Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Cutting the Knee Surgery Cord

The first FDA-cleared wireless arthroscopic camera for minimally invasive knee surgeries and other orthopedic procedures got early support from NASA through the Adopt a City program, which enabled Glenn...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Commercial Space: NASA Has an App for That

Commercial space vehicles, from satellites to lunar landers, need flight software. Red Canyon Software Inc. uses an open-source program developed by Goddard Space Flight Center to help...

Spinoff: Transportation

From Shark Searches to Space Tours

Aurora Flight Sciences incorporates NASA expertise gained through multiple Armstrong Flight Research Center SBIR contracts to develop technology that enables remote piloting of conventional small...

Spinoff: Transportation

Artificial Eyes Give Pilots a New Worldview

Combining ultra-high-definition video streams from multiple cameras on the NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane required new video cards to process the data. A contract with...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

NASA Engineers Help Create A Virtual World of Data

Using patented technology developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as the founders’ experience creating data visualization systems for JPL, Virtualitics Inc. of...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Air Treatment Systems Break Down Pollutants, Germs

Fresh-Aire UV of Jupiter, Florida, developed a line of air purifiers that break down organic contaminants with a process called photocatalytic oxidation (PCO). The company gets its...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Keeping Beds in the Goldilocks Zone

Using his former experience as an engineer working on spacesuit environmental control systems, the founder of Bedjet LLC of Newport, Rhode Island, designed a cooling system to keep each side of...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Super Insulation Requires Super Materials

When developing a new coating to protect buildings from heat buildup, Superior Products InternationaI II Inc. of Shawnee, Kansas reached out to the experts at Marshall Space Flight...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA Ingredients for Industrial Expedience

When Johnson Space Center wanted to explore ways of cooking food for long term habitation in deep space, Induction Food Systems Inc. of Durham, North Carolina received Small Business...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Making the Most of Meticulous Measurements

When NASA needed to make sure telescope mirrors were perfectly flat, 4D Technology of Tucson, Arizona, was contracted to develop measuring instruments that could ensure the James Webb Space...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ion Thrusters Keep Satellites Going and Going

When Orbion Space Technology Inc. of Houghton, Michigan, wanted to bring high-efficiency ion thrusters to the commercial satellite industry, the company entered into agreements with...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Pumping Out State-of-the-Art Design

Decades of collaboration on multiple SBIR contracts gave Concepts NREC LLC extensive access to NASA rocket engine expertise. The White River Junction, Vermont-based company incorporates Marshall...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

From Magnetic Rocket Fuel to Semiconductors

A liquid with magnetic properties developed by NASA in the 1960s was the basis for ferrofluids now sold by MAGRON, a company in Ansan, South Korea, whose customers use them in...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Concentrating on Microbes

SBIR funding for InnovaPrep LLC of Drexel, Missouri, led to a bioconcentration system for testing air and water quality on the space station and improved the company’s commercial technology. The funding...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Medical-Grade Smartwatch Can Monitor Astronauts, Patients

A research consortium backed by Johnson Space Center funded the development of a wearable device that could monitor the vital signs and activities of astronauts in space or...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Synthetic DNA Diagnoses COVID, Cancer

Synthetic DNA used to diagnose diseases such as COVID, hepatitis, and cancer was developed by Firebird Diagnostics LLC of Alachua, Florida, with research funded in part by the NASA Astrobiology...

Spinoff: Health and Medicine

Semiconductor Research Leads to Revolution in Dental Care

Research into growing crystals for electronics at NASA’s short-lived Electronics Research Center led to an agency patent for repairing teeth by growing crystals of...

Spinoff: Transportation

Redefining the 'Rugged' Video Camera

A video camera rugged enough to survive the first Space Launch System rocket launch and function in the extreme conditions of space is tough enough for harsh Earth environments. A license and...

Spinoff: Transportation

Additive Manufacturing Subtracts from Rocket Build Time

Through a series of Space Act Agreements, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center have helped Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California, 3D print its Aeon rocket...

Spinoff: Transportation

A Huge Development for Tiny Satellites

To fit tiny satellites into tinier spaces on launch vehicles, Goddard Space Flight Center developed a new equipment-deployment system that’s more reliable than previous solutions. Thermal...

Spinoff: Transportation

‘Digital Winglets’ for Real-Time Flight Paths

To improve aircraft efficiency and reduce emissions, Langley Research Center developed software that finds optimal routes for airplanes in flight. Through a NASA licensing agreement,...

Spinoff: Transportation

NASA Gives the World a Brake

Thanks to exclusive patent licenses for a radical new disc brake design, Orbis Brakes Inc. of Santa Rosa, California, incorporates Marshall Space Flight Center structural materials expertise into a more...

Spinoff: Transportation

New Energy Source Powers Subsea Robots Indefinitely

A former NASA engineer licensed technology he had developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to power sensors on the marine floats that calibrated NASA’s Aquarius satellite...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Spherical Robots to the Rescue

Dr. Alice Agogino realized the spherical robots she was designing to comb planetary and lunar surfaces could also help first responders assess disaster scenes on Earth. She cofounded Berkeley,...

Spinoff: Public Safety

Where the Wildfires Are

Technosylva Inc.’s wildfire monitoring service combines Landsat Earth-observation data with other fire resources, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to predict, monitor, and support post-fire...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Fixing ‘Thermal Incompatibility’ in the Bedroom

In the 1980s, Johnson Space Center explored using phase-change materials use in spacesuits. Funding via a Small Business Innovation Research contract resulted in a commercial...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

From Space to Your Face

A bacterium so resilient it survived NASA’s efforts to sanitize Mars-bound spacecraft is now the basis for a skincare ingredient that boosts SPF in sunscreen and provides antiaging properties in face cream....

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Eco-Friendly Bio Breaks

American Innotek Inc. took a polymer utilized in undergarments developed at Johnson Space Center to manage human waste on spacewalks and incorporated it into a bag for use on the go. Sold under the brand...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Space-Saving Exploration

Putting the “fun” into functional campers is what Taxa Outdoors Inc. of Houston does using the know-how of a former NASA employee. Design principles developed at Johnson Space Center for living quarters...

Spinoff: Consumer, Home, and Recreation

Temperature-Regulating Clothing Additive Heats Up

A highly emissive coating that NASA invented to protect the heat shield on a planned spaceplane in the 1990s was licensed and turned into the Emisshield product line. Now it’s been...