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1. Google unveils Pixel 11 lineup, new AirTag rival, and Gemini features at Made by Google 2026  TechCrunch
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4. Google reveals 2026 hardware lineup: Pixel 11, Pixel Watch 5, and Pixel Tag  Ars Technica
5. Google’s New Phones Bring Subtle Updates While Rivals Go Bolder  Bloomberg.com

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4. Insta360 wants its latest 360 action camera to be your "cameraman of the future"  Popular Science
5. Meet the Next-Gen 360 Camera: Insta360 X6 Initial Review  Racer X

1. Honor Has Radically Reinvented the Phone for the Robot Age. I Played With It, and It’s Wild  CNET
2. Honor’s Robot Phone is better than a gimbal in a phone has any right to be  The Verge
3. Honor’s Robot Phone Has a Gimbal-Powered Camera for Vloggers  WIRED
4. Honor launches Robot Phone in China with 200MP titanium gimbal camera - GSMArena.com news  GSMArena.com
5. It's a Phone! It's a Gimbal! It's Honor's Robot Phone!  PCMag

1. Google’s Pixel Watch 5 dives deeper into AI and health  The Verge
2. Pixel Watch 5: Proactive assistance and advanced health tracking on your wrist  blog.google
3. Google’s Pixel Watch 5 Can Now Detect Breathing Emergencies  WIRED
4. Google Pixel Watch 5 Hands-On: Most Accurate GPS Watch Ever?  DC Rainmaker
5. Google unveils the Pixel Watch 5 with a smarter Gemini and advanced health monitoring  TechCrunch

1. Apple Skipping iPhone 18 Launch This Year  macrumors.com
2. iPhone 18 Pro Release Date: Demand Drives September Launch  Forbes
3. Apple Cutting Back 2026 Hardware Shipments Due to Memory Shortage  macrumors.com
4. Apple Already Increased the Price of iPhones Up to $300. Their Price Hikes Might Be Just Starting.  Yahoo Finance
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NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is departing the agency on Wednesday after 30 years of service. Throughout his career, he flew four missions, spent 549 days in space, and completed nine spacewalks in support of the International Space Station.

“Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Over a remarkable career, Mike served our nation as a pilot, engineer, astronaut, and mentor. From long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station to helping prepare the Artemis generation, his contributions have helped position NASA for what comes next. The success we’re building on today is possible because of people like Mike, who dedicated their careers to moving our space program forward and preparing the next generation to carry the mission even further. I’d like to congratulate Mike on an incredible career and thank him for his decades of service to NASA, our nation, and the countless people who had the opportunity to learn from and fly alongside him.”

He ranks fourth among NASA astronauts in accumulated time in space, and his spacewalks total 48 hours and 37 minutes. Most recently, Fincke piloted NASA’s SpaceX Crew‑11 mission, which launched in August 2025 and returned in January. During the mission, he served as a flight engineer for International Space Station Expedition 73 and commander of Expedition 74.

Fincke joined NASA’s 16th astronaut class in 1996 and first flew to space in 2004 aboard Soyuz TMA‑4 in support of the space station’s Expedition 9. Serving as a science officer and flight engineer, he helped maintain station systems and performed four spacewalks. He returned to space in 2008 on Soyuz TMA‑13 as commander of Expedition 18, preparing the space station for its transition to six‑person crews at the time and completing two more spacewalks.

In 2011, Fincke flew on STS‑134, the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour. As mission specialist and robotic arm operator, he completed three spacewalks and helped deliver and install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

“Mike’s remarkable career reflects three decades of dedication to NASA’s mission and the advancement of human spaceflight,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “From his time aboard the International Space Station to his commitment to mentoring the next generation, Mike has made an immense impact across our agency. His legacy of service, mentorship, and dedication to exploration will continue to inspire the generations to come.”

Throughout his career, Fincke bridged spacecraft development, flight testing, and mission operations. Early in the International Space Station Program, he helped test and integrate several of the station’s initial modules before launch. His flight experience spanned multiple generations of human spacecraft, including two missions aboard Soyuz, one aboard the space shuttle, and later piloting the SpaceX Dragon.

Fincke was a foundational contributor to NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. As chief of the Astronaut Office’s Commercial Crew Branch, he worked to ensure astronaut needs, crew safety, and human spaceflight experience informed development of the nation’s next generation of crewed spacecraft. He spent five years supporting Boeing’s Crew Flight Test program training as a crew member and backup pilot, contributing to flight software, systems integration, integrated testing, and spacecraft interfaces.

Fincke also supported station operations from the ground as a crew test support team member in Russia, a capsule communicator, or capcom, and crew procedures team lead. He helped translate complex engineering and operational requirements into clear instructions for crews working in orbit. His continuity across development, integration, mission support, and long‑duration flight gave him an end‑to‑end perspective on space station assembly and operation.

“Mike approached every assignment with experience, humility, and an unwavering focus on the mission,” said Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson. “Whether flying aboard the station, supporting crews from the ground, or helping shape the spacecraft that future crews will rely on, he consistently strengthened our team. His legacy is woven into the way we fly today.”

A native of Emsworth, Pennsylvania, Fincke holds bachelor’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics and in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also studied in the Soviet Union through an exchange program with the Moscow Aviation Institute. He earned master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University and in planetary geology from the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

Fincke is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. He served as a space systems engineer and flight test engineer at Edwards and Eglin Air Force Bases and later as the U.S. flight test liaison to the Japanese‑U.S. XF‑2 fighter program at Gifu Air Base in Japan. He accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types.

“After exactly 30 years, I am departing NASA, but I remain deeply committed to the work of exploration.” Fincke said. “NASA gave me the extraordinary privilege of serving alongside remarkable people, flying and helping develop spacecraft, and contributing to the International Space Station from its earliest days through command in orbit. I am profoundly grateful to my crewmates, the teams on the ground, our international partners, and the families who make this work possible. I am excited to carry those lessons forward and help prepare the next generation of engineers, explorers, and leaders. Together, we will return humanity to the Moon, travel to Mars, journey outward to the planets and moons beyond Earth, and someday reach for the stars – all while caring for Earth, the most beautiful planet in our solar system.”

To learn more about NASA’s astronauts and space exploration, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

-end-

Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov

As a young girl raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lindsey Waitt dreamed of working for NASA. Her dream is now a reality as she embarks on her role as a NASA test project engineer with the Artemis launch team – an integral part of the agency’s missions that will enable humans to return to the surface of the Moon after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

When she was in middle school in the late 1990’s, Waitt recalls meeting NASA Space Shuttle astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Albert Sacco, Jr., a former professor at the college, during a visit to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was inspired while listening to them recount their spaceflight experiences including an experiment on conducting research for growing cells on the Moon. She even posed for a picture and got their autographs. Little did young Waitt know, these would not be the only astronauts she would meet.

Her passion for learning about all things space and engineering led Waitt back to WPI where she studied engineering, absorbing different disciplines. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in aerospace engineering and she left the school fueled by her passion to be a part of America’s space agency.

After graduation, she worked as a systems engineer on radar flight test missions for a defense contractor, and while excelling in her role, she realized it wasn’t the aerospace engineering field that she desired.

“It was an exciting program, and it was meaningful to be a part of a project focused on protecting the country from enemy attacks. But it wasn’t space,” Waitt said.

As the wife of a now retired sergeant first class officer in the United States Army, Waitt and her family traveled around the world during her husband’s enlistment, and she continued to follow NASA missions from around the globe. While Waitt was dedicated to raising her three young boys, she simultaneously pursued her master’s degree in Space Operations from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Twelve years later, she made the courageous decision to fully return to her first career passion – working for NASA – despite nay-sayers suggesting too much time had passed for her to return to the industry.

Waitt vividly remembers watching NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken soar skyward during NASA’s first commercial crew mission to the International Space Station in 2020. Watching alongside her family, she even set up a rocket-shaped tent, and she and her children pretended to blast off from their yard as they cheered excitedly as the astronauts lifted off from what would be her future place of work.

After moving to Florida in 2022 to work at a small satellite company in Cape Canaveral, as a systems engineer and program manager, she continued to search for opportunities to work for the agency. Waitt vividly remembers watching Artemis I with her family. They had just moved to the Sunshine State, and she woke up in the early hours of the morning to watch the historic launch, having no idea she would be working on the next Artemis mission – the first time NASA sent humans around the Moon in over 50 years!

In 2024, Waitt began her career at Kennedy working for a contractor as a test project engineer during the Artemis II launch. As “problem-solvers,” test project engineers are the main hub of experts for technical tests and launch activities and they work to coordinate resolutions across the different subsystems that may arise during the dynamic operations associated with a rocket launch. Leading up to the Artemis II launch in April, Waitt quickly became certified to sit on the launch console during the dynamic pre and post-launch operations for the massive SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft and she eagerly watched from outside Kennedy’s Launch Control Center as the four crew members lifted off the launch pad towards the Moon.

When NASA announced its insourcing initiative earlier this year, Waitt seized the opportunity to fully realize her dream. She applied for a position and is now a NASA civil servant supporting the Artemis launch team as a test project engineer for NASA– a core position for the agency’s launch team. With Artemis III in front of her, Lindsey will see the buildup of launch operations from start to finish.

As the only female of the 14 test project engineers who work on the Artemis launch team, Waitt said she was fully embraced by the colleagues she stands beside.

“Everybody’s very open and welcoming,” Waitt said. “I’ve worked on teams before, but it’s never been like this. Everyone is so passionate about the mission, and everybody is working together to get things done quickly, but safely – that’s always first priority.  We Are Going.”

This opportunity didn’t happen by chance. Waitt is embracing life’s journey and focused on making her dream come true, one launch at a time. “The sky is not the limit – it’s wide open now,” Waitt said. “The universe is the limit.”

A new quality assessment report from NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program evaluates data from the Polar Geospatial Center’s (PGC) EarthDEM product. The results of the evaluation help inform NASA program management and the user community about the quality of commercial Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for use in NASA science.

Issued August 8, 2026, the CSDA  Polar Geospatial Center EarthDEM Quality Assessment Reportwas conducted by NASA Digital Elevation Model (DEM) subject matter experts (SMEs) enlisted to evaluate the horizontal and vertical accuracy of two PGC EarthDEM¹ (i.e., Digital Elevation Model) products: the center’s “Mosaic Tile” and “Strip” Digital Surface Models (DSMs).

To assess the vertical and horizontal accuracy of the EarthDEM Strip DSM and Mosaic Tile products over a variety of surface characteristics, the SMEs compared them to airborne lidar data samples from across the United States and Senegal. They found the horizontal accuracy of the EarthDEM products (Strip DSM: 0.5-meter (m) Root Mean Square Error Horizontal (RMSEH); Mosaic Tile: 0.3 m RMSEH) agreed with the specifications provided by the PGC and graded them “Excellent.”  The vertical accuracy results of the EarthDEM Strip DSM (5.6 m Root Mean Square Error Vertical (RMSEV)) and the Mosaic Tile (4.9 m RMSEV) products varied by land cover type, with all land cover types exceeding the specification provided by the PGC (0.5 m RMSEV). Strip DSM vertical accuracy was found to vary from 4.6-6.8 m RMSEV depending on the cloud cover metadata field generated by the PGC. Given this variation, the vertical accuracy compliance for the EarthDEM products was graded as “Basic.”

Overall, the assessment report supports the use of EarthDEM data for NASA Earth science research and applications, as long as the data characteristics (e.g., vertical accuracy, poor cloud masking, missing surface features, data voids, etc.) are compatible with the specific science objectives and use cases.

The report also provides a Data Provider Documentation Review for the EarthDEM product that evaluated information from the PGC website, as well as a series of peer-reviewed publications by researchers at The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. (Only documents listed in this report were considered in the evaluation.) The report’s authors found that, overall, the EarthDEM product is “well documented,” with most information present within the product User Guide, a series of peer reviewed papers, or the PGC GitHub repository.

About the CSDA Program

The CSDA program was established to identify, evaluate, and acquire data from commercial sources that support the NASA Earth science research and application goals. NASA’s Earth Science Division recognizes the potential impact commercial satellite constellations may have in encouraging/enabling efficient approaches to advancing Earth System Science and applications development for societal benefit. Commercially acquired data may also provide a cost-effective means to augment and/or complement the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA, other U.S. government agencies, and international partners.

To read the reports in full, see the links under “Evaluation” heading on the Polar Geospatial Center vendor page on the CSDA website.

Notes:

1. According the authors of the report, “it should be noted that the PGC EarthDEM product is not technically a commercial product…. EarthDEM is a digital elevation dataset derived from imagery collected from the Vantor (formerly Maxar) fleet of optical satellites.”

The Sun, Moon, and Earth align on August 12, 2026, to produce a total solar eclipse. When this celestial event last occurred, on April 8, 2024, the path of totality stretched across North America, giving millions the chance to glimpse the Sun’s corona. In 2026, the viewing locales are more limited; only a handful of land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, including parts of Iceland and Spain, fall within the path of totality.

On August 12, the Moon’s shadow will first cross over the Arctic Circle from northern Russia and then track along the eastern side of Greenland. At about 5:45 p.m. local time in Iceland (17:45 Universal Time), the country’s western fringes—including the Snæfellsnes peninsula, shown in the Landsat image above—will begin to experience totality. The greatest eclipse will occur near this sparsely populated peninsula when the Moon appears the largest and covers more of the Sun.

The Snæfellsjökull volcano on the western end of the peninsula is covered in ice and last erupted about 1,800 years ago. It is the highlight of a national park of the same name, where people are expected to visit to view the eclipse. The stratovolcano even has a literary claim to fame: in Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth, characters venture underground through its crater, later emerging in an eruption of Stromboli, in Italy. In 2025, a broader area of the peninsula was designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve, containing over 70 percent of Iceland’s flora and an agglomeration of volcanic landscapes, wetlands, and grasslands.

From Iceland, the eclipse shadow, or umbra, progresses across the North Atlantic and reaches northern Spain shortly before sunset. It runs east-southeast across the country, much like the Ebro River (Río Ebro), seen in the Landsat image below.

The upper Ebro emerges from rugged terrain in Parque Natural de Montes Obarenes-San Zadornil, where it carves canyons and gorges through the eastern foothills of the Cantabrian Mountains. It then meanders through La Rioja, a region known for its vineyards. About 400 kilometers (250 miles) away, the river reaches a delta on the Mediterranean coast between Barcelona and Valencia.

Based on satellite measurements of cloud cover in August over several decades, viewers in Spain have a higher likelihood than those in Iceland of getting a clear look at the eclipse. And despite limited viewing opportunities in the path of totality, the rest of Europe, parts of Africa, Canada, and the northern and northeastern U.S. will experience a partial eclipse.

NASA Earth Observatory images and map by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, base imagery from Blue Marble: Next Generation and Black Marble, and eclipse path data from Xavier Jubier. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

References & Resources

• NASA (2026) August 12, 2026, Total Solar Eclipse. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• NASA (2026, July 31) What’s Up: August 2026 Skywatching Tips from NASA. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• NASA Scientific Visualization Studio (2025, July 13) Animations of the August 12, 2026, Total Solar Eclipse. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• NASA Space Place (2024, March 29) Lunar Eclipses and Solar Eclipses. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León, Parque natural Montes Obarenes-San Zadornil. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• Snæfellsjökull National Park (2026) Snæfellsjökull National Park. Accessed August 11, 2026.
• UNESCO (2025) Snæfellsnes. Accessed August 11, 2026.

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