Manufacturing Business Technology

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has pulled off its biggest salvage operation yet, recovering its most recently launched Starship from the Indian Ocean. Elon Musk's company is now in the process of shipping Starship back to its home base in Texas, a trip expected to take several months. SpaceX shared pictures of the recovery effort near Christmas Island late last week. Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world — blasted off July 24 from Starbase, Texas.

Nearly 40,000 pounds of Pabst Brewing Company beer went missing from a distribution center in California two weeks ago. Now, investigators are searching for clues while the brand offers amnesty. The Montclair Police Department posted on its Facebook page that two cargo thefts occurred August 17 at a local Anheuser-Busch distribution center.

Editor's note: Download and listen to the audio version below and click here to subscribe to the Today in Manufacturing podcast. The Today in Manufacturing Podcast is brought to you by the editors of Manufacturing.net and Industrial Equipment News (IEN). This episode is brought to you by Siemens. Small and medium-sized manufacturers encounter the same industry-wide pressures as large manufacturers: rising costs, labor shortages, and growing operational complexity.

Norm Fasteners on Monday announced the acquisition of an automotive fastener manufacturing operation in Plymouth, Michigan, including its facility, manufacturing equipment, team and ongoing customer programs. The deal features a 121,000-square-foot factory on a 9.4-acre site. The operation produces high-strength bolts for the automotive industry, with principal processes, including cold forming, heat treatment, thread-rolling, sorting and packaging, carried out at the facility.

LEWISVILLE, Ark. – Smackover Lithium, a partnership between Standard Lithium Ltd. and Equinor ASA, through their respective subsidiaries, announced the signing of its second commercial offtake agreement for the South West Arkansas Project (SWA Project) with LG Energy Solution, a South Korean manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries. An offtake agreement is a legally binding contract between a producer and a buyer for a set amount of future goods before production officially starts.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda entered a deal to jointly develop computer parts and software for vehicles set to enter the market in fiscal 2029, both sides said Monday. Under the deal, Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, and Tokyo-based Honda will share standardized parts in "core ECUs," or electronic control units, as well as software. Nissan and Honda started talks in 2024 to work together in developing electric vehicles and auto intelligence technology.

A rendering of JetZero's Jet1, a full-scale demonstrator airplane. JetZero today announced the closing of a senior secured term loan facility of up to $100 million. The company is building the Z4 all-wing airplane, which is designed to carry about 250 passenger capacity for up to 5,000 nautical mile range while cutting fuel burn and emissions by up to 50% relative to conventional tube-and-wing aircraft at the same passenger capacity.

Boston Scientific provided an update on a cyberattack it identified earlier this week that resulted in a network outage and disruption to the company’s operations. It said the incident is affecting access to certain operating systems and business applications, including the ability to manufacture products, as well as process and ship customer orders. "We recognize the importance of cybersecurity for patients, customers and vendor systems.

Hytera US today announced that TMCnet has named the Horizon Push-to-Talk Over Cellular Platform a winner of the 2026 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. The Communications Solutions Product of the Year Awards recognize products and services that are advancing how organizations connect through voice, data and video. TMCnet named Horizon among its 2026 recipients alongside communications technologies from companies including Cisco, HP and TransUnion.

WATSONTOWN, PA – The U.S. Department of Labor has cited brick manufacturer General Shale Brick with three willful and four serious violations for knowingly exposing workers to unsafe levels of respirable silica dust at its Watsontown plant. On February 12, 2026, OSHA investigators inspected General Shale, which is doing business as Watsontown Brick Company, as part of the agency’s site‑specific targeting inspection plan as well as a review of the company’s injury and illness records.