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Astronomers Detect Entirely New Type of Plasma Wave Above Jupiter’s North Pole

Since entering Jupiter’s orbit in 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been hard at work unveiling the many mysteries of our solar system’s largest planet. And its latest discovery may be one of the most intriguing yet: an entirely new type of plasma wave near Jupiter’s poles. In a paper published Wednesday in Physical Review Letters, astronomers describe an unusual pattern of plasma waves in Jupiter’s magnetosphere—a magnetic “bubble” shielding the planet from external radiation. Jupiter’s excepti

Debcraft – Easiest way to modify and build Debian packages

Debian packaging is notoriously hard. Far too many new contributors give up while trying, and many long-time contributors leave due to burnout from having to do too many thankless maintenance tasks. Some just skip testing their changes properly because it feels like too much toil. Debcraft is my attempt to solve this by automating all the boring stuff, and making it easier to learn the correct practices and helping new and old packagers better track changes in both source code and build artifac

Joby Aviation Has a Bold Plan to Make Flying Cars Real—Fast

Flying cars were supposed to be a fantasy. A punchline. A cartoonish promise from a Jetsons-era past. But Joby Aviation is no longer promising anything. It’s building them. The Santa Cruz, California-based company just unveiled the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Marina, CA, where it now has the capacity to build up to 24 electric air taxis per year. That’s two flying cars a month. With additional capacity ramping up in Dayton, Ohio, and test flights already underway in Dubai, the fu

If You Thought Your Life Was a Mess, Spare a Thought for Boeing's Massively Failed Starliner Spacecraft

Even after pouring $2 billion into its much-maligned Starliner spacecraft, NASA and Boeing remain committed to getting back off the ground. As Ars Technica reports, the head of NASA's commercial crew program, Steve Stich, revealed last week that Boeing and its propulsion supplier, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are making considerable changes to the astronaut shuttle following a disastrous first crewed mission to the International Space Station last year. The spacecraft experienced several "in-flight ano

After a partly successful test flight, European firm eyes space station mission

Last month, the parachutes on Hélène Huby's small spacecraft failed to deploy, and the vehicle and its cargo crashed into the ocean on Earth. It was both a success and a failure. The success was that after Huby founded The Exploration Company in Europe, she managed to move nimbly with the "Mission Possible" spacecraft such that it cost less than $25 million to build and reached space in less than three years. The vehicle ticked off a number of successes in spaceflight before making a controlle

If You Thought Your Life Was a Mess, Spare a Thought for Boeing's Starliner

Even after pouring $2 billion into its much-maligned Starliner spacecraft, NASA and Boeing remain committed to getting back off the ground. As Ars Technica reports, the head of NASA's commercial crew program, Steve Stich, revealed last week that Boeing and its propulsion supplier, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are making considerable changes to the astronaut shuttle following a disastrous first crewed mission to the International Space Station last year. The spacecraft experienced several "in-flight ano

Boeing’s Starliner Won’t Get to Fly This Year, but the Wonky Spacecraft Is Far From Dead

It’s been more than a year since Starliner’s failed test flight left a crew stranded in space, and Boeing’s spacecraft still isn’t ready to fly. In a recent update, NASA officials said they are working toward launching a mission aboard Starliner in 2026, and there probably won’t be any astronauts involved. During a press briefing last week, Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, told reporters that Boeing is making several changes to its Starliner spacecraft to keep its thrusters

The ISS is nearing retirement, so why is NASA still gung-ho about Starliner?

After so many delays, difficulties, and disappointments, you might be inclined to think that NASA wants to wash its hands of Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft. But that's not the case. The manager of NASA's commercial crew program, Steve Stich, told reporters Thursday that Boeing and its propulsion supplier, Aerojet Rocketdyne, are moving forward with several changes to the Starliner spacecraft to resolve problems that bedeviled a test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) last

Joby Aviation doubles pilot eVTOL facility capacity as it races to launch air taxis

Joby Aviation has doubled the size and production capacity of its pilot manufacturing facility in Marina, California, as it races to commercialize eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) by early next year. The now-435,500-square-foot facility will be able to produce 24 aircraft per year, and “nearly one” every other week once fully operational, according to Joby. The facility will also support federal certification, ground and flight testing, pilot training, and aircraft mainte

Remember That Asteroid NASA Deflected in a Test of Saving Earth? We Have Bad News

In late 2022, NASA celebrated its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) as a massive success, a proof of concept for saving humanity in case a similar space rock were to ever head straight for Earth. The small spacecraft smashed into asteroid Didymos' moonlet Dimorphos at a violent 14,000 mph, knocking it severely off course. But three years later, astronomers found that the collision had some unintended consequences. As detailed in a paper published last week in the Planetary Science Journa

With Varda Space, leading Silicon Valley players make big bet on making drugs in space

Pharmaceutical scientists come up against a hard limitations here on Earth: gravity. Varda Space wants to change that. The company has raised a massive new round to turn space into the “ultimate high ground” for the production of critical pharmaceutical components that can be brought back to Earth and used to make finished drugs. The company’s $187 million Series C funding round announced Thursday will be used to build out a new laboratory facility that could transform Varda’s orbital manufact

Investors appear to like a company with big space manufacturing ambitions

After flying three missions into low-Earth orbit this year, Varda Space Industries appears to be making credible progress toward developing the nascent manufacturing-in-space industry. Investors seem to think the same, as the California-based company announced an impressive $187 million Series C round of funding on Thursday. This brings the company's total amount of money raised since its founding in 2021 to $325 million. "A decent chunk of the capital is going to go toward scaling up our prod

Blizzard is giving up on its Warcraft mobile game amid layoffs

It's nearly the end of the road for Warcraft Rumble. Blizzard has announced that it will no longer be developing new content for the free-to-play mobile strategy game, and instead focus on "regular, systemic in-game events and bug fixes." The change comes as the rest of Microsoft's business is in upheaval: The company is laying off as many as 9,000 employees across its global workforce. Blizzard's statement doesn't get into the details of what motivated the decision, but is clear that Warcraft

Blizzard is winding down support for its Warcraft mobile game

is a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities. Microsoft’s layoff of roughly 9,000 employees is continuing to have downstream effects at the company’s subsidiaries. Aftermath reports that as many as 100 developers at Blizzard have been impacted, and as a result the studio is winding down development on its mobile tower defense game Warcraft Rumble. In an announcement, B

Ubuntu: Introducing Debcrafters

Earlier this year, Canonical’s Ubuntu Engineering organisation gained a new team, seeded with some of our most prolific contributors to Ubuntu. Debcrafters is a new team dedicated to the maintenance of the Ubuntu Archive. The team’s primary goal is to maintain the health of the Ubuntu Archive, but its unique construction aims to attract a broad range of Linux distribution expertise; contributors to distributions like Debian, Arch Linux, NixOS and others are encouraged to join the team, and will

Kristen Craft brings fresh fundraising strategy to the Foundation Stage at TechCrunch All Stage

Raising in 2025 doesn’t look anything like it did in 2021 — and that’s exactly the point. At TechCrunch All Stage on July 15 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station, Kristen Craft, Head of Business Development at Fidelity Private Shares, will lead a roundtable session titled “It’s Not 2021 Anymore. Navigating the 2025 VC Landscape,” happening on the Foundation Stage. In this conversation, Craft will guide founders through the new norms of venture capital. From shifting investor expectations to sharper

Joby delivers first aircraft to Dubai as air taxi service nears launch

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Joby Aviation is getting ready to take flight. The electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company has delivered its first production aircraft to Dubai, where it plans to launch a commercial air taxi service in early 2026. Joby, which has successfully completed multiple flight tests with a pilot onboard, says it has

After successfully entering Earth's atmosphere, a European spacecraft is lost

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its "Mission Possible" vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an "issue," the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update on LinkedIn Tuesday morning, the company characterized the te

Alert: There's a Lost Spaceship in the Ocean

It's lost forever? Dive Mind In science fiction, we often have the trope of a spacecraft becoming lost in space — but what about being lost at sea? That's what happened this week with an eight-foot-wide experimental spacecraft flown by a European aerospace outfit called The Exploration Company, according to a company statement on LinkedIn. When the vehicle came back to Earth, mission control lost contact with the craft when it entered the ocean. "The capsule was launched successfully, powere

A European Startup’s Spacecraft Made It to Orbit. Now It’s Lost at Sea

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its Mission Possible vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an “issue,” the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company characterized the test

A European Startup's Spacecraft Made It to Orbit. Now It's Lost at Sea

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its Mission Possible vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an “issue,” the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update Tuesday morning on LinkedIn, the company characterized the test

Emergence AI’s CRAFT arrives to make it easy for enterprises to automate their entire data pipeline

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more New York City based startup Emergence AI, founded by former IBM researchers, previously made headlines for its impressive automated system that allows enterprises to type in a requested task in plain natural language and automatically create a fleet of agents to help complete it. But that’s not all the company has up its sleeve when it co

After successfully entering Earth’s atmosphere, a European spacecraft is lost

A European company that seeks to develop orbital spacecraft for cargo, and eventually humans, took a step forward this week with a test flight that saw its "Mission Possible" vehicle power up and fly successfully in orbit before making a controlled reentry into Earth's atmosphere. However, after encountering an "issue," the Exploration Company lost contact with its spacecraft a few minutes before touchdown in the ocean. In an update on LinkedIn Tuesday morning, the company characterized the te

Cybercriminals use fake GitHub Minecraft mods to target young players

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years.TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust What just happened? Hundreds of GitHub repositories offering Minecraft mods have become the latest battleground in a sophisticated malware campaign, targeting the game's vast and creative player community. At the heart of this operation is the Stargazers Ghost Network, an elaborate cybercriminal infrastructure uncovered by Check Point Research. Unlike typical malware campaigns, Stargazers Ghost Net

NASA Aircraft Set to Perform Wild Low-Altitude Stunts Around These U.S. Cities

NASA is getting ready to fly two planes over mid-Atlantic states and parts of California, where they will be carrying out special maneuvers at a close distance while collecting valuable data about our changing planet. The two research aircraft, named P-3 Orion (N426NA) and a King Air B200 (N46L), are set to fly over Baltimore, Philadelphia, the Virginia cities of Hampton, Hopewell, and Richmond, in addition to the Los Angeles Basin, Salton Sea, and Central Valley, according to NASA. The flights

'A Minecraft Movie' Starts Streaming Today. Here's How and Where to Watch it

If you caught some morsels from A Minecraft Movie on social media -- videos of theater audiences going wild over a chicken jockey or Jack Black passionately singing about cooking chicken with lava -- today you can stream the flick that started it all. The Max streaming service, which will soon take on the title of HBO Max again, previously announced that the video game movie would premiere in June before sharing the exact release date for the PG-rated comedy. A Minecraft Movie stars Black, Jaso

SpaceX's String of Starship Failures Continues With Massive Rocket Explosion

SpaceX's ongoing mission to prepare Starship spacecraft for trips to the moon and, eventually, Mars suffered a setback when a spacecraft exploded this week in South Texas. The explosion happened during what SpaceX called routine testing in preparation for Starship's 10th flight since 2023, which was expected to happen later this month. SpaceX uses a different rocket design to launch its Starlink internet satellites. On X, the space company wrote, "On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m

'A Minecraft Movie': Release Date and Time on Max

If you caught some morsels from A Minecraft Movie on social media -- videos of theater audiences going wild over a chicken jockey or Jack Black passionately singing about cooking chicken with lava -- tomorrow you can stream the flick that started it all. The Max streaming service, which will soon take on the title of HBO Max again, previously announced that the video game movie would premiere in June. Now it's shared the exact release date for the PG-rated comedy. A Minecraft Movie stars Black,

Minecraft now has a photo mode with Vibrant Memories

Photo modes are a pretty common feature for video games where players go bounding around an interesting open world. Today, Minecraft joined their ranks, making an in-game camera available in the Minecraft Marketplace as a free add-on called Vibrant Memories. The feature requires a copy of Minecraft's Bedrock Edition on any platform; the Java version doesn't appear to support the camera. As well as capturing the moment as-is and saving particular camera angles to reuse later, Vibrant Memories wi

'A Minecraft Movie' Streaming on Max: Release Date and Time

If you caught some morsels from A Minecraft Movie on social media -- videos of Jack Black passionately singing about cooking chicken with lava or theater audiences going wild over a chicken jockey -- this week you can stream the flick that started it all. The Max streaming service, which will soon take on the title of HBO Max again, previously announced that the video game movie would premiere in June. Now it's shared the exact release date for the PG-rated comedy. A Minecraft Movie stars Black