#epic

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Science

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helprussianacross

Help scientists find spacetime warps in these Euclid Space Telescope images

Artist's illustration of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory orbiting Earth. (Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab) A bold telescope-rescue mission is set to launch later this month, and you can learn all about it today (June 17).That mission will be conducted by Link, a robotic servicing spacecraft built and operated by the Arizona-based company Katalyst Space Technologies. Link will meet up with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in the final frontier, raising the telescope's orbit to give it more time to study the heavens.NASA and Katalyst representatives will discuss the plan today, during a press conference that starts at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). You can listen live via NASA. Space.com will stream the feed as well, if the space agency makes it available. Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft is seen mated with its Pegasus XL rocket. (Image credit: NASA/Ron Beard)Participants will be:Shawn Domagal-Goldman, division director, Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters in WashingtonBrad Cenko, principal investigator, Swift, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MarylandKieran Wilson, principal investigator, LINK, Katalyst SpaceRobert Lamontagne, vice president, strategic partnerships, Katalyst SpaceWes Collier, vice president, launch systems, Northrop GrummanSwift launched to low Earth orbit in 2004 to hunt for gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe. The telescope is still perfectly capable of doing this important job, but Earth's atmosphere is dragging it down toward a fiery death.Swift doesn't have a propulsion system to fight this downward pull, so it needs some help — which is where Katalyst comes in. Last fall, NASA announced it had tapped the company to raise Swift's orbit.It's an unprecedented ask: No private spacecraft has ever linked up with a robotic U.S. government satellite. And time is of the essence; some models predicted the observatory could come back to Earth as soon as this summer.Katalyst has acted fast, getting Link ready for a launch later this month from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. (NASA has not yet announced a target date). Link will fly aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket, an air-launched vehicle that will be carried aloft by a plane. Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

Space.comJun 17

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Technology

3updates

helpfirstsays

First Public macOS Kernel Exploit on Apple M5 Prepared Using Mythos Preview in Five Days

Spyware attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents are no longer rare or exotic. In early 2025, WhatsApp notified roughly 90 users — many of them journalists and civil society members across Europe — that they had been targeted by Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions. Months later, Apple sent threat notifications to a new group of iOS users; forensic analysis confirmed two of them, both journalists, had been hit with Paragon’s Graphite spyware using a zero-click attack, meaning they didn’t even have to tap a link to be compromised. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re the norm. For the last 15 years, security researchers have documented countless cases where government hackers have targeted and successfully compromised journalists, human rights defenders, critics, and political opponents. These attacks rely on expensive, sophisticated, and stealthy tools that allow their operators to hack into and install spyware on computers, but especially smartphones, which hold virtually all of the data about a person’s daily life. Spyware gives its operators virtually full access to the target’s device and data. Government spies can record phone calls, steal chat messages, access photos, and switch on the device’s camera and microphone to record ambient sound and record nearby conversations. Spyware also typically tracks a person’s real-time location. In response to these attacks, tech giants now provide their users with better defenses. In particular, Apple, Google, and Meta offer opt-in features specifically designed to counter targeted spyware attacks. Generally speaking, these features add extra protection, sometimes by turning off or limiting some regular features. It’s a tradeoff, but having used these myself for a long time, I have never found them to be too onerous or annoying to use. Tech companies, security researchers who have studied spyware for years, and we at TechCrunch, recommend that you use these features if you suspect you may be a target of government surveillance because of who you are or what you do. Even if you’re not, these security features will keep your data better protected from entering the wrong hands. No security measure is perfect, and it’s a constant effort to keep security flaws at bay. Spyware makers find new ways to hack into phones and services, then software makers learn from those attacks and respond. Rinse and repeat. But that doesn’t mean these features are not worth using. On the contrary; these features have been proven effective. “These features are free, easy to enable, and the best defense we have today against sophisticated spyware,” said Runa Sandvik, a security researcher who has worked to protect journalists and other at-risk communities for more than a decade. “If the features get in the way of something you need to do, you can easily turn them off again — meaning it costs very little to turn them on and try them out.” Here’s a recap of these features, and how to switch them on. Image Credits:TechCrunch / Screenshot / Apple’s Lockdown Mode Apple’s Lockdown Mode is available on all Apple devices, including iPhones. Apple says that when Lockdown Mode is enabled, “your device won’t function like it typically does.” In exchange for this inconvenience, your device will be more secure. There is evidence that Lockdown Mode has helped in the past. Citizen Lab found that Lockdown Mode stopped one spyware attack carried out with NSO Group’s Pegasus software. As recently as March, Apple said it has never detected a successful attack on an Apple device with Lockdown Mode enabled. This is what Lockdown Mode changes on your device when you turn it on: Attachments received on iMessage other than some images, video, and audio are blocked by default. Links and previews in iMessage are blocked and appear as non-linked web addresses. (You can copy and paste the links into Safari or another browser if you want.) Fonts, some images, and some web technol

TechCrunchMay 23

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Politics

epic

Epic Group’s $100 million-garment manufacturing unit inaugurated in Odisha

Company’s core focus is net-zero carbon through solar, biomass, battery storage, and energy-efficient systems, says group founder Ranjan Mahtani Published - April 29, 2026 11:26 pm IST - BHUBANESWAREpic Group, an apparel manufacturer major, on Wednesday (April 29, 2026) launched its state-of-the-art Trimetro Manufacturing Campus for garment manufacturing in Odisha’s Khordha district, established at an estimated investment of $100 million.Inaugurated by Odisha Industries Minister Sampad Chandra Swain in the presence of Founder and Chairman, Epic Group, Ranjan Mahtani, the Trimetro Manufacturing Campus will start production from Thursday (April 30). Published...

The HinduApr 29

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