Chennai-based OrbitAID Aerospace has inaugurated a 6,500 square feet research and development facility in Bengaluru to strengthen India’s space capabilities in on-orbit refuelling and satellite servicing. The launch event took place in the presence of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman V Narayanan.

The new centre will support India’s upcoming missions by extending satellite life, reducing space debris and enabling sustainable space operations. Speaking at the event, Narayanan said the facility marks “a monumental milestone in our mission to revolutionise on-orbit refuelling and satellite servicing”.

This development comes just after the startup raised $1.5 million in January this year. This was during a pre-seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures, with additional participation from the Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission (StartupTN). 

The funds were to be used to scale the company’s patented Standard Interface Docking and Refuelling Port for commercial use.

Advanced Testbeds & Labs

The R&D facility houses a dedicated Rendezvous Proximity Operations and Docking testbed for autonomous manoeuvre validation, an advanced fuel transfer laboratory for leak-proof propellant technology and a cleanroom for precise satellite assembly and testing.

OrbitAID stated in a LinkedIn post that the in-house infrastructure will accelerate its mission timelines and support India’s transition towards a circular space economy. CEO Sakthikumar R described the opening as a step forward in developing critical technologies such as docking, refuelling and space robotics.

The ceremony brought together senior officials and international delegates, including Lt Gen AK Bhatt (retd), director general of the Indian Space Association (ISpA), who emphasised the importance of “building synergy through public–private partnerships”. 

He also highlighted the need to strengthen indigenous technologies to foster self-reliance in the space sector. Consuls general from Germany, Italy and Switzerland and representatives from StartupTN, ISRO and foreign trade bodies also attended.

ISpA congratulated OrbitAID, noting in a LinkedIn post that the facility is “an important step in advancing India’s capabilities in sustainable space operations”.

Sudheer Kumar N, former director of capacity building and public outreach at ISRO, also added, “These technologies are very critical for the upcoming space missions of sustainability, Bharatiya Antariksh Station and debris removal.”

Anthropic has made Claude generally available in Xcode 26, Apple’s flagship integrated development environment (IDE). The new integration brings Claude Sonnet 4 directly into developers’ workflows, enabling AI-powered coding intelligence features for building, testing and distributing apps across Apple platforms.

With this release, developers can connect their Claude account to Xcode and access an assistant that interacts with code using natural language. The system automatically gathers context from the project, retains conversation history and supports file attachments, helping teams debug issues, refactor large sections and quickly build new features.

Beyond assistance, Claude introduces coding tools designed to streamline development tasks. These include generating documentation, providing explanations for specific code segments and producing SwiftUI previews and playgrounds. Developers can also make inline code changes directly within the editor, reducing the need to switch between tools.

The availability of Claude in Xcode ties into existing subscription plans. Usage limits are shared across platforms, with a portion allocated for Xcode integration. The feature is available to users on Pro and Max plans, as well as Team and Enterprise customers with premium seats that include Claude Code.

To get started, developers need to download Xcode 26 from the Mac App Store, navigate to Intelligence settings in preferences and sign in with their Claude account. Once enabled, the integration brings Anthropic’s AI capabilities to Apple’s development ecosystem, making Xcode a more powerful environment for both individual programmers and larger teams.

The move signals a growing focus on embedding AI coding assistants directly into mainstream development environments, just like Copilot for VS Code users and Gemini CLI in Zed.

The United States and China, on September 15, reached a framework deal that would let TikTok continue operating in the US, addressing Washington’s concerns over data security and Chinese influence, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced following trade talks in Spain over the weekend.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are scheduled to speak on Friday to finalise the deal, which Bessent characterised as an agreement between “two private parties” that would place the social media app under US-controlled ownership.

The deal would shift oversight of TikTok’s US operations away from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, and into a structure more acceptable to Washington regulators. 

As part of the deal, Oracle is emerging as a central player. The US software giant has been identified as one of the companies tasked with enabling TikTok to continue its American operations, CBS News reported.

While the precise contours of Oracle’s role remain unclear, it is expected to involve providing technical infrastructure, handling US user data and potentially acquiring a stake in the app’s US business. 

The deal comes against a deadline of September 17, set by the US government for TikTok to resolve its ownership structure. Officials have signalled the possibility of extending the deadline by up to 90 days to finalise details of the agreement. However, critical questions about the fate of ByteDance’s ownership stake, the transparency of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and the mechanisms US regulators will use to enforce compliance remain unresolved.