Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey won’t seek re-election to Disney board; Virgin Galactic conducts 7th glide test of spacecraft; and safety panel raises concerns about SpaceX’s Falcon 9

Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey Won’t Seek Re-Election to Disney Board

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will be exiting the board of directors at Walt Disney Co., the company revealed in a regulatory filing on Jan. 11, Variety reports. When a new board is voted in at the annual shareholders meeting on March 8, neither will seek re-election – a reflection of the growing potential for a conflict of interest between Disney and their respective companies as the lines blur between media and technology.

Virgin Galactic Conducts 7th Glide Test of Spacecraft

Virgin Galactic says the latest glide test of its space tourism rocket plane was a success, nearly reaching the speed of sound high over California, the Associated Press reports. The spaceship, named Unity, was carried aloft by its mother ship on Jan. 10 and released over the Mojave Desert.

Safety Panel Raises Concerns about SpaceX’s Falcon 9

An independent safety panel recommended NASA not certify SpaceX’s commercial crew system until the agency better understands the behavior of pressure vessels linked to a Falcon 9 failure in 2016, SpaceNews reports. That recommendation was one of the stronger items in the annual report of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) released by NASA Jan. 11, which found that NASA was generally managing risk well on its various programs.

Technology reporter Garrett Reim can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garrettreim for the latest in L.A. tech news.