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Nerd News: Private Space Flights & Shape Shifting Robots
June 30, 2023 12:00PM EDT
Getty Images / John Lamparski / Stringer
SPACE
Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic had its first commercial flight to space yesterday. It’s a “space plane,” not a rocket. Three guys from Italy were on board, and got to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Around 800 people are on the waitlist to go. Tickets cost $450,000 a pop.
Here’s the livestream. Its boosters fire at 38:33, and then the weightlessness starts around 41 minutes in.
In other space news: NASA locked four volunteers in a simulated Mars habitat in Houston on Sunday. Unless they tap out, they’ll be in there for just over a year.
TECH
Caltech has a new shape-shifting robot that can walk, drive, and also fly. People are joking it’s like a real-life Transformer.
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