His girlfriend Taylor Swift may own homes on both coasts, but Travis Kelce’s house is located a bit closer to his office, so to speak. The NFL star has played for the Kansas City Chiefs since 2013 and currently resides in a $6 million mansion in Leawood, Kansas.The Cleveland, Ohio, native was first romantically linked to Swift in 2023, when he attended her concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and spoke about her on New Heights, the podcast he hosts alongside his brother, fellow football star Jason Kelce. Swift subsequently attended a few of Travis’s football games, and by October of that year the pair were seen holding hands at an SNL party, confirming their romance. Kelce purchased his current home not long after this—and it feels safe to say that his newfound need for additional privacy may have been a factor in his decision to upgrade his digs.Not much is publicly known about where the tight end lived in the early days of his NFL career, but below, we unpack what we do know about Kelce’s real estate investments.Suburban starter homeIn 2019, Kelce paid $995,000 for a 10,000-square-foot house in a Kansas City neighborhood known as Briarcliff West. The property was built in 1995 and has everything a suburban home should: three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a pool, wine cellar, theater room, and a backyard fit for entertaining. Though he’s since upgraded, it seems that Kelce still owns this pad.Private, wooded mansionTaylor Swift went onto the field to congratulate Travis Kelce after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year. Photo: Michael Owens/Getty ImagesKelce’s most recent property acquisition came right after he was publicly linked to Swift—and therefore needed a bit more privacy. The $6 million mansion is located in the desirable suburb of Leawood, Kansas, which is about a 20 minute drive southwest of Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs play. With 17,000-square-feet and nearly 3.5 acres to sprawl out, the grand estate is nothing short of spacious and secluded. The castle-like stone home was built in 1998 and has six bedrooms and six bathrooms, plus a six car garage, wine cellar, tennis and pickleball courts, a miniature golf course, and a pool that the listing referred to as “Beverly Hills–style,” according to Realtor. In October of 2024, the Daily Mail reported that Kelce was in the process of adding a 396-square-foot underground space to the home, which would house a golf simulator.

Cybersecurity researchers are calling attention to a new botnet malware called HTTPBot that has been used to primarily single out the gaming industry, as well as technology companies and educational institutions in China. "Over the past few months, it has expanded aggressively, continuously leveraging infected devices to launch external attacks," NSFOCUS said in a report published this week. "By employing highly simulated HTTP Flood attacks and dynamic feature obfuscation techniques, it circumvents traditional rule-based detection mechanisms." HTTPBot, first spotted in the wild in August 2024, gets its name from the use of HTTP protocols to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks. Written in Golang, it's something of an anomaly given its targeting of Windows systems. The Windows-based botnet trojan is noteworthy for its use in precisely targeted attacks aimed at high-value business interfaces such as game login and payment systems. "This attack with 'scalpel-like' precision poses a systemic threat to industries that rely on real-time interaction," the Beijing-headquartered company said. "HTTPBot marks a paradigm shift in DDoS attacks, moving from 'indiscriminate traffic suppression' to 'high-precision business strangulation.'" HTTPBot is estimated to have issued no less than 200 attack instructions since the start of April 2025, with the attacks designed to strike the gaming industry, technology companies, educational institutions, and tourism portals in China. Once installed and run, the malware conceals its graphical user interface (GUI) to sidestep process monitoring by both users and security tools in an effort to increase the stealthiness of the attacks. It also resorts to unauthorized Windows Registry manipulation to ensure that it's run automatically on system startup. The botnet malware then proceeds to establish contact with a command-and-control (C2) server to await further instructions to execute HTTP flood attacks against specific targets by sending a high volume of HTTP requests. It supports various attack modules - BrowserAttack, which involves using hidden Google Chrome instances to mimic legitimate traffic while exhausting server resources HttpAutoAttack, which makes use of a cookie-based approach to accurately simulate legitimate sessions HttpFpDlAttack, which uses the HTTP/2 protocol and opts for an approach that seeks to increase the CPU loader on the server by coercing it into returning large responses WebSocketAttack, which uses "ws://" and "wss://" protocols to establish WebSocket connections PostAttack, which forces the use of HTTP POST to conduct the attack CookieAttack, which adds a cookie processing flow based on the BrowserAttack attack method "DDoS Botnet families tend to congregate on Linux and IoT platforms," NSFOCUS said. "However, the HTTPBot Botnet family has specifically targeted the Windows platform." "By deeply simulating protocol layers and mimicking legitimate browser behavior, HTTPBot bypasses defenses that rely on protocol integrity. It also continuously occupies server session resources through randomized URL paths and cookie replenishment mechanisms, rather than relying on sheer traffic volume." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

We are less than a month away from WWDC 2025, where Apple is set to announce a redesigned and less glitchy iOS 19 alongside what it’s been cooking over the past year for its other operating systems. While rumors abound regarding what’s to come to iOS 19, there’s one feature I hope to see make its way into the new system. Sadly, it’s probably not going to happen. HDR is excellent… Apple introduced HDR video playback support in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X in 2017, the same year Apple TV gained the feature. In a nutshell, HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a technology that expands the range between dark and bright areas, handling both simultaneously without losing detail in shadows or highlights. It also enhances color accuracy, which is great if you’re watching a movie or TV show that really goes the distance to carefully make the most of this exciting capability. If you’ve watched the final season of Better Call Saul, you know what I’m talking about. It didn’t take long for the streaming world to adopt HDR. In fact, Apple worked with streaming platforms and movie studios to make the most of this new feature. Here’s Eddy Cue, at the September 2017 special event: To experience 4K with HDR, you also need great content. And we’ve been working with the large Hollywood studios to bring all of their 4K and HDR movie titles to iTunes. (…) In addition to iTunes, we’ve been working with leading streaming providers like Netflix to bring their 4K HDR titles to Apple TV and, later this year, Amazon Prime Video, with all of their 4K HDR titles and originals as well. When Apple introduced HDR video recording to the iPhone 12, the YouTube app added HDR playback support right away, which was great for creators who go the extra mile to create something that really stands apart. Then, in 2022, Snapchat got support for it. That’s when things started going awry. …until it’s not Today, every major social platform supports HDR, which sounds great in theory. In practice, it just means every third casually taken photo or video looks uncomfortably bright as it zips across the screen. Unlike a properly mastered show, movie, or even a YouTube video. And while it makes sense that social apps would add HDR support, since they have been trying to compete with actual streaming services, currently, having that enabled on Instagram, for instance, makes for an uncomfortably worse experience than if everything was in good old SDR. In an ideal world, Apple would allow for individually selecting which apps would get to display content in HDR in Settings. But honestly, at this point, I’d settle for a global toggle. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Dutch supercar manufacturer Donkervoort Automobielen has teamed up with Australian thermal technology specialist Conflux Technology to develop 3D printed water-charge air coolers (WCAC) for the upcoming P24 RS model, marking a milestone in the application of Formula 1-grade additive manufacturing for road-legal vehicles. The collaboration, detailed in the latest “Living the Drive: Engineering Chapter” from Donkervoort, centers around an ultra-lightweight, compact thermal management system developed using additive manufacturing. The new liquid-to-air WCAC units weigh just 1.4 kg each, compared to the 16 kg of traditional air-to-air systems, delivering enhanced throttle response, improved packaging, and a significant reduction in engine bay volume. Conflux’ custom water-charge air coolers (WCAC) provide sharper throttle response, improved packaging, and reduced weight. Image via Donkervoort Automobielen. “We challenged ourselves to find the best way to keep intake air cold, and Conflux delivered,” said Denis Donkervoort, Managing Director at Donkervoort. “We gave Conflux our exact specifications, and they delivered a solution so effective, we could even downsize it from the original prototype.” Each Conflux air cooler is custom 3D printed in aluminium alloy with tailored fin geometry, density, and dimensions to fit directly between the PTC engine’s turbochargers and throttle bodies. The units are supported by a thin-wall radiator system requiring less coolant and surface area than conventional radiators. Michael Fuller, Founder of Conflux, added: “This is Formula 1 cooling technology, scaled for the road. Collaborations like this show how additive manufacturing can deliver high-performance solutions in limited-production automotive environments.” By relocating the WCACs into the engine bay and shortening the inlet tract, the system provides faster air delivery to the combustion chamber, thereby boosting engine efficiency and driver responsiveness. Combined with Van der Lee’s billet turbochargers, this thermal innovation is a core element of Donkervoort’s evolution of its lightweight PTC engine platform. Daniel France, Conflux Business Development Lead. Image via Donkervoort Automobielen. Additive manufacturing reshapes thermal systems across high-performance sectors This announcement follows Conflux Technology’s broader push into international markets and automotive applications. In April 2025, the company launched a UK hub to support European customers and expand production of its 3D printed heat exchangers. Conflux is among a growing number of firms leveraging additive manufacturing to rethink thermal systems, recent research has shown that 3D printed condensers can outperform traditional designs, underscoring the performance benefits of AM-enabled cooling solutions. Other developments include Conflux’s partnership with Rocket Factory Augsburg to integrate 3D-printed heat exchangers into orbital rockets and its release of high-performance cartridge-style heat exchanger designed for fluid control systems in automotive and industrial environments.Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news. You can also follow us onLinkedIn and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content. At 3DPI, our mission is to deliver high-quality journalism, technical insight, and industry intelligence to professionals across the AM ecosystem. Help us shape the future of 3D printing industry news with our2025 reader survey. Featured image shows the Donkervoort P24 RS air coolers sitting in the engine bay. Photo via Donkervoort Automobielen.

May 16, 2025Ravie LakshmananHardware Security / Vulnerability Researchers at ETH Zürich have discovered yet another security flaw that they say impacts all modern Intel CPUs and causes them to leak sensitive data from memory, showing that the vulnerability known as Spectre continues to haunt computer systems after more than seven years. The vulnerability, referred to as Branch Privilege Injection (BPI), "can be exploited to misuse the prediction calculations of the CPU (central processing unit) in order to gain unauthorized access to information from other processor users," ETH Zurich said. Kaveh Razavi, head of the Computer Security Group (COMSEC) and one of the authors of the study, said the shortcoming affects all Intel processors, potentially enabling bad actors to read the contents of the processor's cache and the working memory of another user of the same CPU. The attack leverages what's called Branch Predictor Race Conditions (BPRC) that emerge when a processor switches between prediction calculations for two users with different permissions, opening the door to a scenario where an unprivileged hacker could exploit it to bypass security barriers and access confidential information from a privileged process. Intel has issued microcode patches to address the vulnerability, which has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2024-45332 (CVSS v4 score: 5.7). "Exposure of sensitive information caused by shared microarchitectural predictor state that influences transient execution in the indirect branch predictors for some Intel Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable information disclosure via local access," Intel said in an advisory released on May 13. The disclosure comes as researchers from the Systems and Network Security Group (VUSec) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam detailed a category of self-training Spectre v2 attacks codenamed Training Solo. "Attackers can speculatively hijack control flow within the same domain (e.g., kernel) and leak secrets across privilege boundaries, re-enabling classic Spectre v2 scenarios without relying on powerful sandboxed environments like eBPF," VUSec said. The hardware exploits, tracked as CVE-2024-28956 and CVE-2025-24495, can be used against Intel CPUs to leak kernel memory at up to 17 Kb/s, with the study finding that they could "completely break the domain isolation and re-enable traditional user-user, guest-guest, and even guest-host Spectre-v2 attacks." CVE-2024-28956 (CVSS v4 score: 5.7) - Indirect Target Selection (ITS), which affects Intel Core 9th-11th, and Intel Xeon 2nd-3rd, among others. CVE-2025-24495 (CVSS v4 score: 6.8) - Lion Cove BPU issue, which affects Intel CPUs with Lion Cove core While Intel has shipped microcode updates for these defects, AMD said it has revised its existing guidance on Spectre and Meltdown to explicitly highlight the risk from the use of classic Berkeley Packet Filter (cBPF). Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

Last week, Epic Games announced that it had submitted Fortnite to the App Store in the United States. The move followed an injunction in which a federal judge said Apple couldn’t charge a 27% commission on out-of-app purchases initiated through in-app links. In a new statement today, however, Epic says that Apple has “blocked” this submission… In a statement posted on social media, Epic Games said: “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.” There’s no word on why Apple rejected Epic’s Fortnite submission. It’s also unclear why the game is no longer available via the Epic Games Store in the EU. Before today, Fortnite had been available to download for iPhone users in the EU through Epic’s alternative app marketplace as well as AltStore PAL. The version of Fortnite submitted by Epic used both Apple’s In-App Purchase system as well as an external payment option through the Epic Games Store. Fortnite has been unavailable through the App Store since 2020 when it added a backdoor payment option to circumvent Apple’s App Store Guidelines. Epic is trying to use its EU developer account to bring Fortnite back to the App Store after Apple terminated its original U.S. account. In the legal battle between Apple and Epic, a judge ruled that Apple was lawful in its decision to terminate Epic’s developer account for deliberately breaking App Store Guidelines when it added the Fortnite direct payment option. As such, Apple has no legal obligation to allow Fortnite back in the App Store. In 2021, the ruling concluded: Apple’s termination of the DPLA and the related agreements between Epic Games and Apple was valid, lawful, and enforceable, and (ii) Apple has the contractual right to terminate its DPLA with any or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or other entities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at Apple’s sole discretion. We’ll keep this story updated as the situation continues to evolve. My favorite iPhone accessories: Follow Chance: Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastodon.  Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

When the first rumors about Fairgame$, an upcoming heist simulator from Haven Studios, started making the rounds online, many reacted by saying Sony – Haven's parent company – should straight up pull the plug on the game then and there, pointing to the overwhelmingly negative response to the game's announcement trailer, perfectly reflected in its abysmal like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube.Now, for better or worse, another sign has emerged that the game may not live long enough to see release, with a new report claiming that Jade Raymond, Haven's Founder and CEO, is no longer with the company.The departure, according to Bloomberg, came several weeks after an external test for Fairgame$, citing anonymous Haven developers who were reportedly concerned about the game's reception and its overall progress. The report also states that Haven employees weren't given a reason for Raymond's exit, leaving it unclear whether she left of her own accord or was pushed out by Sony.When asked for comment, Sony apparently confirmed that Raymond was no longer part of the team. A company spokesman said, "Jade Raymond has been an incredible partner and visionary force in founding Haven Studios. We are deeply grateful for her leadership and contributions, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter." The spokesman added that Sony remains "committed to supporting Haven Studios and excited to continue the journey" under the new co-studio heads, Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski.Haven StudiosThat said, it's important to note that Raymond herself refused to comment on her alleged exit, with her LinkedIn page still listing her as part of Haven Studios at the time of writing.If Bloomberg's report ultimately proves to be correct, it could suggest internal turmoil within Haven, potentially tied to Sony's recent purge of live-service titles. In a relatively short span, the company has shut down The Last of Us Online, Spider-Man: The Great Web, unnamed projects from Deviation Games and London Studio, Twisted Metal, a Destiny spin-off from Bungie, two games from Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, and, of course, Concord, the worst AAA game of 2024 and a title often compared to Fairgame$ due to their similar visual styles.In light of this, it's not impossible for Fairgame$ to get canned after all, especially considering the reactions of players, many of whom mocked the game's "rob the rich" message coming from Sony, one of the largest corporations in the world, and said that if Fairgame$ isn't concorded before launch, it could still end up becoming Concord 2 – as in, lose the devs millions of dollars and get shut down anyway just a few weeks later, along with its developer.Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Apple is launching a brand new Home product in the coming year. I’ve been calling it ‘HomePad,’ and these are five of the core features it will bring with it. 7-inch square display Originally, Mark Gurman reported that the HomePad would have “a roughly 6-inch screen.” More recently though, in his big overview of 2025 products, Gurman bumped the expected size to 7 inches. The device reportedly looks a lot like a square iPad, and is somewhat equivalent to two iPhone 16 Pro Max models placed side by side. Smaller than some might want, but that should help keep the cost lower. Brand new OS Apple’s HomePad will come with a brand new operating system, likely dubbed ‘homeOS.’ Gurman says the interface “looks like a blend of the Apple Watch operating system and the iPhone’s recently launched StandBy mode.” It will also dynamically adjust based on how close or far away you are. For example, from far away it might display status update-type info, but if you get close it would change to offer controls. Unsurprisingly, based on Gurman’s ‘StandBy’ reference, the HomePad is expected to support widgets. You’ll reportedly be able to add these to the Home Screen, just like you can on iPhone and iPad. It’s unclear yet if third-party widgets will be supported, but there’s a good chance they will be. Apple has already built tech into macOS that lets you run iPhone widgets there, so extending that feature to the HomePad seems like a no-brainer. Accessories for fitting in anywhere On its own, the HomePad will look like a simple smart display. But Apple is building various bases and attachments that will make it fit into the different spaces of your home. Gurman writes: Apple has designed different attachments for the device, including ones that affix the screens onto walls like a classic home-security panel. There will be bases with additional speakers that can be placed in the kitchen, on a nightstand or on a desk. These additional accessories seem like another attempt at keeping the HomePad’s cost from ballooning (assuming they’re separate purchases). Importantly though, they also acknowledge the reality that different home spaces will require different HomePad setups. AI-infused Siri Apple’s current Home products, the HomePod, HomePod mini, and Apple TV 4K, don’t support any Apple Intelligence features. This means they’re all stuck with the ‘old’ Siri. But HomePad will offer the new, AI-infused Siri that’s more powerful already (mainly thanks to ChatGPT) but will get substantially more so this fall with iOS 19. Siri will be able to perform hundreds of new in-app and cross-app actions, understand your personal context, and more. If it works as expected, there should be far fewer times Siri has to say, “I’m sorry” on the HomePad—a too-frequent occurrence on HomePod. Apple’s HomePad is expected to offer a lot more functionality than what’s outlined above, including serving as a smart home controller, FaceTime device, and more. But the five features I’ve mentioned provide a solid overview of what to expect from HomePad’s core functionality. Are you interested in buying the HomePad? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments. Best HomeKit smart home accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace. SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 16 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: To a degreeThe words are education-related. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words are things found at an educational ceremony.NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Graduation Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for May 16SpeechDiplomaPhotoGraduationProcessionTasselGownLooking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands. Topics Strands

Not so fast The top fell off Australia’s first orbital-class rocket, delaying its launch The Australian startup behind the Eris rocket says the rest of the vehicle was undamaged. Stephen Clark – May 15, 2025 8:03 pm | 35 Gilmour's Eris rocket stands on its launch pad earlier this week at Bowen Orbital Spaceport in the Australian state of Queensland. Credit: Gilmour Space Gilmour's Eris rocket stands on its launch pad earlier this week at Bowen Orbital Spaceport in the Australian state of Queensland. Credit: Gilmour Space Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more The payload fairing at the top of Gilmour Space's first Eris rocket was supposed to deploy a few minutes after lifting off from northeastern Australia. Instead, the nose cone fell off the rocket hours before it was supposed to leave the launch pad Thursday. Gilmour, the Australian startup that developed the Eris rocket, announced the setback in a post to the company's social media accounts Thursday. "During final launch preparations last night, an electrical fault triggered the system that opens the rocket’s nose cone (the payload fairing)," Gilmour posted on LinkedIn. "This happened before any fuel was loaded into the vehicle. Most importantly, no one was injured, and early checks show no damage to the rocket or the launch pad." Gilmour was gearing up for a launch attempt from a privately-owned spaceport in the Australian state of Queensland early Friday, local time (Thursday in the United States). The company's Eris rocket, which was poised for its first test flight, stands about 82 feet (25 meters) tall with its payload fairing intact. It's designed to haul a payload of about 670 pounds (305 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit. While Gilmour didn't release any photos of the accident, a company spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the payload fairing "deployed" after the unexpected electrical issue triggered the separation system. Payload fairings are like clamshells that enclose the satellites mounted to the top of their launch vehicle, protecting them from weather on the launch pad and from airflow as the rocket accelerates to supersonic speeds. Once in space, the rocket releases the payload shroud, usually in two halves. There were no satellites aboard the rocket as Gilmour prepared for its first test flight. This was unusual Payload fairing problems have caused a number of rocket failures, usually because they don't jettison during launch, or only partially deploy, leaving too much extra weight on the launch vehicle for it to reach orbit. Gilmour said it is postponing the Eris launch campaign "to fully understand what happened and make any necessary updates." The company was founded by two brothers—Adam and James Gilmour—in 2012, and has raised approximately $90 million from venture capital firms and government funds to get the first Eris rocket to the launch pad. The astronauts on NASA's Gemini 9A mission snapped this photo of a target vehicle they were supposed to dock with in orbit. But the rocket's nose shroud only partially opened, inadvertently illustrating the method in which payload fairings are designed to jettison from their rockets in flight. Credit: NASA The Eris rocket was aiming to become the first all-Australian launcher to reach orbit. Australia hosted a handful of satellite launches by US and British rockets more than 50 years ago. Gilmour is headquartered in Gold Coast, Australia, about 600 miles south of the Eris launch pad near the coastal town of Bowen. In a statement, Gilmour said it has a replacement payload fairing in its factory in Gold Coast. The company will send it to the launch site and install it on the Eris rocket after a "full investigation" into the cause of the premature fairing deployment. "While we’re disappointed by the delay, our team is already working on a solution and we expect to be back at the pad soon," Gilmour said. Officials did not say how long it might take to investigate the problem, correct it, and fit a new nose cone on the Eris rocket. This setback follows more than a year of delays Gilmour blamed primarily on holdups in receiving regulatory approval for the launch from the Australian government. Like many rocket companies have done before, Gilmour set modest expectations for the first test flight of Eris. While the rocket has everything needed to fly to low-Earth orbit, officials said they were looking for just 10 to 20 seconds of stable flight on the first launch, enough to gather data about the performance of the rocket and its unconventional hybrid propulsion system. Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet. 35 Comments