Topics
in style
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Apps
Biotech & Health
clime
Image Credits:TechCrunch
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter in flight on Mars.Image Credits:NASA
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
Taylor Wang on the Space Shuttle.Image Credits:NASA
fund raise
Gadgets
stake
The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.Image Credits:NASA
Government & Policy
Hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
secrecy
Robotics
Security
Social
Space
startup
TikTok
Transportation
speculation
More from TechCrunch
issue
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
Contact Us
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space . Last workweek , NASA carry its yearly day of remembrance to commemorate all those who lose their life story in the pursuit of human space exploration — including the crew of Apollo 1 , Challenger and Columbia . The daylight is a sobering reminder of the hazard of spacefaring and the dear costs we ’ve paid to extend humanity into the stars . More on that below .
require to get through out with a tip ? Email Aria ataria.techcrunch@gmail.comor send me a message on Signal at 512 - 937 - 3988 . you’re able to also send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew attips@techcrunch.com . For more secure communication , click here to contact us , which includes SecureDrop ( instructions here ) and links to encrypted messaging apps .
Story of the week
inventiveness , the small whirlybird that ’s been buzzing around the red planet for almost three years , took its final flying late last hebdomad . NASA announce on Thursday that at least one of the helicopter ’s carbon fiber rotor coil blades was damage during its last mission , grounding it for good .
To say that Ingenuity had a remarkable run is a bit of an understatement : The helicopter was launched as a applied science demonstration mission , with railroad engineer hoping to achieve up to five flights with the vehicle . In the end , the eggbeater ended up perform a staggering 72 flights , collectively trip 11 miles and go up up to 79 feet at the highest altitude .
Goodbye , Ingenuity . Thanks for everything .
Launch highlights
This workweek ’s top launch goes to Virgin Galactic , which successfully pulled off its eleventh subocular spacefaring on Friday . The fellowship ’s VSS Unity plane take off from New Mexico ’s Spaceport America transmit four secret astronaut customer , whose public figure were cryptically not let out prior to the charge . After the mission end , Virgin announce the customers epithet and reveal that the crew let in the first Ukrainian woman to go to space .
The company ’s next military mission is expected in the 2d poop of this year .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Release , passing , release!#VSSUnityhas successfully eject from our mothership#VMSEveand ignited the garden rocket motor.#Galactic06pic.twitter.com / C0PrkLjupp
— Virgin Galactic ( @virgingalactic)January 26 , 2024
What we’re reading
Eric Bergerrecountswhat happened after astronaut Taylor Wang happen issues with his experiment onboard the ISS ; how he became gravely depressed ; how he threatened mission controllers in Houston with “ not going back ” to Earth ; and how he commence exhibiting unnerving interest in the Space Shuttle ’s hatch , to the arcdegree that other astronaut on the ISS with him duct - taped it close up .
“ This is not a particularly pleasant takings to talk about , so NASA , SpaceX , and the people who fly on the vehicle generally do n’t . But it does seem like something the place community should probably have a discussion about as memory access to space broadens . With Crew Dragon , SpaceX regularly ship civilians to the International Space Station and on free - flying missions . Most of these the great unwashed have not been subjected to the rigorous psychological tests that Shuttle spaceman receive . Boeing ’s Starliner , SpaceX ’s Starship , and other vehicle will , in the not - too - distant future , only change the pool of orbital flier . Both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic already fly people almost entirely without training on abbreviated suborbital hop .
And that ’s not necessarily a bad matter . The whole point of lower - cost access code to space is that we ’re go to have more people in space , doing cool things , and pushing out the frontier . But blank space is a harsh , improbably forbidding world . It can work with the mind . ”
This week in space history
This hebdomad , we ’re remembering the men and woman who lost their lives on the Space Shuttle Challenger , in addition to the other astronaut who die in the course of study of spaceflight .
On January 28 , 1986 , Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after lift - off , kill all seven crew member . The catastrophe lead in a closely three - yr moratorium on Space Shuttle military mission andsubsequent investigations identified myriad issueswithin NASA culture that indirectly or directly extend to the disaster .
