Feb 7, 2018 - Energy & Environment

Musk moving on to BFR after successful launch

Photo: Mark Brake / Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday evening, after the successful launch of the SpaceX rocket FalconHeavy earlier in the day, that he hopes for another major test launch in 3-4 years.

What is it: The Big F*ing Rocket, or BFR, will be SpaceX's workhorse. If all goes according to plan, it will debut in the 2020s, and replace the Falcon9 and FalconHeavy spacecraft. Musk currently plans to create several models: one will take humans to the other side of the planet, and some might take them to the moon or other planets.

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Felix Salmon, author of Capital
17 mins ago - Economy & Business

How equity became more attractive than debt

Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

The prime example of something highly improbable that became conventional wisdom: The idea that both interest rates and inflation will remain near zero for well over a decade.

Why it matters: As Axios' Dan Primack writes, private equity firms (the polite rebranding of "leveraged buyouts") have historically bought companies and loaded them up with debt.

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Felix Salmon, author of Capital
20 mins ago - World

When society faces the unprecedented

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Our febrile world is not normal.

The big picture: The precautions that we're taking against the spread of COVD-19; the way in which the president of the U.S. delights in violating political norms; the fires, hurricanes and other signs that catastrophic global warming has arrived; the virulent spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory — all of these things, and many more, represent a stunning break with the world as we knew it.

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Axios
Updated 3 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 11 a.m. ET: 34,026,003 — Total deaths: 1,015,107 — Total recoveries: 23,680,268 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 11 a.m. ET: 7,237,043 — Total deaths: 207,008 — Total recoveries: 2,840,688 — Total tests: 103,939,667 — Map.
  3. Health: New poll shows alarming coronavirus vaccine skepticism — New research centers will study "long-haul" COVID — Coronavirus infections rise in 25 states.
  4. Business: Remdesivir is good business for Gilead.
  5. Transportation: The politics of pandemic driving.
  6. 🎧Podcast: The looming second wave of airline layoffs.
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