This fall, the Inspiration4 mission, chartered by SpaceX, will take four people into space who are not trained astronauts — and as of Tuesday, the full crew has been announced.
Axios Re:Cap is joined by Axios Space author Miriam Kramer to discuss this unusual mission, which will carry the hopes of the entire space industry with it when it takes off in September.
The private weather company ClimaCell has raised more than $185 million in part to help finance its ambitions to build a fleet of satellites designed to monitor and forecast the weather.
Why it matters: The company — which announced a $77 million Series D capital raise today — is aiming to do something different than most space-faring weather firms. Instead of gathering data to sell it to others, it plans to use it to improve its own analytical offerings.
How it works: Tides are usually higher during a full or new moon. But that effect was boosted by the year's first supermoon — which occurs when a full moon orbits closest to the Earth.
SpaceX launched a prototype of its Starship rocket Tuesday designed to one day send people and cargo to deep space destinations like Mars. The vehicle appeared to fail as it was coming in for a landing.
Why it matters: The most recent launch was part of SpaceX's test campaign designed to develop Starship and get it flying to orbit in the not-too-distant future.
A geoscientist and a former Space Camp counselor will round out the crew of the first all-civilian mission to space launching later this year.
Why it matters: The mission is one of the first true tests of the future space companies like SpaceX hope to build — one in which anyone has the chance to fly to space, even without government backing.
A Nobel Prize-winning economist says he not only endorses President Biden's expected $4 trillion infrastructure spending plan, but expects that it could break the U.S. out of the low-growth, low-inflation environment that has existed for the past 20 years.
Why it matters: The combination of Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan and the expected Build Back Better program, mean the U.S. "may be in a very good position to get back into a more normal economy," Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz told Axios in an exclusive interview.
IBM and the Cleveland Clinic are launching a 10-year partnership to apply advances in AI, high performance computing in the cloud and quantum computing to research on viral pathogens and drug development.
Why it matters: The effort aims to ease bottlenecks in collecting, storing and analyzing data and speed research on viruses and cancers caused by them.
The rovers and orbiters studying Mars are being tasked with answering the persistent questions that remain about the Red Planet, decades after NASA sent its first missions to the world.
Why it matters: New spacecraft recently sent to Mars will help NASA and other space agencies fill in gaps in knowledge, moving them ever-closer to finding out whether the world once played host to life.
Cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. and Japan have already reached peak flowering dates — and the Japanese city of Kyoto recorded its earliest bloom for over 1,200 years, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
Why it matters: It fits a longer-term trend spanning decades of Japanese mountain cherry trees flowering earlier, and scientists warn it's another strong sign of the impact of climate change.
Texas joined five other states on Monday in rolling out COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to anyone over the age of 16, "regardless of health conditions," per the New York Times.
Why it matters: Texas is the biggest state to expand this eligibility for coronavirus inoculations. Some 22 million Texans can now get vaccinated against the virus, and health officials told NYT people were lining up for a dose Monday.
The Biden White House is launching a review of scientific integrity policies across the federal government, following reports of political interference with research during the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The review, to be conducted by the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), could result in an expansion of policies across the government aimed at insulating scientific research and communication from political meddling.
Former President Trump and former first lady Melania Trump announced Monday a new website designed to help supporters stay in touch with them and request personalized greetings or their participation at events.
More than 400 homes are being evacuated in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore has been shut down in response to wildfires in the state's Black Hills, AP reports.
The state of play: "Critical" to "extremely critical" fire weather conditions have developed across the Dakotas and much of the Plains as strong winds combine with a dry air mass ahead of a cold front moving in from the west.
Former President Trump unleashed on his former White House coronavirus task force members Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx Monday, a day after they opened up to CNN on the pressures of working in his administration.
What he's saying: In a lengthy statement, Trump made a series baseless claims against the respected career scientists — accusing them of being "self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned."
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