Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. What a week! In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we got to watch those two astronauts dock with the International Space Station. And we also got to see SpaceX launch Starship for the fourth time ever — and then bring it back home. I think I’m not alone in thinking that some of the most spectacular images in the history of rocketry were generated during that flight.
On to the news, and more about these two historic stories below.
Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at aria.techcrunch@gmail.com or send me a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You also can send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communications, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop instructions and links to encrypted messaging apps.
Story of the week
The story of the week goes to Boeing’s Starliner. After years of delays, around $1.5 billion in cost-overruns and ongoing technical issues (yes, ongoing…), the Starliner spacecraft delivered two astronauts to the ISS for the first time. Of course, the mission isn’t over yet: After around a week aboard the station, the two astronauts will re-board Starliner and use it to get back home. We’ll all be looking forward to greeting them.
Launch of the week
SpaceX has shown once again that subjecting rocket hardware to the real-world flight environment pays dividends. In its latest launch, the company achieved a key milestone in its Starship flight test campaign: returning the booster and the upper stage back to Earth in controlled ocean splashdowns. And I must say, the images and video from this launch are absolutely mind-blowing.
Starship made a controlled reentry, successfully making it through the phases of peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure and demonstrating the ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds pic.twitter.com/p8bC9UweLx
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024
What we’re reading
Economist Pierre Lionnet took a close look at SpaceX financials (which includes a lot of assumptions, obviously, because their financials are private), and how the low launch costs for Falcon are tied to Starlink profitability — and may not be passed along to customers.
Some of the new Apple Intelligence features that Apple debuted at WWDC 2024 don’t even feel like AI, they just feel like smarter tools.
The TechCrunch team runs down all of the biggest news from the Apple WWDC 2024 keynote in an easy-to-skim digest.
Jordan Meyer and Mathew Dryhurst founded Spawning AI to create tools that help artists exert more control over how their works are used online. Their latest project, called Source.Plus, is…
After leading the social media landscape, TikTok appears to be interested in challenging Google’s dominance in search. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s testing the ability for users to…
General Motors is investing $850 million into Cruise as the autonomous vehicle subsidiary slowly makes its way back to testing in Phoenix, Dallas and, as of Tuesday, Houston. GM’s CFO…
These messaging features, announced at WWDC 2024, will have a significant impact on how people communicate every day.
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Rippling’s controversial decision to ban some former employees from selling their stock, Carta’s massive valuation drop, a GenZ-focused fintech raise, and…
Google is finally making its Gemini Nano AI model available to Pixel 8 and 8a users after teasing it in March.
At WWDC 2024, Apple introduced new options for developers to promote their apps and earn more from them in the App Store.
iOS 18 will be available in the fall as a free software update.
The acquisition comes as BeReal was struggling to grow its user base and was looking for a buyer.
Unlike Light’s older phones, the Light III sports a larger OLED display and an NFC chip to make way for future payment tools, as well as a camera.
Since April, a hacker with a history of selling stolen data has claimed a data breach of billions of records — impacting at least 300 million people — from a…
Diversity Spotlight is a feature on Crunchbase that lets companies add tags to their profiles to label themselves.
Thanks to Apple’s newfound — and heavy — investment in generative AI tech, the company had loads to showcase on the AI front, from an upgraded Siri to AI-generated emoji.
A Finnish startup called Flow Computing is making one of the wildest claims ever heard in silicon engineering: by adding its proprietary companion chip, any CPU can instantly double its…
Five years ago, Day One Ventures had $11 million under management, and Bucher and her team have grown that to just over $450 million.
Particle announced it has partnered with news organization Reuters to collaborate on new business models and experiments in monetization.
Mistral AI has closed its much-rumored Series B funding round, raising €600 million (around $640 million) in a mix of equity and debt.
Cognigy is helping create AI that can handle the highly repetitive, rote processes center workers face daily.
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved…
Featured Article
Raspberry Pi is now a public company
Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate.
10 hours ago
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. What a week! In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we…
Elon Musk’s posts seem to misunderstand the relationship Apple announced with OpenAI at WWDC 2024.
“We’re looking forward to doing integrations with other models, including Google Gemini, for instance, in the future,” Federighi said during WWDC 2024.
When Urvashi Barooah applied to MBA programs in 2015, she focused her applications around her dream of becoming a venture capitalist. She got rejected from every school, and was told…
Slack CEO Denise Dresser is speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024.
Apple kicked off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event today with the customary keynote at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. The presentation focused on the company’s software offerings…
Apple’s SDKs (software development kits) have been updated with a variety of new APIs and frameworks.
Older iPhones or iPhone 15 users won’t be able to use these features.
