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Loft Orbital forms joint venture with UAE-based company to boost satellite production in the Middle East

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Loft Orbital forms joint venture with UAE-based firm to scale satellite production in the Middle East

A holding company linked to the Emirati royal family is investing in a brand new joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Marlan Space and a startup Orbital Loft with over $100 million to expand domestic satellite manufacturing capabilities in the region.

A joint venture called Orbitworkswill likely be the first business company in the UAE to mass-produce satellites. The majority shareholder is Marlan Space, a brand new space company affiliated with International Holding Company. IHC is majority-controlled by Royal Group, a conglomerate owned by Abu Dhabi’s ruling royal family.

The UAE has big space ambitions—and deep pockets to fund them. The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has been around for lower than a decade, but the government has spent billions investing in domestic capabilities and forging partnerships with other countries and business entities. The UAE sent its first astronaut (or privately funded “spaceflight participant,” as NASA calls it) to the ISS in 2019; two years later, it became the latest in a really small group of nations to put a probe in orbit around Mars.

The Gulf nation’s space ecosystem has several key players beyond UAE: Space42, a merger of Emirati satellite company Yahsat and data analytics firm Bayanat; EDGE Group, a serious industrialist; and a handful of universities and research institutions, similar to the National Space and Science Technology Center. The country is at some extent where it wants to deploy satellite constellations and produce satellite manufacturing capabilities domestically.

Loft Orbital CEO Pierre-Damien Vaujour said in a recent interview that he has long been interested in the UAE’s space ecosystem: “Even when we founded Loft, I always thought that I wanted to start a business in the UAE and contribute to the development of the ecosystem there.”

San Francisco-based Loft buys satellite buses in bulk and carries payloads for patrons using a typical modular payload adapter that integrates customer equipment with the spacecraft. Loft handles all launch integration and services the spacecraft once it reaches orbit. The startup may perform “virtual missions,” where customers can deploy applications in orbit that use onboard sensors, computers and cameras.

Vaujour said Loft’s flexible hardware will enable the joint venture to work with a wide selection of latest players in the Middle East’s space ecosystem. “Loft can work with any payload provider, any trunk or subsystem provider, any ground station provider, any cloud provider… We provide the joint venture with a playbook for satellite manufacturing, operations and technology,” he said.

Orbitworks intends to produce up to fifty 500-kilogram satellites per 12 months, with equipment for the first ten satellites already purchased. It will operate from a 50,000-square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi, with the first satellite platform to be assembled, integrated, and tested there by early 2025.

Vaujour said the startup has entered into agreements with Marlan to ensure Loft complies with U.S. export regulations and licenses. A separate Loft entity, Loft Federal, will proceed to provide work for classified contracts for U.S. national security clients.

“This entity that was created has a mandate to become the national champion in the country in terms of manufacturing and operating satellite constellations, and this is something that is quite new,” Vaujour said. “Although we are starting small, the idea is to scale it up. The ambitions, both nationally, regionally and internationally, for something like this are quite big.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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