Sunday, September 28

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NASA — Hubble Space Telescope: Exploring the Cosmos and…
NASA

NASA — Hubble Space Telescope: Exploring the Cosmos and…

The job of the our Technology Transfer Program is pretty straight-forward – bring NASA technology down to Earth. But, what does that actually mean? We’re glad you asked! We transfer the cool inventions NASA scientists develop for missions and license them to American businesses and entrepreneurs. And that is where the magic happens: those business-savvy licensees then create goods and products using our NASA tech. Once it hits the market, it becomes a “NASA Spinoff.” If you’re imagining that sounds like a nightmare of paperwork and bureaucracy, think again. Our new automated “ATLAS” system helps you license your tech in no time — online and without any confusing forms or jargon.So, sit back and browse this list of NASA tech ripe for the picking (well, licensing.) When you find something yo...
SpaceX’s rideshare Bandwagon-3 mission marks the 300th orbital flight from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX’s rideshare Bandwagon-3 mission marks the 300th orbital flight from Cape Canaveral’s pad 40 – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX launches their Falcon 9 rocket on April 21, 2025 with a rideshare mission towards mid-inclination orbits from SLC-40 in Cape Canaveral, FL. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Update 9:38 p.m. EDT: The Falcon 9 first stage booster successfully landed at Landing Zone 2. SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 rocket launch in less than 48 hours with a rideshare mission carrying payloads to a mid-inclination orbit. Liftoff of the Bandwagon-3 mission happened at 8:48 p.m. EDT (0048 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It was the 245th orbital launch for SpaceX from SLC-40 and the 300th total orbital flight from this pad. This flight was the third launch in SpaceX’s rideshare program to mid-inclination orbits. It followed Bandwagon-1 from Kennedy Space Ce...
What is vibe coding, should you be using AI to do it, and does it matter?
Science

What is vibe coding, should you be using AI to do it, and does it matter?

Getting an AI to write software for you? That’s vibe codingronstik/Alamy Want to write software, but haven’t got the first clue where to start? Enter “vibe coding”, a term that has swept the internet to describe the use of AI tools, including large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, to generate computer code even if you can’t program. What is vibe coding and where did it come from? “Vibe coding basically refers to using generative AI not just to assist with coding, but to generate the entire code for an app,” says Noah Giansiracusa at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Users ask, or prompt, LLM-based models such as ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot to produce the code for an app or service, and the AI system does all the work. The term was coined by Andrej K...
NASA

OMB suggests NOAA scale back plans for geostationary satellites

SAN FRANCISCO – A White House budget proposal calls for replacing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s future geostationary satellite constellation, GeoXO, with a far less expensive and ambitious program.The plan was included in the draft 2026 budget proposal, called the passback, prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget and delivered to NOAA earlier this month. The document suggests NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) “immediately cancel all major instrument and spacecraft contracts on the GeoXO program,” saying the projected costs are “unstainable, lack support of Congress, and are out of step with international peers.”GeoXO is a $19.6 billion program that includes six satellites and ground infrastructu...
Astronomy

Are we alone? New discovery raises hopes of finding alien life | Science

Towards the end of his life, the cosmologist Stephen Hawking was asked about the odds of finding intelligent alien life in the next two decades. “The probability is low,” he declared in 2016, and took a lengthy pause before adding: “Probably.”This week, other scientists from the University of Cambridge reported tentative evidence for two compounds in the atmosphere of a planet, K2-18b, that sits in the constellation of Leo 124 light years away.On Earth, dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) are hallmarks of life, emanating only from microscopic organisms. And while marine phytoplankton might not rank as particularly intelligent, the claim unleashed a wave of excitement: the answer to the question “Are we alone?” has never seemed closer.“This is the strongest evidence to da...