‘Ugh-Known’ Territory

Space tourism takes off — can the upstarts compete? [AngelList Logo]( [View Online]( [Space tourism takes off]( Image: SpaceX Legendary pilot Chuck Yeager [passed away]( this week at age 97, closing a seminal chapter of flight history. The next day, Elon Musk opened a new chapter, proclaiming “[Mars here we come!]( after Space X’s next-generation rocket soared above the earth, came back down, and [exploded in a massive fireball](. Musk is far from the only one bullish on space tourism. An entire industry is sprouting, from space tourism startups to rocket makers like [Relativity]( which just announced the world’s first 3D printed rocket. Musk’s rocket travelled 8 miles, the same distance Yeager flew — into the “[ugh-known]( as he put it — in 1947 when he became the first human to break the sound barrier. If SpaceX is successful, the company will send space tourists to Mars in coming years. While Jeff Bezos’s [Blue Origin]( Richard Branson’s [Virgin Galactic]( and [Boeing]( gear up for tours as early as next year for the uber-rich, fledgling startups out of Florida and Spain are gaining traction for a slower, more comfortable approach aimed at the masses. By using pressurized balloons, U.S.-based Space Perspective and Spain-based [EOS-X Space]( plan to offer much longer experience — four to five hours, compared to mere seconds you get in a rocket ship — though they won’t get you all the way into orbit. Space Perspective announced [$7M in VC funding]( last week. For those with unlimited budget who are willing to go through the rigorous physical training required, Space Adventures, a U.S. space tourism company, is [looking for two people to send to the ISS in 2023]( (one will get to do an actual spacewalk). SpaceX, the only company to fly a private individual to space, plans to send[three more space tourists to the ISS next year](. Not to be outdone, Virgin CEO Richard Branson says he’ll be one of the first to fly his company’s rocket 50 miles into orbit next year — and he has 600 people in line to follow for the [$250k ride](. For those with a few hundred thousand dollars for travel money, [here’s the definitive guide]( to your space tourism options in 2021. [View Story]( Hot startups hiring now 🔥 [Preset]( - The fastest, most comprehensive open-source analytics application today. [Explore 7 jobs](. [Collective]( - Run your business-of-one on autopilot. [Explore 6 jobs](. [SeedFi]( - Making small dollar loans more impactful and ethical. [Hiring a senior engineer](. [EnterMedicare]( - Helping eligible members transition to Medicare. [Explore 6 jobs](. Funding and acquisitions Salt Lake City-based Salad Technologies raised $3.2M for [its platform that uses computer idle time to mine cryptocurrency]( that customers can exchange for games, subscriptions, and gift cards. Or as the company put it, getting “paid to play games” in the Leisure Economy. The company, which boasts 250k users, says it hopes to define the future of distributed computing at a time when the industry has a voracious appetite for computing power. The company previously raised $2.1M and is [hiring a remote workforce](. Sunday, [a two-year-old DIY subscription lawn care service startup based in Colorado]( raised a $19M Series B led by Sequoia Capital. Founder and CEO Coulter Lewis is passionate about reducing pesticides used on home lawns. The company sends customers seeds and other lawn care products each month. Sunday [is hiring in sunny Boulder, Colo.]( Wonder, [a Berlin-based startup attempting to reinvent video chat]( raised $11M in seed funding led by European VC EQT Ventures. The company, which claims 200k users, built a platform that allows people to “serendipitously” meet and chat by floating in and out of chat rooms. London-based home fitness startup Quell raised a $3M seed round [to develop its platform for interactive home workouts](. Users strap on the “Gauntlet” — a harness with resistance bands attached — that guides the gameplay. As players punch and dodge their way through a video game, Gauntlet’s built-in sensors measure things like punch speed and accuracy. The company recently closed a Kickstarter campaign raising over $650k from nearly 3k backers. AngelList Weekly 90 Gold St San Francisco, CA 94133 [Unsubscribe]( | [Update preferences](