Q&A with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

Greg Wyler has corralled blue-chip companies to invest in his dream to beam affordable broadband Internet signals around the world, a mission he sees as a prerequisite to providing billions of unconnected, underserved people with the tools necessary to succeed in a modern marketplace of goods, services and information.

Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, permanently ceased operations last month, following a major mission failure in January at a time when it was already facing financial headwinds.

Jamie Bock, a professor of physics at Caltech, is principal investigator of the SPHEREx astrophysics mission selected by NASA on Feb. 13 as the next medium-class mission in the agency’s line of Explorer probes.