An image of the International Space Station (Andrey Armyagov Dreamstime) StoreDot, a maker of fast-charging battery technology for electric vehicles, said that NASA has given it approval to conduct what the startup says is the first space-based research and development program into new battery materials. The experiment will be among a selected number of Israeli research projects to be performed on the International Space Station, as part of Israel’s Rakia program. Jointly backed by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ramon Foundation, the Rakia (sky in Hebrew) program is part of Axiom Space Ax-1, the world’s first private mission to the ISS.