundup of the biggest tech stories that defined the weekend: Roboticists hit a high-flying milestone: Researchers in Italy completed the first-ever flight of a jet-powered humanoid robot. The bipedal machine, dubbed iRonCub MK3, uses four micro turbojet engines – two strapped to its arms and two on a back-mounted pack – to achieve vertical lift. In a recent test in Genoa, iRonCub ignited its thrusters and hovered about 50 cm off the ground, while remaining stable and controlled scitechdaily.com scitechdaily.com. This makes it the world’s first humanoid robot to fly untethered. Developed by the Italian Institute of Technology, the bot is a modified version of their child-sized
