Spinoff: Computer Technology

Unfurling Antennas Let Tiny Satellites Do Big Things

A license, SBIR funding, and a contract to develop a deployable antenna, all from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as a former JPL chief engineer, helped Tendeg LLC of...

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: 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: 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: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Rocket Manufacturing Meets Science Friction

SBIR funding from Langley Research Center let a team from Aeroprobe Corporation try out additive friction stir deposition, a new method for 3D printing with metal. The work demonstrated...

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: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Oil Drillers, Environmentalists Agree on Small, Sensitive Spectrometer

Technical assistance and STTR funding from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory helped Optoknowledge Systems Inc. (OKSI) develop a compact spectrometer for sensing...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ultrasonic Inspections Protect Astronauts, Boat Owners

Aerospace Corporation spent two years working under funding from Langley Research Center to develop an ultrasonic scanner capable of detecting subsurface defects in the Orion...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Taking the Pulse of Earth

By combining NASA satellite data and imagery with proprietary artificial intelligence developed by terraPulse, Inc. the North Potomac, MD-based business makes it possible for companies to monitor changes to...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Next-Level Farming

Closed-environment plant-growth data and expertise developed at Kennedy Space Center through research into bioregenerative life support that could feed astronauts on long-duration missions helped Oslo,...

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

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

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: 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: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Satellites ‘See’ Sea Turtles, Ocean Threats

The Argos satellite technology operated by National Center for Space Studies in Ramonville Saint-Agne, France, serves as a wildlife tracking resource. Once an international partnership...

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

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

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: Computer Technology

Aqua Solutions for Terra Firma

To provide weather information to underserved farming communities in India, ilika Geospatial LLC of Edison, New Jersey, developed a weather app that uses data from the Aqua and Terra satellites...

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: 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: Computer Technology

NASA Helps Make Connections in Air and Space

When Johnson Space Center needed an Ethernet switch on the Orion capsule to manage data the spacecraft beams back to Earth, DornerWorks Ltd. of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was subcontracted...

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: Computer Technology

Ballooning Business for Shrinking Cameras

Miniaturized sensors that fly on a zero-pressure balloon collect data and take pictures that are as expansive as satellite images but are more precise. Denver-based Urban Sky Inc. leveraged...

Spinoff: Computer Technology

Keeping the Connection

After a Kennedy Space Center test-flight program proved the capability of a tiny radio that enables satellite-to-satellite communication, the Upland, Indiana-based NearSpace Launch Inc. made it commercially...

Spinoff: Environmental and Agricultural Resources

Farmers Get Tools from Space

IrriWatch BV of Wageningen, Netherlands, uses streams of publicly available data from NASA-built instruments in orbit, including the Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment developed at the...

Spinoff: Trending

Shuttle-Analysis Software Improves Airplane, Turbine Safety

Ensuring safety for astronauts on the world’s first reusable spacecraft required NASA’s space shuttle engineers to take novel approaches when calculating the...

Spinoff: Trending

Weather Forecasters Adopt NASA’s ‘Occult’ Science

Decades ago, NASA invented radio occultation, a technique that used radio waves to study the atmospheres of other planets. Now the proliferation of navigation satellites in...

Spinoff: Trending

An Electronic Traffic Monitor for Airports

A collaboration between Ames Research Center, the Federal Aviation Administration, American Airlines Inc., Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and Southwest Airlines Co. resulted in a...

Spinoff: Trending

The View from Space Keeps Getting Better

For half a century, NASA-built Landsat satellites have been recording Earth’s surface, gathering science-grade imagery in various spectral bands. That data yields valuable information for...