Researchers from China have developed a new 3D-printing process capable of building titanium-alloy rods more than a meter (3.3 feet) tall composed entirely of a single crystal. The new method, described in the team's recently published study in Nature, eliminates some of the constraints associated with conventional crystal-growing methods and opens up new opportunities for technical applications, ranging from reactor components to laser mirrors.

Space Force seeks commercial tech to modernize data networks and software. Battle Management, Command, Control, Communications and Space Intelligence, or BMC3I, is a $21 billion acquisition portfolio that the Space Force is looking to open up to new vendors. Much of the work is classified, but officials say commercial companies will see increasing opportunities to provide technology and services.

The Space Development Agency is exploring new sensor technologies for its next generation of missile-tracking satellites, including capabilities to detect and follow targets throughout their flight. A new industry notice outlines plans for Tranche 4 production contracts and separate demonstrations of advanced satellite payloads.

The U.S. Space Force needs another major spaceport by 2030 to handle rising military and commercial launch demand and is considering government and privately owned sites, the head of Space Systems Command said Oct. 21.

Earth observation operator Marble Imaging, satellite manufacturer Reflex Aerospace, and optical communications specialist Odysseus Space announced a joint mission to deploy space-to-ground laser communications aboard Marble Sat-1. Scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2027, the spacecraft will utilize optical downlink technology to overcome conventional radio-frequency bottlenecks and accelerate data delivery for European Earth observation.

Earth observation satellite operator Planet Labs PBC successfully launched its Pelican-12 spacecraft aboard SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The launch represents the company’s 25th satellite deployed to orbit in 2026 across four missions and marks the fifth next-generation Pelican spacecraft launched this year, with ground controllers successfully establishing initial contact and commencing orbital commissioning.

SolidCraft.io is one of those rare open-source tools that actually feels like it was designed for users who got tired of wrestling with FreeCAD’s workbench chaos and Python scripting. The fact that it’s pure Rust, parametric with a clean feature timeline, runs in the browser or app and has a first-class MCP server is wild. Being able to hand an AI (Claude.ai) the same command surface the UI uses is genuinely mind-shattering. @Karnage

When Hubble swings from one galaxy to another, engineers fire no thrusters—Hubble has none. They change the speeds of four internal reaction wheels, making the observatory rotate the opposite way, while magnetic bars push against Earth’s field to bleed off excess momentum: a propellant-free steering system used since 1990. Hubble turns by trading angular momentum with four internal reaction wheels, then uses magnetic torquer bars to unload the momentum those wheels accumulate.

Astronauts on the Moon could shelter from radiation, micrometeoroids and extreme temperatures inside a lava tube, and NASA is sending a suite called GIMLI to scan beneath the Marius Hills Pit to see whether the pit opens into one. Underground caverns could offer lunar explorers their first true shelter, if a buried tunnel system actually exists beneath the volcanic landscape where NASA is about to look.