Axios

Blue Origin's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos revealed the company's hardware designed to get payloads to the moon during an event on Thursday in Washington.

Why it matters: The event was effectively a plea to NASA. The space agency wants to land humans on the surface of the moon by 2024, and Blue Origin wants to help them get there.

A rare supernova is helping scientists unlock the mysteries of how these bright, exploding stars come to be.

Why it matters: Supernovas — the violent explosions of some dead stars at the end of their lives — are thought to be responsible for seeding our universe with many of the heavy elements we see around us today. If researchers can figure out exactly how these stellar explosions are created, it could help explain some of the inner-workings of our universe.

Unprecedented flooding is devastating the Midwest with the Mississippi River rising to some of its highest levels since 1993.

What's new: Heavy rain prompted more flash flooding concerns over Wednesday night, as Kansas residents were evacuated from their homes and dozens of Texas children were left stranded at school, AP reports.

President Trump traveled to Florida on Wednesday to host a rally and visit those affected by Hurricane Michael, the Category 5 storm that hit the state in October 2018. But 7 months after the hurricane, disaster-relief funding remains at a standstill.

Catch up quick: Relief funds have stalled as a back-and-forth unfolds between Trump and Congress, as sources familiar with the negotiations say they're stuck on the specific amount of funding for Puerto Rico, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.

Severe thunderstorms are erupting over parts of the southern Plains and Texas that could spawn strong tornadoes, damaging straight line winds and baseball-sized hail, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

Thought bubble from Axios Science editor Andrew Freedman: The risk for tornadoes, including several strong tornadoes, is elevated particularly over the Texas Panhandle and a slice of far western Oklahoma. It's unusual for NOAA's Storm Prediction Center to forecast a tornado risk quite this high, which indicates their confidence that the ingredients necessary for such phenomena are likely to come together.