Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We’ll have to wait a little longer for the return of Boeing’s Starliner capsule from the International Space Station — the capsule and its two astronauts will stay at the station for twice as much time as originally planned, to give mission operators additional time to conduct tests on the spacecraft. (Which has experienced a series of leaks and other issues since launch.) New return to Earth date: June 22.
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Story of the week
We could be entering a renaissance for human spaceflight research, as a record number of private citizens head to space — and as scientists improve techniques for gathering data on these intrepid test subjects. A sign that the renaissance is imminent appeared earlier this week, when the journal Nature published a cache of papers detailing the physical and mental changes the four-person Inspiration4 crew experienced nearly three years ago.
What we’re reading
Ars Technica’s Eric Berger takes a closer look at the future of Virgin Galactic as the company embarks on a two-year no-fly period in order to bring its next-gen class of spaceships online.
This week in space history
Sally Ride became the first American woman to go to space on June 18, 1983, when she flew to orbit on Challenger’s STS-7 mission.
“The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it,” Ride recalled in an interview for the 25th anniversary of her flight in 2008. “That was made pretty clear the day that I was told I was selected to a crew. I was taken up to (Johnson Space Center director) Chris Kraft’s office. He wanted to have a chat with me and make sure I knew what I was getting into before I went on the crew. I was so dazzled to be on the crew and go into space I remembered very little of what he said.”
The agency was investigating the company over potential violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Act.
Apple’s changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year.
At the Augmented World Expo on Tuesday, Snap teased an early version of its real-time, on-device image diffusion model that can generate vivid AR experiences. The company also unveiled generative…
A researcher has found a bug that allows anyone to impersonate Microsoft corporate email accounts, making phishing attempts look credible and more likely to trick their targets. As of this…
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at layoffs at BaaS startup Unit and car insurance company Loop, as well as Brex’s decision to abandon its co-CEO model, Apple…
We all know the feeling when we send a funny TikTok video, anticipating a response from a friend, only to receive a basic laughing emoji or, worse, no reaction at…
Butterflies wants to let users create AI personas that then take on their own lives and coexist with others.
Genspark taps generative AI to write custom summaries in response to search queries.
Apple is continuing its AI push, this time with its education offering. The company announced on Tuesday that it will train all Apple Developer Academy students and mentors on the…
TechCrunch has learned that the arrested hacker is the alleged leader of the group that masterminded the Twilio hacks in 2022.
Decagon is a generative AI platform that automates various aspects of customer support channels.
Pok Pok’s growth caught investors’ attention, leading to a $6 million Series A.
Series A to B startups — check out the ScaleUp Startups Exhibitor Program at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Why Join the ScaleUp Startups Exhibitor Program? Amplify Your ReachShowcase your groundbreaking innovation…
SurrealDB, a startup developing a database architecture of the same name, has closed a new round of funding as it readies a managed service.
The $200 Beam pro looks like an Android phone, but instead it’s a mobile device designed specifically for Xreal’s glasses.
Being a solo GP hasn’t slowed Bilimoria a bit. He went on to raise three additional funds and has now closed a new fund to invest in biotech, climate and…
Golf has exploded in popularity in recent years thanks to the pandemic and the popularity of Netflix’s Full Swing documentary series. More than 531 million rounds of golf were played…
Self-driving vehicles rely on many sensors to detect objects and the world around them. The conventional approach is to work with cameras and lidars. But some tech companies and startups…
Balto Energy hopes to speed the electrification by helping homeowners choose and finance the projects that make the most sense for them.
SewerAI sells cloud-based, AI-powered subscription products designed to streamline field inspections and data management of sewer infrastructure.
For the last two decades, Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of autonomous trucking startup Waabi, has been developing AI systems that can reason as a human would. The AI pioneer…
Fisker Group Inc., the EV startup founded by famed designer Henrik Fisker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a capstone to months of problems with its Ocean SUV that included…
Meta said today that it finally launched its much-awaited API for Threads so developers can build experiences around it.
The company says its platform functions like a search engine for materials, enabling the fast evaluation of a “vast number of novel structures.”
Suse on Tuesday is announcing its AI strategy and SUSE AI solutions, a new vendor- and LLM-agnostic generative AI platform.
Google has released its dedicated AI mobile app Gemini in India — over four months after its debut in the U.S. — with support for nine Indian languages alongside English. The…
Finbourne, founded out of London’s financial center, has built a platform to help financial companies organize and use more of their data in AI and other models.
Featured Article
Can quick commerce leapfrog e-commerce in India?
Even as quick commerce startups are retreating, consolidating or shutting down in many parts of the world, the model is showing encouraging signs in India. Consumers in urban cities are embracing the convenience of having groceries delivered to their doorstep in just 10 minutes. The companies making those deliveries —…
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Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We’ll have to wait a little longer for the return of Boeing’s Starliner capsule from the International Space Station — the capsule and…
Loop, the car insurance company co-founded by Harlem Capital co-founder John Henry, has laid off staff as the company struggles with fundraising. Henry took to Instagram to post the email…
