Watch Elon Musk’s Space X Starhopper rocket hit new heights on Texas hover test August 28, 2019 Elon Musk’s Space X took another small step – or giant hop – on the entrepreneur’s mission to colonise Mars yesterday, as a prototype of its next generation Starhopper rocket reached its highest altitude yet on a hover test. The next generation rocket slowly climbed to 150m above Space X’s test site in Texas before [...]
Softbank suffers £380m writedown in Oneweb stake August 18, 2019 Softbank is said to have written down its stake in Oneweb by £380m as the British satellite company contends with the sky-high costs of its planned launches. Oneweb has burned through billions of pounds as it looks to create a network of satellites providing high-speed broadband across the globe. Read more: Oneweb lands $1.25bn in [...]
Dominic Cummings is behind Number 10’s new startup-mindset August 8, 2019 “What we want to hear is their conquer the world strategy,” said Scott Kupor, managing partner of American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Kupor was talking about wannabe entrepreneurs knocking on the company’s Sand Hill Road door in California and looking to become the next Twitter, Lyft, or Airbnb. If Boris Johnson’s right-hand man Dominic [...]
Space, the investment frontier: The companies that are reaching for the stars July 24, 2019 When Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon 50 years ago, space was the exclusive domain of two superpowers. Now it has become perhaps the ultimate competitive arena for two tech giants — not to mention a host of other private enterprises that see untold promise and profits in reaching for [...]
Microsoft invests $1bn in OpenAI to create artificial intelligence that can solve humanity’s worst problems July 22, 2019 Microsoft is set to pour $1bn (£800m) into OpenAI to develop general artificial intelligence, effectively by turning its Azure cloud into a supercomputer. The pair have agreed a multi-year exclusive partnership to develop a supercomputer of “unprecedented scale” to train and run ever-more advanced AI software. Read more: Microsoft opens flagship London store just minutes [...]
The next moon landings will spur giant leaps here on Earth July 18, 2019 This week, we celebrate 50 years since Apollo 11’s first landing of humans on the moon – one of humanity’s greatest achievements. The technologies born of the Apollo missions shaped life on Earth in more ways than we often recognise through inventions we use every day. This anniversary is about more than where we’ve been [...]
Elon Musk reveals plans to connect human brains to computers July 17, 2019 Billionaire Elon Musk yesterday revealed plans to develop technology to allow human brains to connect with computers. Secretive “brain-machine interface” firm Neuralink was founded in 2017 to fight the “existential threat” of artificial intelligence developing further than humans. Read more: Tesla boss Elon Musk rebrands on Twitter as Daddy Dotcom At an event in California [...]
Blast off: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plots public listing July 9, 2019 Space may be the final frontier, but Virgin Galactic is readying itself to overcome a fresh obstacle before launching into the great unknown: a stock market listing. Sir Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture is planning to go public as part of a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Read more: Fifty years on from the [...]
Fifty years on from the first moon landing, it’s time to get ready for space tourism July 9, 2019 Next time someone asks if you are going anywhere nice on holiday, perhaps soon you can say Mars or Venus rather than Mallorca or Ibiza. It has been 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched Apollo 11 down on the moon, and now famous billionaires are backing different projects to make space a [...]
Space X launches Falcon Heavy rocket in ‘most difficult’ mission yet June 25, 2019 Space X last night launched its Falcon Heavy rocket carrying 24 experimental satellites in what boss Elon Musk said was the “most difficult” launch his firm has attempted. Read more: Space X explosion will delay astronaut plans, Nasa official says Lift off took place at around 2.30am local time from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida [...]