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Blue Origin launches, lands the same rocket for the fourth time
Blue Origin has successfully completed the fourth launch and landing of their New Shepard rocket and crew capsule. With another nominal flight test, Jeff Bezos’ rocket company is marching toward their goal of becoming the first private company to send tourists into space. And along the way, they’re perfecting the ability to reuse suborbital rockets over and over again – a… Read More
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NASA’s new X-plane and the future of electric aircraft
The world is on a quest to create cleaner, quieter airplanes that could replace the fuel-guzzling, roaring commercial aircraft in use today. NASA is leading much of the research and development effort in this area and today they’ve announced an official name for their next X-plane concept: the X-57 “Maxwell.” Maxwell is a hybrid electric research plane equipped with 14… Read More
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Gravitational waves have been detected for the second time in history
For the second time in history, scientists have directly detected gravitational waves. And just like that, a new era of astronomy is underway. Like the first gravitational wave detected, scientists believe that the signal was created by the collision of two black holes, albeit a completely different binary black hole system than the first. Both signals were detected at the Laser… Read More
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Astronomers just discovered a huge planet orbiting two suns
Tatooine, is that you? A team of astronomers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and San Diego State University has discovered a new exoplanet that orbits around two stars. What’s notable about this particular discovery is that it’s the largest planet in a double-star system discovered so far. Known to astronomers as Kepler-1647b, the exoplanet orbits in the… Read More
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SpaceX launches two communications satellites, but crash lands booster on drone ship
The SpaceX Falcon 9 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this morning at 10:29 a.m. ET carrying two communication satellites to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). Shortly after launch, the Falcon 9 first stage returned to a drone ship in the Atlantic, but it came in too hard and the booster exploded upon touchdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the rocket experienced an RUD, which stands for… Read More
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Astronauts have entered an inflatable habitat on the space station for the first time
This week, astronauts successfully entered the International Space Station’s first inflatable habitat. .@Astro_Jeff enters @BigelowSpace #BEAM for first time to collect air sample and set up sensors.https://t.co/57FUupjcHN — Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) June 6, 2016 Wearing a mask and a headlamp, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams opened the hatch to the Bigelow Expandable… Read More
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21 Elon Musk quotes that give us a glimpse inside his brain
There is something magnetic about Elon Musk. A visionary, the CEO of two companies, and a builder of the future, Musk has a way of discussing highly complex topics; from space travel to the business of battery technology to the consequences of AI – with a clarity and optimism that make it easier to believe in a bright future.
Here are some of the best bits from Musk’s… Read More -
SpaceX launches a communications satellite and sticks another landing
It’s been a good week for SpaceX. Earlier this week we learned that the company won a lucrative contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, the tight-lipped government organization that runs America’s reconnaissance satellites. Today, with the launch of Orbital ATK-built communications satellite THAICOM 8 from Kennedy Space Center’s Space Launch Complex 40, SpaceX has… Read More
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Supercomputers supercharge NASA’s simulated storms and improve hurricane forecasts
Understanding the complex order behind the apparent chaos of a tropical storm or hurricane is no easy task, but it’s worthwhile to try — such storms deal death and destruction globally, and the better we know them, the better we can prepare for them. Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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SpaceX continues ambitious launch schedule with next mission, fifth one this year
Less than a month after their last successful mission, SpaceX is back at it. Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:40pm EDT tomorrow with telecommunications satellite Thaicom 8 on board. What’s truly notable is that tomorrow’s launch will be the fifth one for SpaceX this year, demonstrating an increased launch frequency compared to last year. In 2015… Read More
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Terrapattern is reverse image search for maps, powered by a neural network
Terrapattern is a visual search engine that, from the moment you first use it, you wonder: Why didn’t Google come up with this 10 years ago? Click on a feature on the map — a baseball diamond, a marina, a roundabout — and it immediately highlights everything its algorithm thinks looks like it. It’s remarkably fast, simple to use and potentially very powerful. Read More
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India flight tests new reusable space plane
India has successfully completed their first small step toward joining the other players in the market of reusable spacecraft. On Monday, the Indian Space Research Organization (India’s version of NASA) launched a 22-foot winged spacecraft to an altitude of 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) and navigated the vehicle back down into the Bay of Bengal, east of India. The entire mission… Read More
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The Europas — It’s time for a different kind of tech conference
Let’s face it. Some tech conferences have lost their way. While TechCrunch Disrupt remains a firmly curated, media-driven, event, with hundreds of journalists attending, a couple of other conferences have really gone for scale. A minimum of 15,000 people, thousands of companies, echoing halls — and a lot of investors (and journalists) turning their badges around so they don’t… Read More
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Crunch Network
Space exploration will spur transhumanism and mitigate existential risk
When people think about rocket ships and space exploration, they often imagine traveling across the Milky Way, landing on mysterious planets and even meeting alien life forms. In reality, humans’ drive to get off Planet Earth has led to tremendous technological advances in our mundane daily lives — ones we use right here at home on terra firma. Read More
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Snapchat goes to space with NASA Live Story
Today, the International Space Station completed its 100,000th orbit around the Earth since its first module was launched on November 20th, 1998. To celebrate that milestone, NASA teamed up with Snapchat for a space-themed Live Story called Day in Space. Up on Snapchat now, the feed features NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, Commander of Expedition 47, living and working on the International… Read More
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Accion Systems raises $7.5 million in Series A to accelerate production of miniature space thrusters
Accion Systems, the company developing miniature space propulsion systems, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding led by Shasta Ventures. RRE Ventures, Founder Collective, and Slow Ventures also participated in the round. The company had previously raised $2 million from seed funding and $6.5 million from partnerships with the Department of Defense. While perhaps best known for their… Read More
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Astronomers announce largest batch of new planets ever discovered
NASA has announced that astronomers working with the Kepler space telescope have verified 1,284 new planets — more than doubling the number of previously confirmed planets from Kepler. In fact, this new batch was the single largest group of new validated planets to date. Astronomers used statistical analysis on a planet catalog of 4,302 potential planets gathered by the Kepler space… Read More
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The race to the moon is underway as Astrobotic raises $2.5 million
Astrobotic Technology, the company that plans to deliver payloads to the moon, has completed a $2.5 million seed round led by Space Angels Network. The company was originally spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 to compete for the Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP). As of today, they’ve secured 10 deals from governments, companies, universities, nonprofits and individuals for their… Read More
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3Dprintler lets you order a 3D print via chatbot
Who do you call if you want to 3D print something? Step forward 3Dprintler, a startup that has made a search engine for locating 3D printing services in your area. The team was chosen as the wildcard company from Startup Alley to present onstage in the 2016 Battlefield here at TechCrunch Disrupt New York. Read More
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SpaceX successfully landed another rocket on a drone ship
SpaceX successfully launched the Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-14 on their Falcon 9 rocket at 1:22am EST today from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After the launch, the company soft-landed the first stage of the rocket on their drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” – the second time this has ever been done. Landing confirmed. Second stage continuing to carry JCSAT-14… Read More
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