OneWeb — a company hoping to bring broadband to millions of underserved users around the world — launched 34 of its internet-beaming satellites to orbit on Thursday.
Why it matters: A number of companies, including SpaceX and Amazon, are also planning to launch their own broadband constellations, making this a growing but competitive part of the space industry.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch is back on Earth after spending 328 days in space, living and working onboard the International Space Station.
Why it matters: During her time in orbit, Koch participated in the first all-woman spacewalk and set a record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a female astronaut in history.
An international collaboration of scientists announced Wednesday they have mapped out the cancer genome and also developed a new method of "carbon dating" cancer tumors to determine what and when mutations occurred that led to a person's cancer.
Why it matters: This meta-analysis of the whole genome is the first building block of a knowledge base that the scientists hope will help clinicians determine the precise treatment needed by individual patients — assuming the costs of sequencing and running algorithm programs continue to decline.
A powerful storm system that's seen temperatures plummet in the Rockies is set to bring heavy rain across the Southeast "and a long stretch of wintry weather from the southern Plains to the interior Northeast," the National Weather Service warns.
What's happening: Per the NWS, the effects of the system will be "far-reaching" and impact travel in a vast area that's likely to affect millions of people. Multiple weather-related crashes have already been reported in Denver — including one fatality, per the Denver Post. The city's temperature fell 58 degrees from a "daily-record-tying high of 74 at 2 p.m. Sunday to 16 degrees by 8 p.m. Monday," the Washington Post notes.
