Reuters Science News Summary

Private equity fund EQT has acquired Berlin-based Exolaunch, a SpaceX satellite launch partner, in a deal marking strong investor interest in the space industry.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

EQT buys Berlin-based SpaceX ​satellite launch partner Exolaunch

Private equity fund EQT is ​acquiring Berlin-based space company Exolaunch, which helps ‌satellite ​companies launch into orbit by partnering with rocket operators such as Elon Musk's SpaceX. The deal, announced by the companies Thursday, highlights strong investor interest in the space ‌industry and marks the Stockholm-listed fund's first private equity investment in the field. It is looking to grow the company's operations around the world and invest in developing new satellite launch and deployment technologies.

Space startups seek insurance for orbital AI data ‌centers

Space companies have spoken with insurers about coverage for orbital AI data centers, a sign of early ‌progress for an experimental industry backed by Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. The concept of data center satellites — designed to bypass Earth’s power constraints — has drawn growing attention since Musk described them as the future of artificial intelligence development ahead of SpaceX's record-breaking public listing this ⁠month. Securing ​insurance is critical for companies ⁠trying to move orbital data centers from concept to reality. Without coverage for the costly hardware and risks involved, attracting the debt financing needed ⁠to scale such ventures would be difficult.

Satellite observations detect 'urban pulse' of six global cities

While a city is not a living organism, ​it behaves very much like one. Its metabolic processes may be manifested in growth spurts, metamorphosis over time ⁠and even decay. Researchers using satellite imagery have tracked the vital signs of six major global cities, detecting a distinctive "urban pulse" in each. The researchers looked ⁠at ​Dubai, Lagos, Mexico City, Mumbai, Seattle and Shenzhen using a new way to document dynamic changes unfolding in each of these cities in near real-time.

Deep-sea denizens go years without food with clever biological fix

A pill bug ⁠dwelling under a garden pot curls its body into a tiny armored ball as self-defense. Far below the ⁠ocean surface, some of its much ⁠larger relatives face a harder problem: how to stay alive when the next meal may not come for years. Those creatures are called deep-sea isopods, a group of crustaceans with ‌flattened and segmented ‌bodies that, as new research reveals, have resolved the dilemma ​with a multifaceted biological fix.