NASA has just premiered Planetary Defenders, a fascinating documentary looking at the high-stakes work geared toward protecting Earth from large asteroids spotted coming our way.  The 75-minute production (above) features the astronomers and scientists who are working tirelessly to identify and monitor asteroids considered a potential threat — including, briefly, this one that made headlines […]

Photographer extraordinaire Don Pettit is about to return to Earth following a seven-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During his time in orbit some 250 miles above Earth, Pettit has been sharing breathtaking photos and videos of Earth and beyond, featuring everything from star trails and aurora to rocket launches and cityscapes. To […]

Did you know that “talking postcards” were once a thing? Back in the 1940s and 50s, tourists in the U.S. might pop into a coin-operated Voice-O-Graph booth to record themselves speaking about their trip, with their tales ending up on a lacquer-coated record that they could then mail to friends or relatives.  A BBC report […]

In echoes of Minority Report, the British government is working on a “murder prediction” tool aimed at identifying individuals who are most likely to become killers, the Guardian reported this week. The project — originally called the “homicide prediction project” but since renamed as “sharing data to improve risk assessment” — is being run by […]

Freefly’s “Flying Sun 1000” is a new drone system bedecked with numerous LEDs powerful enough to fill a patch of ground with bright light.  Watching the video (top), you can certainly see how this remarkable flying floodlight might come in useful for something like a search-and-rescue operation, when bringing conventional lighting equipment to a chaotic […]

Microsoft is 50 on Friday. Born in 1975 to proud parents Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the computer company grew quickly to become one of the most transformative tech firms in history. Some who have tracked Microsoft’s journey through the decades will point to the 1981 launch of MS-DOS as key turning point. The operating […]

SpaceX has just test fired a Super Heavy booster ahead of the Starship’s ninth flight test. The ground-based firing of the world’s most powerful rocket took place at SpaceX’s Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday. Notably, the upcoming flight test will involve the first-ever reuse of a Super Heavy booster, with this particular […]