GoKawiil
Tech News
Google plans to send a refrigerator-sized test satellite called MWP aboard a SpaceX Transporter 18 rideshare flight on Oct. 1, built in partnership with satellite imaging company Planet. The solar-powered craft is part of Google's Project Suncatcher initiative and is meant to test whether AI chips, including TPUs, can withstand launch and operate in orbit, rather than perform substantial computing tasks.
Google will launch its first Project Suncatcher test satellite, called MVP, on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare mission. The refrigerator-sized craft carries four of Google's custom TPU AI chips and roughly one kilowatt of solar power, and it uses a spacecraft body built by satellite imagery firm Planet Labs rather than a custom-built Google design. The test mission will run for only a few months.
Researchers recalculated how much Mercury's radius has contracted over its history and found the planet has shrunk 10% to 30% more than earlier studies indicated. The updated figures come from reassessing surface features like fault scarps that record the planet's cooling and contraction over billions of years.
Planet Labs, the San Francisco-based Earth-imaging company, maintains a public ephemerides feed that lists tracking data for its satellite fleet. A query of this data against catalog records shows 97 Planet Labs satellites currently active, spanning several constellations including the newly launched Pelican-11, which was deployed into low Earth orbit via SpaceX's Transporter 17 mission on July 7th.
Hotel developer Ian McClure has become the first outside operator in more than ten years to sign a fresh development agreement with Planet Fitness, rather than buying into the chain by acquiring an existing franchisee's gyms. McClure's firm, Gulf Coast Hotel Management, which runs extended-stay hotels and Wyndham properties across several states, secured three area deals to open over a dozen locations on Florida's Gulf Coast. Each gym costs between $1.3 million and $5.4 million to launch depending on financing.
Planet Labs, which runs the world's largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites, has been named No. 4 on Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators 2026 list. The company generates over 3 terabytes of high-resolution imagery daily, used by governments, researchers and media to track environmental and security threats. Its recognition stems from an in-house approach called 'Agile Aerospace,' used to build satellite systems including Pelican and Owl.
Two decades after the International Astronomical Union voted in 2006 to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, a vocal group of scientists, historians and enthusiasts continue to push back against that decision. Critics like Philip Metzger of the University of Central Florida argue the IAU's planetary definition is scientifically unworkable, while others such as writer Laurel Kornfeld have campaigned against the ruling since the day it was announced. The dispute remains largely an American phenomenon, tied partly to national pride since Pluto was discovered by a US astronomer in 1930.
Julia Collins, who became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company after Zume Pizza hit a $1 billion valuation in 2018, later left to launch Planet FWD, a platform helping brands track and cut their carbon footprint. In an interview, she reflected on her entrepreneurial upbringing, her early career as the first hire at food chain Mexicue, and her approach to leadership across the more than $500 million she has raised in venture capital.
A tester given preview access to GPT-5.6-Cyber challenged the AI agent to escape a QEMU/KVM virtual machine on a Debian Linux host. The model succeeded three separate times, first using recently disclosed kernel bugs, then unpatched vulnerabilities not yet flagged as security issues, and finally by discovering its own zero-day exploits after the system was rebuilt from the latest source code.
It has been two decades since the International Astronomical Union voted in August 2006 to strip Pluto of its planetary status, reclassifying it as a dwarf planet after astronomers discovered a similarly sized object, later named Eris, in 2005. The decision remains contentious, with figures like NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and actor William Shatner recently arguing Pluto deserves to be called a planet again.