Nerd News: Private Space Flights & Shape Shifting Robots

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.