>> these are your first word headlines around the world. global covid cases a record on monday. more than 1.4 4 million infections smashing records from a day in december 2020. the seven day rolling average balances out the one-time fluctuations in holiday irregularity reporting spread that's also at a high level. france will force its citizens to work from home for most of the next month. the prime minister says workers

have the option to stay away from the office must do so a minimum of three days and if possible four days a week. the u.k. health secretary says people should remain cautious about covid-19 especially during new year's celebrations. they did nothing further measures will be needed before january 1 but says the situation is under review. -- is bracing for another year of supply chain craze. around 1/5 of -- supply chain strains. this despite many employers offering increased wages. 2022 is shaping up to be another year of severe shipping disruption. let's get to the markets then were quite a view volume is

coming back on the stoxx 600. we are up half of 1%. we look at the sector breakdown. italian bonds barely above 1% on the 10 year yield. we have the government paper on the -- underperforming. euro-dollar 1.1322. this is as high as the moves are getting at the moment. brent crude getting a lift up by 2/10 of 1%. want to flip the board to flesh out some indicators here. futures reflecting the gradual return of optimism despite the surge of covid cases around the world. the tone in the asia-pacific region similar. strong gains coming through from china. look out for the turkish lira

and for bitcoin on the move as well. that is stumbling. the move may undermine the s&p 500's latest record. we will be back with another market flash at the bottom of the hour. >> in silicon valley and beyond, this is bloomberg technology with emily chang.

emily: this is bloomberg technology. over the next 30 minutes we will take you on a trip into space. 2020 was quite the year for exploring the great beyond starting with richard branson's flight to the edge of space. a voyage he calls the experience of a lifetime. plus, then came jeff bezos who launched himself on a supersonic joyride. though elon musk did not take the trip himself, -- we will hear from the commander of that mission. >> 3, 2, 1. clean release. ignition. good rocket motor burn. there is mach one. >> this is the moment richard branson became the first-ever owner of a private space company to rocket into space aboard his own craft. the space race dominated headlines this year but what was really the culmination of

decades of work. ed ludlow has more. >> richard branson, astronaut. this took off carrying unity to a height of around 50,000 feet and that released the uss unity a top it gave them a few minutes of weightlessness around the cabin. and they basically tried to prove what it would be like for future paying customers aboard virgin galactic. >> now i'm looking down and congratulations to everybody --

for creating such a beautiful place. >> virgin galactic has been doing this for such a long time. they got serious and 2000 faced a number of setbacks. for a long time promised the first commercial spaceflight was a matter of months. they could charge the customers for the few minutes of weightlessness in space. the data from this launch showed it was a strong mission. the question turns to when will we see that first customer paying commercial flight, could be it as soon as 2022. they are not taking new ticket sales now. it's also a question around

whether this will actually cost more than that. but, what is for sure, it marks a big step for civilians and paying customers to be able to go into space, albeit for a few minutes of weightlessness. emily: ed also caught up with richard branson shortly after he returned from his historic trip. here's what he had to say. richard: i've been practicing some words to say to kids for some time. once i have done those words, just being able to unbuckle and take off and look out of these massive windows. the spaceship was upside down. and take in the earth from space, it was something i dreamt of since i was a kid. it was completely and utterly awesome. one of those dreams come true. i still think i will wake up any

minute. it was extraordinary. ed: you are here. you said the feeling of weightlessness is indescribable. would you at least have an attempt for me? richard: it was not just floating. but then, looking at the other three beneath me floating as well. then, looking out through these gigantic windows back at the stunningly beautiful earth below. pristine sky. the strength of the blues and the blacks. we were in space. you know, i have always pictured what it would be like, like the ride up there, the ride back. never realized the whole experience was going to be so vivid. ed: beyond the satisfaction of your own goal being achieved, what does today symbolize for

the country and for the children -- company and for the children present earlier? richard: for the children, we have to get building as many spaceships as we can as fast as we can so that one day, those kids will have similar experiences to what i had. that we will do. we also launched a global raffle today so two kids -- $10 for a pair of tickets. that money will hopefully enable many people to be able to go up who have never dreamt of going to space. emily: richard branson with ed ludlow. coming up, just a week after branson's trip to space, bezos followed. i was the first journalist to speak with amazon and blue origin founder after he touched down. that conversation is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: amazon founder jeff

bezos and three other passengers took their own trip to space week after virgin galactic. it was blue origin's very first crewed spaceflight. we watched from the launchpad in van horn, texas. the crowd holding their breath and cheering a safe return. i was the first to interview bezos and his brother back on earth. here's what they had to say. welcome back to earth. [laughter] how do you feel? >> good. thank you. emily: wow. i mean, wow. this is your first interview since landing. we all want to know the reality of seeing the earth from above. didn't live up to the dream? jeff: i am not talented enough to describe this in words. it was much more than i expected. it is awe-inspiring. do you have words? mark: i don't have words. jeff: it was one of the most beautiful sights i have ever seen. emily: now that you have accomplished this, what is

blue's next move? how does this fit into the long-term mission? jeff: we are building a vehicle. it's our tourism vehicle. we will fly that over and over. every time we fly it, it is practice for the orbital mission. it gives people a chance to see what we just saw, which is this fragile beautiful earth which you cannot imagine. until you see it with your own eyes -- i don't know somebody else would be better at describing it. what i can tell you is it is this thing -- you can see it is one place, no boundaries, no national lines. the atmosphere. it's so big, we live in it. it seems gigantic but when you get up there, it is this teeny little thing we need to protect. for me, it was definitely incredible. mark: it was amazing. i was surprised that out easy it was to move around at zero g. jeff: it felt almost normal. it felt like we were somehow -- it felt so good.

emily: for the people wondering why we are investing all this money in space, talk to us about how you believe this will actually help benefit us on earth. jeff: what we are doing is we are building infrastructure. we are building a road to space so future generations can build the future. we live on this beautiful planet. it is the most beautiful planet in the solar system by far. and we have to keep it safe and protect it. the way to do that is slowly over decades, move all heavy industry, all polluting industry into space. that is what we are going to do so we can keep this planet the gem that it is. we need reusable spacecraft, low-cost spacecraft. to get that, we've got to practice. that is what this is about. emily: we saw your kids. for the kids watching, how do you want this to inspire them? jeff: kids, they are -- every kid has so much potential inside of them. what i hope what we are doing a little bit is unlocking that.

for kids everywhere, the way you unlock potential is with inspiration. i was inspired as a little boy by the apollo astronauts. this is the next stage of commercial space development i hope that inspires little kids, too. emily: amazon founder jeff bezos and his brother mark. we also caught up with tim ellis, a former blue origin employee and current ceo of relativity space. this is what it was like for him to watch that flight. tim: it was a pretty awesome moment. i first started as an intern at blue origin. starting in 2011. the whole company was about 150 people at the time. and because of the small size, i have kept in touch with jeff during the years. he even came out to visit us not too long ago at relativity. i have been a huge fan ever since i left. it is pretty amazing, not just to see blue origin fly, but to see virgin galactic.

two pretty huge human spaceflight milestones right next to each other. pretty amazing. emily: what does this all mean? obviously having worked here, understanding more how jeff bezos thinks -- when he landed, he articulated this vision of building a road to space. building up a space economy and a way to protect the earth. what did you imagine the next move for blue origin will be? what is the next priority? tim: yeah, so, definitely the new program. i think jeff made a bold move to fly on the first human capsule flight. of course, this has been in testing for a long time. also developing an orbital blend which will be reusable for the first stage. it is huge. the rocket they are launching from cape canaveral. that will be a huge milestone. to your point on vision, i have

heard him speak as well. it is really about having millions of people living and working in space and moving heavy industry off planet earth into space itself. i think that is what really inspired me to start relativity. this idea that we need to build an industrial base on mars and other planets. it is a really important vision to go after. i think there's a lot of conversation around this, that this is silly, they are launching themselves into space and there are so many problems on earth. we do have to think about what is the future vision of humanity? what is this all about? it is very worthwhile to have a small fraction of a resource go into making such amazing feats happen. emily: now, the key to building up a space economy is obviously reusability. it is something i know occurred to you while you were working here. you are focused on 3d printing rockets.

if you could achieve that, what with that pave the way for? how would that go towards building up the future space economy? tim: first off, i think they are not mutually exclusive. relativity is designing fully reusable, entirely 3d printing rockets. the first stage, second stage and payload will all be reused. the 16-foot diameter dome, we are already building it. 3d printing is at the forefront of software-driven manufacturing. i see it as an automation technology. i started the program at blue origin before i started relativity. i think they are still doing amazing things. rocket engine chambers and parts

of their products. but, i really saw the future being a whole new type of rocket space. throw away all of the old factory and build a new way of doing things. this would really be the future of space. seeing that happen much faster. going from raw materials in less then 60 days is the target i have set for the team and we will definitely see that. emily: if there's one thing we have learned about space is that these milestones take a long time to hit. obviously, this is a long journey for blue, and certainly if you go back in space development history, we are going back decades. i'm curious if there are times while you are working here that you thought this is so hard, i don't know if we can pull this off. do you have those moments today working on such hard, difficult technology where literally lives are at stake? tim: yeah, for sure, it is hard and challenging. that is partially would drive some of the best engineers in the u.s. to making the space

industry happen. at blue origin, aisleways thought jeff and the team were going to get it done. i was really confident about it. that is why i decided to work there. today, it is a huge milestone and i hope they are celebrating really hard. i really think over the last couple of years the pace of milestones in the rocket industry, satellite companies getting private funding from venture capital has accelerated extraordinarily to a pace not seen before. i think that will continue as long as people execute. it is really bringing that silicon valley ethos into an aerospace world where we test things, try things out very quickly. it is all about rate of learning, trying new ideas. you are really seeing that pay off now with the pace of innovation that's happening. emily: ceo of relativity space tim ellis. coming up, onto the next space billionaire. we will explore elon musk's space strategy and meet new

astronaut jared isaacman, the commander of the spacex's inspiration4. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: now to elon musk's turn to make space history with the first a ship to launch an all-civilian crew into orbit. the inspiration4 circled earth for three days.

our ed ludlow caught up with the commander of that mission, jared isaacman, back at home base. jared: people talk about the overview effect, looking back on earth from an interesting vantage point and the impact it has on you. it had an impact to me because we were a little bit higher. in fact, we went so high, this probably less than 25 people in the world right now who have seen the world from that perspective. what i saw was the space around earth and the moonrise. all that made me think about is we've got to get out there. we've got to go farther. we've got to satisfy that curiosity we have and explore the universe because we know so little about it and this probably some answers the questions we've all been thinking about for some time that are out there. we just have to find it. ed: the other mission here was the race $200 million for st. jude's. you paid for this mission. you were the benefactor.

how do we move beyond space of just being the domain for billionaires? jared: for sure, it is expensive. we have to make sure every mission has a profound impact on the world until everyone can explore among the stars. this is no different than tesla roadsters 15 years ago versus elon announcing $25,000 teslas just recently. or computers in the 1960's or cell phones in the 1980's. cost will come down. while they are expensive, we have an obligation to do a lot of good with it. that is why inspiration4 set on this massive fundraising effort for st. jude's. so, we can make a difference while we are in such a fortunate position. ed: spacex's talked about how supply constrained they are. what sense do you get from

spacex that this type of mission, civilian orbit, will ramp up going into next year? jared: what i think is going to happen is, i think with spacex pioneering reusable rocket technology and driving down costs to make space more accessible is there can be more people working in space. i think working, exploring -- i don't know if you will have too many people going on essentially sightseeing trips. but i do think as it costs less and less to put mass in orbit, we will be creating infrastructure in space and people will be working there. during our mission, we had 14 people in orbit at one time, the most in history of human spaceflight. a year, two years from now could be 140 and then some. ed: you guys were having a nice time up there. some excellent views. but you are also conducting scientific experiments, other kinds of study on the human body, physiology.

were those tests real? did they give any real meaningful data to spacex or nasa or anyone else? jared: for sure. nasa was listening in on all the communication loops. there was a high-altitude research plane filming us as we reentered. this was only the third time a dragon capsule reentered the atmosphere since this program began, since th space shuttle retired. we were at an altitude subjecting us to radiation profiles we have not studied since the apollo program. it is way higher than the space station which is shielded with our atmosphere. if we were to go to the moon and mars and beyond, we have a lot to learn. we have the equivalent of a ct scan in orbit for three days. imagine going to mars and back for six months, that is hundreds of ct scans. that will kill you if we don't learn how to deal with it. we were conducting research and experiment over those days.

the data with the labs, i'm looking forward to the results. ed: i have to ask you about cryptocurrencies given what we are seeing in the market. the first minted and digital nft track in space. shift4 payments says it will partner more actively in cryptocurrencies. where did you stand on cryptocurrencies as currency in transactions and things of that nature? jared: we were happy to bring that kings of leon nft into orbit to raise funds. i'm 100% a supporter in that respect. i think we are a ways away from crypto being a mainstream form of currency. i say that as a ceo of a payment company that powers about $200 billion a year in commerce. i don't think we're there yet, it is just too volatile. we are not ignoring it either. we are making investments to make sure that consumers are able to do business with our merchants the way they like.

that is probably going to be an alternative payment method like crypto in the future. ed: in one word, will you go back up into space? jared: it's got to be more than a word, but i would say if there's a mission that can have a real meaningful impact on the world, then i would be there. emily: that was inspiration4 commander jared isaacman after one of many more private space odysseys to come. coming up, a special edition of "studio 1.0" with the robinhood ceo vlad tenev. you don't want to miss it. this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> these are your first word headlines from around the world. a leading israeli hospital has started what it says is the first formal clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine. the medical center has begun to administer the shot. they currently have a low antibody count. the person leading the trial says initial data will be available in a few days. japan's industrial reduction jumped by record in november, a the countries recovering. bounce back in the auto industry help