Author: azeeadmin

After plenty of talk about AR as the next computing platform, Apple may have more interest in virtual reality than they’ve previously forecasted.

Following an April report from 9to5mac, today Apple confirmed the acquisition of VR broadcasting startup NextVR to Bloomberg. A note on NextVR’s website now highlights that the company is “moving in a new direction.”

At face value, this acquisition seems a little strange for Apple. Apple has been pushing full throttle on mobile AR, largely eschewing public activity or interest in the VR world, leaving that domain wholly in Facebook’s hands. Late last year, The Information reported that Apple had informed employees that it may be shipping a device in 2022 that combined AR and VR capabilities in a form factor similar to the Oculus Quest. That teamed with this acquisition suggests that Apple may have deeper plans for VR than they’ve previously indicated.

Over a few years of iOS presence, it’s not clear whether Apple has really come to many grand realizations around what good AR content looks like. Therefore, releasing a “mixed reality” headset in a couple years and continuing to push developer innovation on AR content while relying on a broader base of VR content satisfying users makes practical sense for a gen-one AR device.

9to5mac pinned the NextVR deal price around $100 million, a price that’s far from a thrilling end for NextVR’s investors who collectively pumped $115 million into the company, but at the same time would be a surprisingly robust exit for the company given the broader shape of the VR content market at the moment. If that’s truly where the deal ended up, that would be a lot of money for Apple to pay for something that they don’t have meaningful plans for. One of NextVR’s biggest strengths was in the partnerships they had built out over the years with sports leagues, I’m guessing Apple doesn’t care too much about keeping those partnerships active when they don’t sell devices optimized for them, but NextVR’s tech stack for broadcasting VR content broadly could paint a picture of future Apple content maneuvering.

As Apple has built out organizational heft in the content space around efforts like Apple TV+, it’s more feasible that they’d want to use an acquisition like this to get a head start in extending their content network to new devices in their pipeline.

The main problem with all of this is that VR-optimized content doesn’t translate very well to augmented reality. NextVR’s solution leverages the full field-of-view of existing VR headsets, putting users in a wholly 3D environment. There’s no technical reasons that AR headset users couldn’t eventually experience this content in the same way but there aren’t any AR headsets with the field-of-view to leverage this type of content, and advances here have been pretty slow. Existing AR devices might not be optimized for VR and vice versa, but Apple might already be organizing itself with the assumption that won’t be the case for long.

Facebook struggled for years to build out a meaningful network of virtual reality content to power its Oculus hardware. Solving the chicken-and-the-egg problem of not enough content for users but not enough users to court content developers ended up leading to Facebook unilaterally bankrolling VR development for several years. Apple could await a similar fate in AR.

With Magic Leap increasingly out of the picture, when Apple eventually debuts an augmented reality device, they may find themselves arriving onto a dead sector with little non-enterprise development organically in the works. Apple has long thrived on its developer relationships to gather early interest in a new platform, but with ARKit’s consumer interest largely failing to build thus far, it’s fair to expect that plenty of developers might have a wait-and-see approach to any ambitious AR release, leaving a heavy burden on Apple’s ability to scrounge together AR launch content.

Apple’s biggest failure with ARKit thus far has been their own inability to highlight the platform’s potential on mobile devices. Through several iterations of their AR development platform, the company has been more conservative than ever in showcasing first-party use cases. Their most high-profile reveal has been a downloadable 3D measurement app. All the while, few hits have emerged that uniquely leverage the spatial platform.

Virtual reality may be a safer place for Apple to invest in the meantime. Good virtual reality content is generally easier to make, it relies less on interacting with the real world and developers have more end-to-end control of experiences. Leveraging NextVR’s tech could give Apple access to a smooth pipeline towards a wider body of VR content that could be enjoyed on a “mixed reality” device and on more technologically advanced AR glasses down the road. Tim Cook and plenty of others in Apple’s leadership have been outspoken in their excitement for AR’s potential, but as developers continue to struggle in finding that potential, perhaps virtual reality’s appeal is growing more important to that long-term strategy.

“In general, the consumer has proven to be more resilient than I would have thought,” said Kirsten Green, founder of Forerunner Ventures, which has investments in breakout D2C stars like Glossier, Hims and Bonobos.

She joined us for an Extra Crunch Live conversation to help us better understand buying habits in the COVID-19 era. With tens of millions out of work and uncertainty all around, people are spending less, but Green showed up with a healthy dose of optimism — while acknowledging that her worst-case scenario planning was wrong.

Her top-line advice for companies

Take a cautious approach, be prepared to make hard decisions, but be thoughtful about that. Don’t just make a knee jerk-reaction, which is “this is the apocalypse, we all need 36 months of runway, fire half your staff and go to the bunker.” I think the biggest opportunity for companies right now in many ways is to create value by demonstrating their flexibility.

Today, Apple released its 2020 Supplier Responsibility progress report. In it, Senior Vice President of Operations Sabih Khan published a letter that details an outline of the plan it created to increase safety and protection efforts in its supply chain worldwide.

As far as I can tell this is the first time that Khan has written publicly since he was appointed to this role in 2019. The letter walks through some of the efforts Apple has made to ensure, as Khan states, a “right to a safe and healthy workplace” for Apple employees and supply chain members.

As a pole position company that is the premiere manufacturer of consumer electronics in the world, Apple’s stances and efforts here are obviously under an incredible microscope. The measures that it takes will serve as a playbook for worldwide manufacturers going forward.

After thanking Apple’s suppliers around the word, Khan says that thousands of its employees worked with suppliers to create a plan to continue business in a fashion that took to account health recommendations in each country as well as the universal rules that govern coronavirus spread mitigation.

A few actions it has taken at its supplier facilities:

• Health screenings
• limiting density and enforcing strict social distancing
• Requiring the use of PPE both during work and in common areas
• Implementing enhanced deep cleaning protocols
• Deploying masks and sanitizers to employees

Apple has also redesigned and reconfigured factory floorpans at its suppliers where needed. It has also introduced flexible work hours like staggered work shifts to ensure social distancing measures can be maintained.

In addition to executing protections at its own suppliers, Apple is sharing its plans with NGOs and other organizations to help establish standards across the industry.

“We put people first in everything we do— and require everyone we work with to do the same — because we want to uphold the highest standards,” Khan says in the letter. “Our Supplier Code of Conduct prevents discrimination and harassment of any kind, and supplier employees are provided anonymous channels to speak up.  We partner with our suppliers to create educational and training opportunities, including traditional college degree programs, vocational training initiatives, and health and wellness programs so their employees can learn new skills and work toward fulfilling their goals.”

Apple’s supplier report would normally be released in the February-March time frame but it wanted to take some time to plan and execute protection measures first before issuing the report and details of its adjustments due to COVID-19.

“While COVID-19 has been an unprecedented challenge, we’ve also drawn hope and inspiration from humanity’s renewed focus on the health of our colleagues, friends, and neighbors. That consciousness — of our health and the health of others — is something we can always carry with us,” Khan finishes. “Our work to protect people and the planet may never be finished — but we’ve never been more confident that our brightest days are still ahead.”

The supplier report this year is based on interviews of 52,000 workers in its supply chain. It is also auditing suppliers in 49 countries now, up from 30 in 2018 — with a total of 1142 audits in 2019. Apple’s Zero Waste program was introduced in 2015 in an effort reduce carbon emissions and waste from its supply chain. This report says that the program is now integrated into final assembly, testing and packaging across all of its major products. Apple diverted 1.3 million metric tons of waste from landfills last year and re-used 40% of water from its manufacturing process — some 9.4 billion gallons.

The full text of Khan’s letter is below.

Health comes first. Now and always.

As people around the world continue to face many challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded of the importance of protecting the planet and treating everyone with dignity and respect — values that inform every decision we make.

Our Supplier Responsibility Progress Report is a look back at the progress we achieved in bringing those commitments to life last year. But I first want to share some of the actions we’re taking in our global supply chain right now to address COVID-19’s unprecedented challenges, and to ensure people are able to return to work safely — because everyone has the right to a safe and healthy workplace.

This pandemic has left no country untouched, and we want to thank all our suppliers around the world for their commitment, flexibility and care for their teams as we navigate COVID-19’s complex and rapidly evolving impacts. From the outset, we worked with our suppliers to develop and execute a plan that puts the health of people first.  Thousands of Apple employees have worked tirelessly to execute that plan in partnership with our suppliers around the world.

First and foremost, that’s meant working with our suppliers around the world on a range of protections suited to the circumstances in each country, including health screenings, limiting density, and ensuring strict adherence to social distancing in their facilities. We’re requiring the use of personal protective equipment — both during work and in all common areas — and have worked together to implement enhanced deep cleaning protocols and deploy masks and sanitizers.

Our teams have also partnered with suppliers to redesign and reconfigure factory floorplans where needed and to implement flexible working hours — including staggered work shifts — to maximize interpersonal space. We continue to work closely with leading medical and privacy experts to develop advanced health and safety protocols.

As we develop tools and implement best practices across our entire supply chain, we are also sharing what we learn within our industry and beyond.  We haven’t allowed COVID-19 to undermine the values that have long defined who we are — values rooted in the responsibilities we have to one another and to the planet.

This year’s Supplier Responsibility Progress Report describes our work to bring all of those commitments to life in 2019. Whether it’s helping with the transition to 100 percent renewable energy, or training millions of people on their workplace rights, we apply our values in all aspects of our business, and every year, we raise the bar that our suppliers must meet as well.

We put people first in everything we do— and require everyone we work with to do the same — because we want to uphold the highest standards. Our Supplier Code of Conduct prevents discrimination and harassment of any kind, and supplier employees are provided anonymous channels to speak up.  We partner with our suppliers to create educational and training opportunities, including traditional college degree programs, vocational training initiatives, and health and wellness programs so their employees can learn new skills and work toward fulfilling their goals.

We’re committed to transparently reporting the progress we’ve made and have yet to make. This report draws on interviews from more than 50,000 employees in our supply chain and more than one thousand audits of supplier facilities across 49 countries — including surprise audits. The same attention to detail and innovation that goes into our products informs this report, and the work to ensure our worldwide network of suppliers upholds the standards themselves.

The environment we all share is fragile, and we are more dedicated than ever to fighting climate change and reducing emissions. Through strategic partnerships, we’re helping our suppliers shrink their carbon footprint and conserve precious resources, like water and energy. Green manufacturing is smart manufacturing, and, more broadly, we know what is good for the environment is also good for business.   

While COVID-19 has been an unprecedented challenge, we’ve also drawn hope and inspiration from humanity’s renewed focus on the health of our colleagues, friends, and neighbors. That consciousness — of our health and the health of others — is something we can always carry with us.

Our work to protect people and the planet may never be finished — but we’ve never been more confident that our brightest days are still ahead.

Sabih Khan is Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations.

Sabih leads Apple’s global supply chain, which includes Supplier Responsibility.

Ettitude, the Los Angeles-based, direct-to-consumer startup making sustainable bedding and sleepwear from bamboo fibers, has raised a sustainably sized round that should keep the company going even in the face of an economic recession.

Co-founded by the Melbourne, Australia native Phoebe Yu and serial entrepreneur Kat Dey, ettitude sells high-end bamboo bedding made using a process she first heard about in her old job working as an exporter helping chain stores source textiles in China.

Sourced from a factory in Zhejiang, China, near Shanghai, the bamboo textiles are made using non-toxic solvents and a closed-loop system that reuses water for the process, according to Yu.

Yu started selling the cleanBamboo-branded bedding under the etitude label in Melbourne first, but when she saw the orders begin to pick up from the U.S. she relocated and took her company with her.

Upon arrival, Yu realized that she’d need a strong co-founder with experience in branding to help her navigate the massive market in the U.S. So Yu turned to AngelList which is where she found Dey.

A serial entrepreneur with a background in retail, whose first company TryTheWorld was acquired by EarthBox in 2017, Dey was looking for her next project.

“Phoebe sent me a sample and i had the best night of sleep in my life,” Dey said. From then on in the two co-founders began the long, hard slog of marketing their business. 

Sales are growing, according to the two women, and the company’s chances have certainly been improved by the capital infusion from Drumbeat Ventures and TA Ventures, a European female-founded fund focusing on technology innovation.

The $1.6 million financing will be used to boost sales and marketing as the company expands beyond bedding — with an average price of $178 for a queen-sized sheet set — and into sleepwear and other categories.

“Phoebe, Kat and their brand, ettitude, are as genuine a combination of passion, purpose, and proprietary product that I’ve seen in the marketplace in my 20 years,” said Drumbeat Ventures founder, Adam Burgoon, in a statement. “They are perfectly positioned to bring their mission of sustainability and comfort to a broader audience.”

Scener, a browser extension that allows users to co-watch Netflix — similar to the newly popular Netflix Party Chrome add-on — is expanding to support HBO NOW and HBO GO. The additions come alongside a full relaunch of Scener, which is reinventing its product for the coronavirus era as a virtual movie theater experience where up to 20 viewers can watch together over video, audio, or text chat in a dedicated sidebar.

In the near future, the company says it will also roll out a “1-to-many” version of its virtual theater experience that will allow people to host even more synchronous viewers, similar to an Instagram Live, but synced to the underlying subscription video content service.

While some co-watching experiences are illegal — Twitch, for example, has been sued for allowing its creators to stream live sports games to their viewers. Video chat services like Skype and FaceTime have for years been utilized as workarounds to the problem of not being able to watch U.S. content from overseas. But Scener works with content partners to ensure it has the appropriate deals in place to offer its product legally.

HBO confirmed to TechCrunch it has been working with Scener to allow HBO NOW and HBO GO subscribers to watch content through the web extension in a way that preserves its IP, but would not comment on deal specifics.

Scener also couldn’t confirm if its permission to stream HBO content would extend to WarnerMedia’s new HBO MAX service, due to launch on May 27, 2020.

However, Scener’s technology should be able to support any streaming service, as long as the service offered a way to way to stream the video content through the Chrome browser. To use Scener as a private virtual theater, the browser extension simply asks the user to grant it permission to the sites in question.

Setting up the virtual theater experience itself is easy. There isn’t complicated software to install, beyond the extension. Friends can then join in either via a theater code or by clicking an invite link you send.

Originally a part of RealNetworks, Scener in 2018 had first developed a Chrome extension that allowed users to record commentary video tracks that could be played asynchronously alongside content on Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. This resulted in something akin to a “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-like experience, if you’re familiar with that show.

After spinning out from RealNetworks, Scener in 2019 created a product that instead synchronized co-watching of Netflix content with video chat. It had also been working to develop mobile prototypes with other content providers. But the COVID-19 pandemic refocused Scener’s efforts on its Chrome extension as usage of the product on the desktop surged 15x as the U.S. went under quarantine.

The new version, arriving today, is a complete rebuilt of that product, says Scener co-founder and COO Joe Braidwood. And it’s also just the beginning of what Scener has in store, he promises.

“It’s core to our vision as a business to support more [subscription video-on-demand] services in the near future, and we’re also in talks with some [ad-supported video-on-demand] providers,” he told TechCrunch.

The company didn’t announce what other deals may be in the works, but its extension is asking permission to read and change data on Hulu.com and DisneyPlus.com, in addition to HBO websites. Scener could not comment on this, saying only that it’s currently focused on making the best co-watching experience for HBO NOW and HBO GO programming. Without further confirmation, it’s hard to say if the Disney/Hulu deal (Disney is the majority owner of Hulu) is wishing thinking on Scener’s part or a work-in-progress. Time will tell.

Scener has raised $1.6 million in funding since spinning out from RealNetworks. It generates revenue by way of its partnerships with streaming services to create engaging social experiences around its content, as is the case with today’s HBO deal. WarnerMedia confirmed it does not have a financial stake in Scener.

 

 

 

 

In a time when package deliveries are more essential than ever, the future of the United States Postal Service is very much in limbo. The president of the United States has waged a one-man war on America’s most-liked government agency, calling it a “joke” and insisting it raise prices before it receives the manner of bailout the White House has afforded to the airline and hotel industries.

The USPS’s contract with companies like Amazon has been a particular sore spot for Trump, who has had a longstanding beef with CEO Jeff Bezos. Trump has long accused the independent agency of giving the company sweetheart deals — an accusation the USPS has long denied.

Now, as the Postal Service attempts to reconcile with its future, it has reportedly sought to work with outside consulting firms to reassess its last-mile delivery contracts for the company, as well as parcel services like FedEx and UPS. The strategy was reported by The Washington Post, citing a half-dozen anonymous sources.

The moves come before Louis DeJoy steps into the role as postmaster general. DeJoy is a businessman who is a close ally of Trump’s, as well as the head of fundraising for the upcoming Republican National Convention in his home state of North Carolina. In short, he’s likely not the ideal person to have in charge if you’re looking to return to the USPS’s days as a thriving independent agency. Likely the Postal Service is looking to assess all possible options ahead of the change in leadership.

Neither the USPS nor the White House have commented on the reports.

Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, automaker Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, is laying off nearly 8% of its more than 1,800-member workforce today as it tries to reduce costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The layoffs will affect employees in Cruise’s product, marketing and rideshare business units, according to a memo sent by Cruise CEO Dan Ammann and viewed by TechCrunch. Bloomberg was the first to report the cuts.

Employees who are laid off will be offered severance and their healthcare benefits will be paid for by the company through the end of the year, according to the memo.

Cruise spokesman Milin Mehta confirmed the cuts.

“In this time of great change, we’re fortunate to have a crystal clear mission and billions in the bank. The actions we took today reflect us doubling down on our engineering work and engineering talent,” Mehta, said in an emailed statement.

The layoffs are part of a broader strategy outlined in the memo to shift resources to where its needed most during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cruise is also closing its Pasadena, Calif. office, where it worked on lidar. The lidar team will be moved to the San Francisco office.

Even as layoffs occur, Cruise will continue hiring engineers, according to the memo.

The company will “continue to hire aggressively in the most critical areas within engineering, which right now means doubling down on senior leadership and senior IC roles to further support out improving core tech objective,” Ammann wrote in the memo. “From here we expect to recruit and grow across our engineering teams for the balance of the year.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been touting forthcoming battery technology improvements, going so far as to dub a forthcoming company talk “battery day” in prior public comments. Now Reuters is reporting that the automaker plans to unveil new advanced in battery technology it has developed that can produce power sources for its EVs which last for “millions of miles” and can be produced at low costs – allowing the automaker to sell cars at or below the market cost of equivalent gas-guzzling internal combustion cars.

This would be a watershed moment for Tesla, if true. Reuters reports that the development is the result of joint R&D work conduced with China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology, and that it is based on work done by a team of crack Tesla battery technology researchers coming from an academic background that were enlisted by Musk specifically to change the economics of electric power storage.

Battery capacity and production costs has long been a limiting factor in terms of the manufacturing costs of electric vehicles, and is one big reason why EVs carry a price premium when sold to customers. Ordinarily, automakers including Tesla point to lifetime fuel savings and tax incentives provided by local, state and federal governments as mitigating factors that mean the lifetime cost of an EV is equal to or less than that of a gas car, but if Tesla’s new battery tech can change the dynamics so that the price on the sticker is also lower than a gas vehicle, that would be a significant driver of broader EV adoption.

Tesla will first launch the new battery in China, Reuters says, beginning with the Model 3. It then plans to roll it out to other vehicles and markets, and ultimately produce batteries with new manufacturing processes that are meant to bring down labor costs while raising output volume, at so-called “terafactories” that would span up to 30 times the space of the current Tesla Gigafactories, including the one in Nevada.

The battery tech that Tesla is working on will include low-cobalt and cobalt-free versions of chemicals uses, as well as newly developed materials and internal coatings to reduce the stress upon the active components and prolong their useful life, per Reuters. Simultaneously, it’ll also introduce a new system developed by its partner Contemporary Amperex Technology that removes the step of having to bundle cells prior to their installation in final battery packs, which will bring down battery pack unit weight and costs. It’s also developing new recycling technologies for the components in tits batteries so that its vehicle power sources can eventually be used across its other energy products to extend their useful life.

For immigrants in the United States, representation can feel complex, celebrated and oftentimes a mix of the two. And that’s exactly why sister duo Vanessa and Kim Pham launched Omsom, a seed-stage food startup that sells packaged “starters” to recreate authentic Asian dishes at home. The starter contains sauce, spices and aromatics, and the co-founders say consumers can make a dish in 30 minutes or less.

“As we were seeing Asian Americans claim their voices in media and in culture more broadly, we then would juxtapose it with walking down this ethnic aisle in the grocery store and see the way Asian flavors were being represented,” Vanessa told me.

The existence of the ethnic aisle itself has drawn criticism for “othering” cultures that have long been within the United States. It was enough to make Vanessa, who worked at Bain & Company, and Kim, who has spent time in venture at Frontline Ventures and Dorm Room Fund NYC, join forces to create Omsom.

“The ethnic aisle feels super outdated,” Vanessa said. “Flavors have been diluted, branding and design have been stereotypical in nature. How can you boil a cuisine down into one sad jar of sauce?”

The aisle, also named the international aisle, currently contains bottles of never-to-expire thai pastes. Walk a little farther and you’ll find microwavable containers of high-fat butter chicken. And there in the corner is a bottle that boils down one of the world’s most diverse cuisines simply: “curry sauce.”

While progress is pitiful in grocery store representation, the founders are optimistic that they can change that. Omsom, from the flavors to the meaning behind its name (it means rowdy in Vietnamese) to the cap table it has at the moment, is another story waiting to be told about immigrant culture. This is theirs.

Omsom launched today with an undisclosed amount of pre-seed money. The early-stage startup’s ownership group is 50% women of color, including Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, and Brita Rosenheim, a partner at Better Food Ventures. It also raised investment from Peter Livingston, the founder and partner at Unpopular Ventures, a fund dedicated to entrepreneurs who are aiming at unconventional niches.

Livingston said that he invested in Omsom despite not actually being a “food tech investor at all” because it covers an unconventional category.

“Venture capital as an industry is so homogeneous, is clustered in a handful of geographies, prefers to invest close to home, and tends to invest within a small number of the same themes,” Livingston said. “Historically, ethnic food essentials hasn’t really been a ‘VC category,’ which to me, smells like opportunity.”

Saujani said her investment is “betting on the team and a product designed for a vastly underserved market, and the current circumstances make consumer appetite for pantry staples even larger,” referring to COVID-19 forcing more people to cook from home since restaurants are closed.

Your mother’s dish

Recreating authentic dishes with “mom’s ingredients” is not an easy goal, so the Pham sisters focused heavily on sourcing and chef collaboration and spent over a year in research and development of the recipes.

The sisters teamed up with three chefs — Jimmy Ly of Madame Vo, Nicole Ponseca of Jeepney and Chat and Ohm Suansilphong of Fish Cheeks — to create the first line of products. The chefs will get a tiered royalty on sales depending on volume.

“We made sure our ingredients, 90% of them, are unique to Asian food products and sourced directly from Asia,” said Vanessa. “We bent over backwards to get just the right kind of chili.”

But beyond authenticity, the Pham sisters also had another misconception to overcome: the oily and processed reputation of Americanized international dishes, like your favorite Chinese orange chicken takeout or a creamy bowl of butter chicken.

These flagship dishes that are so often associated with those cultures are often multitudes unhealthier than what an immigrant family within, say, the Indian culture, might serve on a day to day basis. Omsom flips that by offering dishes that have no preservatives, no high-fructose corn syrup, and are shelf stable for up to a year. It’s “acceptable for users trying to be generally health conscious, in line with something you would find at Whole Foods.”

Now, the Pham sisters just need to see if they can deliver on the promise of providing uncompromising dishes amid a pandemic. They think it will be a welcomed change for people stuck at home and looking to experiment with cooking.

“We grew up south of Boston in a predominantly white suburb and there was a bit of shame associated with our food,” said Kim Pham . “But as I went through the process of stepping into myself as a woman of color, I started to use food as the first stop in engaging with my identity.”

“I moved away from home, I don’t speak Vietnamese as I used to, but I turned to food,” she continued. “Even if it was a bowl of pho.”

SpaceX and NASA are planning a triumphant return to American human spaceflight on May 27, with the SpaceX Demo-2 mission for its Crew Dragon spacecraft. This is the final step required for Crew Dragon to become certified for human flight, after which it’ll enter into regular operational service ferrying people (and some cargo) to the International Space Station on behalf of the U.S. and some of its allies.

The animation above shows how SpaceX and NASA envision the mission going, from the astronauts stepping out of their ride to the launch pad (a Tesla Model X badged with NASA logos past and present), their trip across the bridge linking the launch tower to the Falcon 9 that will take them up, and their spacecraft’s separation from the rocket and subsequent docking procedure with the ISS.

SpaceX and NASA have done plenty of preparation to get to this point, including running a full uncrewed original demo mission that more or less followed this exact flow, just without any actual astronauts on board. That mission also included the undocking of the Crew Dragon capsule, and its return to Earth, with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the ocean.

Since then, SpaceX has improved and rigorously tested its parachute design, and flown an escape system abort test to show what its safety measures would do in the unlikely event of a problem with the launch vehicle after its taken off but before it reaches space.

The May 27 date is fast-approaching for this crucial milestone, which will mark the first time astronauts have lifted off for space from U.S. soil since the end of the Shuttle program in 2011.