NASA will outfit Orion with two Starlink mini laser terminals to downlink 4K imagery to Mission Control in Houston as part of the Artemis III relay demo.

A Houston‑area Rapid Innovation Lab in Webster will test human‑systems mockups for Nyx as The Exploration Co. pushes toward crewed missions to space stations.

UH engineers say tree‑like thin films can pull heat from chips three times faster in lab tests — a potential boost for data‑center efficiency if it scales.

USGS finds modest oil and gas in the Buda Limestone beneath parts of Austin; the totals are small compared with major shale plays but reshape the subsurface map.

Axiom Space has moved its legal headquarters to Texas as it accelerates work on Axiom Station and expands its Houston footprint.

An experimental vaccine developed at the University of Houston can trap fentanyl in the bloodstream and keep it from reaching the brain; early human testing is now underway. Researchers call the animal results dramatic but say human data are needed before any rollout.

UT Austin and MD Anderson launched a cross‑campus accelerator funding five projects to speed protein therapies, AI and surgical robotics into patient care.

Houston‑born Cemvita completed a 75,000‑liter FermOil fermentation in Ghent, turning biodiesel glycerin into a potential SAF feedstock.

Eli Lilly acquired Houston startup CrossBridge Bio for up to $300M, picking up a UTHealth-originated dual‑payload ADC and lead candidate CBB‑120 as it nears clinical testing.

A Dallas Fed survey finds two-thirds of Texas companies use AI; a small share say it lowered their need for workers.

A Houston patient reports no evidence of disease after receiving tile‑based brachytherapy at MD Anderson, while Phase 3 ROADS data presented at ASCO show markedly improved local control.

Richard Tapia, the Rice University mathematician and mentor who championed diversity in STEM, has died at 88. His legacy includes the Tapia Center and a bridge named for him.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Netflix, alleging the streamer secretly harvested Texans’ data — including kids’ viewing logs — and shared it with ad-tech and data brokers.