NASA Asks How to Save Hubble, an Air Taxi Flies Florida's First Airline Route, and India Adds a Navigation Satellite

Tampered copies of a popular AI coding tool slipped into an app store

Code editor company Cursor says its extension marketplaceAn app store inside a program, such as a code editor, where people download add-ons. An add-on runs with the same access as the person using it. In the Glossary, an app store inside the program where coders download add-ons, offered tampered versions of Anthropic's Claude Code extension for about 11 hours on Oct. 29, from about 5:27 AM to 4:35 PM ET. Versions 2.1.312 and 2.1.313 for Windows and Mac were not made by Anthropic, Cursor says. The added code planted an attacker's key so they could log into the computer remotely, and set itself to restart after reboots, researchers at OpenSourceMalware found. Cursor removed the files, rebuilt its marketplace and changed its security keys. Felix Rieseberg of Anthropic said it was not a compromise of Anthropic's systems, and Anthropic's official download channels were not affected. The Hacker News reports up to 5,000 people may have installed it; Cursor's notice gives no number. How the attacker got in is not yet known.

Disclosure: Singularity Nightly is drafted with help from Anthropic's Claude. We cover Anthropic like any other company.

India launches the newest satellite for its own GPS

India's GSLV-F18 rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 2:21 PM ET Friday, 11:51 PM in India, carrying NVS-03, a navigation satellite of about 2,250 kilograms. It reached its planned geosynchronous transfer orbitA long, oval orbit where a rocket drops off a satellite. The satellite then uses its own engine to reach a fixed spot about 36,000 kilometers above the equator. In the Glossary, a long oval path from which the satellite climbs on its own to its final spot, Asianet reports. ISRO chairman V. Narayanan said the launch brings NavICIndia's own satellite navigation system, a regional version of GPS that covers India and about 1,500 kilometers around it. In the Glossary back to its minimum working setup of 4 satellites, ANI reports. NVS-03 is the third of India's new-generation satellites for NavIC, the country's own regional navigation system that covers India and about 1,500 kilometers around it. It carries an Indian-built atomic clockAn extremely precise clock that keeps time using the vibrations of atoms. Navigation satellites need them because a tiny timing error shifts your position on the map. In the Glossary, a super-precise clock that navigation depends on, and adds a signal that works with more phones, per ISRO's mission brochure. It was the 20th GSLV flight.

It was the only orbital launch anywhere in the world in the last 24 hours, and the 253rd of 2026, by the Launch Library 2 count. Next up: a Falcon 9 with 27 StarlinkSpaceX's satellite internet service, delivered by thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit to small dishes on homes, ships and planes. In the Glossary satellites from California at 12:02 AM ET Saturday.

Webb spots a cat's face in the stars, just in time for Halloween

NASA released a new picture from the James Webb Space Telescope of a glowing cloud of dust and gas nicknamed the Cat's Head NebulaA huge cloud of gas and dust in space. Many nebulae are places where new stars are being born. In the Glossary, inside the much bigger Carina Nebula. Webb took it in mid-infraredLight with longer waves than red light, invisible to our eyes. Telescopes like Webb use it to see warm dust and gas. In the Glossary light, a kind of light past red that our eyes cannot see but that shows warm dust. NASA says the cloud's shape was likely carved by the strong light and winds pouring off the huge, hot stars nearby.

An air taxi flies the route of the world's first airline, 112 years later

Joby Aviation flew its electric air taxi with a pilot from Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg to Tampa International Airport on Friday, the start of Florida's flights in a federal test program called the eVTOL Integration Pilot ProgramA U.S. government program that lets selected states and companies fly air taxis in real airspace before full approval, to gather data. In the Glossary. The hop took about 10 minutes, against a drive of up to an hour, WUSF reports. eVTOLShort for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft: a battery-powered aircraft that rises and lands straight up and down like a helicopter, but more quietly. In the Glossary means an electric aircraft that takes off and lands straight up like a helicopter and flies forward like a plane. The route copies Tony Jannus's flight of Jan. 1, 1914, considered the first scheduled airline flight. This week Joby is also flying to a new landing pad, called a vertiportA small airport or landing pad, sometimes on a rooftop, built for air taxis that take off and land straight up and down. In the Glossary, at Orlando International Airport, and to the old Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center. Florida's project is one of 8 in the program, and Joby says it is in the final stages of FAA approval of its design, called type certificationThe FAA's formal approval that an aircraft design is safe to build and fly for customers. In the Glossary. "Each flight provides crucial data and lessons learned," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said.

The FDA takes old warnings off three more menopause patches

The FDA approved new labels for three estradiolA form of the hormone estrogen. Patches, pills and gels with estradiol treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes. In the Glossary skin patches, a form of the hormone estrogen used to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes. The labels keep a boxed warningThe FDA's strongest label warning, printed in a black box at the top of a drug's prescribing information. In the Glossary, the FDA's strongest kind, but drop the statements about heart disease, breast cancer and probable dementia. The FDA made the same change for six other products in February, and 29 companies have asked to update their labels since November 2025. The agency says patch production has roughly doubled in a year and it does not expect a national shortage, and it is looking at letting some vaginal estrogen be sold without a prescription. The Guardian and others report the FDA did not ask an outside expert panel first.

The Navy picks a Philadelphia shipyard for a new landing ship

TOTE Services, which the Navy hired in July to manage building its new landing ships, chose Hanwha Defense USA to build the first Landing Ship MediumA planned Navy ship for carrying Marines and their gear between islands and onto beaches. In the Glossary at Hanwha Philly Shipyard for $269 million, with options for 3 more. The ship is meant to carry Marines and their gear between islands and onto beaches. Construction could start late in 2027 and the first ship is due in 2030, a year later than the Navy said in July, Breaking Defense reports. The Navy plans 35 of them, and talks continue with two other shipyards. It is Hanwha Defense USA's first U.S. Navy contract.

Britain investigates whether Meta can take publishers' work for its AI

The UK's Competition and Markets AuthorityA government body that makes sure big companies do not use their size to treat customers or rivals unfairly. Britain's is the CMA. In the Glossary opened a formal investigation on Friday into Meta's terms for news publishers and other businesses. The new terms would let Meta collect content from those businesses' websites and use it in its own products, including AI features, with no way to say no. The regulator will decide whether Meta is dominant in a UK market and, if so, whether the terms are unfair. It says it has not decided whether Meta broke the law. Meta has put the change on hold and says there are no grounds for an investigation, Reuters reports. News publishers' groups complained first.

Uber's cash keeps earning over the weekend, thanks to tokens

Uber's treasury team used HSBC's tokenized depositsMoney in a bank account recorded as a token on a blockchain. Unlike a stablecoin, it is still a deposit at a regulated bank. In the Glossary, bank money recorded on a blockchain, to buy shares of a Franklin Templeton tokenized money market fundA fund that holds very safe, short-term loans such as Treasury bills and aims to keep each share at a steady value. People use it like a savings account that pays interest. In the Glossary, a fund that holds safe, short-term government debt, on a Thursday, then sold them on Sunday, crypto.news reports, citing Bloomberg. The trade settled on the Canton NetworkA blockchain network built for banks and financial firms that lets them share some data while keeping other data private. In the Glossary, with Tradeweb and Fireblocks taking part. Companies normally pull cash out of funds before markets close on Friday, so it earns nothing until Monday. This test earned about 1.5 extra days of interest. The amount was not disclosed. Tokenized real-world assetsIn blockchain finance, a traditional asset that exists outside the blockchain, such as a Treasury bill, a loan or a building, represented by a token on one. Often shortened to RWA. In the Glossary now total $39.56 billion, per RWA.xyz.

A walking robot company heads for the stock market

Agility Robotics, maker of the Digit humanoid robotA robot built in roughly human shape, with arms, hands and often legs, so it can work in places and with tools designed for people. In the Glossary that carries totes in warehouses, and Churchill Capital Corp XI expect to raise about $465 million as they merge, including about $201 million from investors led by Foxconn, the company that builds iPhones. Churchill is a SPACA company listed on the stock market that exists only to merge with a private company and take it public without a traditional IPO. In the Glossary, a "blank check" company already on the stock market that exists to buy a private company and take it public. Shareholders vote Nov. 2, and Agility expects to start trading on Nasdaq as AGLT on Nov. 5. Agility says it has more than $300 million in multi-year orders for its next robot, Digit 5, with first deliveries planned in the first half of 2027; that figure is the company's own and is not current sales.