Private Astronauts in Space and Nvidia's Significant Q2 Earnings Report

Historic Milestones in Space and Technology

Hello and welcome to the working week. One event worth keeping an eye on is set to happen high above our heads on Tuesday when the Polaris Dawn space mission is set to launch with billionaire Jared Isaacman and three others on board. The mission, privately funded by Isaacman and operated by SpaceX, is using the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and spacesuits.

Polaris Dawn Mission Details

The spacecraft’s crew are planning to attempt a spacewalk during their mission, which is predicted to last five days. If they pull it off, the crew will be the first non-government astronauts to complete a spacewalk. While mainly symbolic, the feat would be a sign of the increase in private companies that are making more ambitious plans for space.

Significant Corporate Updates

Already this year we have had the first commercial space flight to successfully land on the moon. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is also an integral part of Nasa’s Artemis programme to return to moon as the global space race gathers pace.

Back on solid ground, there are some headline acts to watch out for in this week’s company results, including chipmaker Nvidia reporting its second-quarter results on Wednesday. In the group’s first-quarter results it reported a staggering 262 percent increase in revenue. At the time the company’s boss Jensen Huang told investors that Nvidia would see 'a lot' of revenue from its new Blackwell chips that power generative AI models that the company unveiled in June.

Since then the chipmaker has become the world’s most valuable company, lost about $750bn in value, and then gained it all back. No matter what happens, Nvidia’s results will be one to watch. It will also be worth catching the results for CrowdStrike, the first since a software update by the cyber security group caused an outage for large companies including Delta. This will be the first chance for investors to see in detail how the outage affected the company’s bottom line.

In the UK it has been a surprisingly pleasant summer with only a few dull days. But as August winds down this week, our weather is set to take a turn from better to wetter. The UK Met office is aware of this and on Thursday will announce storm names for 2024-25. Names can be suggested by the public but cannot start with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z so that they are aligned with the US National Hurricane Center naming conventions. So, sadly, we will never see a storm Zane.

Upcoming Events and Forecasts

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week. Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week.