Nasa | Pixr8 News

19Aug By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Space Tech Startup Pixxel secures USD 5 million in funding

Bengaluru, 19th Aug 2020: Indian space-technology startup Pixxel has raised USD 5 million in a seed round led by Blume Ventures, growX ventures, and Lightspeed India. The round also included contributions from Inventus Capital India and other angel investors including Stanford Angels and Ryan Johnson, a veteran in the earth imaging space, it said in a statement. The new funding will strengthen Pixxels plans for its first satellite launch later this year and accelerate development of the second satellite, it said. In conjunction with the funding, Ryan Johnson, previously founder and CEO at Blackbridge, a Canadian earth- imaging company, and ex-President at Planet Labs, one of the largest satellite imaging companies in the world, will be joining the Board of Directors at the company...

Google Crunches Data To Help NASA Find Two New Planets

15Dec By reutersNo Comments

USA

Google Crunches Data To Help NASA Find Two New Planets

Alphabet Inc’s Google and NASA said on Thursday that advanced computer analysis identified two new planets around distant stars, including one that is part of the first star system with as many planets as Earth’s solar system. The research by Google and the University of Texas at Austin that used data from NASA raised the prospects of new insights into the universe by feeding data into computer programs that can churn through information faster and more in-depth than humanly possibly, a technique known as machine learning. In this case, software learned differences between planets and other objects by analyzing thousands of data points, achieving 96 percent accuracy, NASA said at a news conference. The data came from the Kepler telescope which NASA launched into space in 2009 as ...

Google sells satellite imaging business Terra Bella to Planet Labs

5Feb By reutersNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Google sells satellite imaging business Terra Bella to Planet Labs

Alphabet Inc's Google said on Friday it would sell its satellite imaging business, Terra Bella, to Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based private satellite operator founded by former NASA scientists. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the deal, Planet Labs will acquire the Terra Bella business including the SkySat constellation of satellites, Alphabet said. bit.ly/2kqmTfL Google will enter into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet Labs after the deal closes. Google had acquired Terra Bella, originally known as Skybox Imaging, for $500 million in 2014. The deal will help Planet Labs broaden its available data and add new customers. Planet Labs is one of several startups aiming to harness technology allowing satellites to ...

Larry Page Backing Two Start-ups Making Flying Cars

10Jun By reutersNo Comments

News

Larry Page Backing Two Start-ups Making Flying Cars

Google co-founder Larry Page is backing two start-ups that are working on flying cars, including funding one of them with more than $100 million so far, Bloomberg said on Thursday, citing sources. Zee.Aero, into which Page has poured more than $100 million since it started in 2010, conducts test flights of its prototype at an airport hangar in Hollister, California, Bloomberg said. The start-up has a manufacturing facility on NASA's research center at the edge of Mountain View, the news agency said. Since last year, Page has also been funding another start-up, Kitty Hawk, that is working on a similar competing model, Bloomberg said. Kitty Hawk, which employs about a dozen engineers and has its headquarters about half a mile away from Zee.Aero, is working on "something that rese...

Zuckerberg to Use Facebook Live to Chat With ISS Astronauts

28May By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Zuckerberg to Use Facebook Live to Chat With ISS Astronauts

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will chat live with three astronauts currently living on the International Space Station and ask them questions posted by viewers on NASAs facebook page. In a 20-minute Facebook Live video call with two NASA astronauts - Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams - and a European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake, Zuckerberg will ask questions and use the service to enable viewers to livestream themselves. Zuckerberg will speak with astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) at 12:55 PM (local time) on Wednesday, June 1, NASA said in a statement. The interesting questions from the facebook viewers include - What is the outcome of Newtons bucket experiment on ISS?, Who provides the food eaten on the space station? The ISS serv...

Drone Makes First Urban Package Delivery in US

26Mar By NitishNo Comments

USA

Drone Makes First Urban Package Delivery in US

RENO(NEVADA): A drone has successfully delivered a package to a residential location in a Nevada town in what its maker and the state's governor said Friday was the first fully autonomous urban drone delivery in the U.S. Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeney said the six-rotor drone flew about a half-mile along a pre-programmed delivery route on March 10 and lowered the package outside a vacant residence in Hawthorne. The route was established using GPS. A pilot and visual observers were on standby during the flight but weren't needed, Sweeney said. He said the package included bottled water, food and a first-aid kit. NASA is working with the drone industry and the Federal Aviation Administration on a low-altitude air traffic control system to prevent crashes involving drones and other low-...