In today’s wrapup of science and technology news:

  • Comcast plans to use apps rather than cable boxes
  • Virgin Galactic back at Spaceport USA
  • Chinese firm finds success with electric buses in U.S.
  • Apple delays its earnings for a funeral

The details:

  • Comcast customers won’t need cable box with upcoming apps

Comcast says later this year you won’t need a cable box to watch cable as the company follows its rivals in offering TV-watching apps.

The announcement has interesting timing. It comes as the federal government works on new rules that would force the TV industry to let tech companies — say, TiVo or Google — sell cable boxes, too. Consumers typically pay cable companies extra fees for these boxes, and the cable industry is opposed to the effort. The industry says apps that companies are rolling out show that the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t need to act.

Comcast is going to launch an app on the streaming-TV gadget Roku that takes the place of a cable box. Time Warner Cable and Charter, which is buying Time Warner Cable, also have Roku apps that sub for cable boxes. Time Warner Cable’s is only available in and near New York City. Comcast is also working on a cable-TV app for Samsung smart TVs.

Comcast doesn’t say when the apps will be available. Only people in places where Comcast provides cable service could get it, but they don’t have to get Comcast internet too.

Comcast Corp. has already played with delivering cable service without a box. It has a TV service for phones, computers and tablets called Stream that is, for now, available only in and around Boston and Chicago.

Stream has raised the hackles of net-neutrality advocates because using it doesn’t count against the data caps that Comcast has in some areas — they think this could make customers prefer Comcast’s own TV service over, say, streaming Netflix, which would count against a cap. (Net neutrality is the concept that internet service providers should treat all traffic equally.)

The upcoming Comcast TV apps also wouldn’t count against a Comcast internet data cap, which is usually 300 gigabytes. If you go over it, you pay extra.

  • Virgin Galactic returns to Spaceport America for exercises

It was nothing but clear, blue skies as the sleek, jet-powered plane approached the runway at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, only to briefly touch down and then thrust off again.

Over and over again, Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo was put through the paces as the pilots, ground crew and mission control specialists checked off some of the numerous ground and air exercises scheduled this week as the team prepares for future commercial space flights.

A special cargo plane of sorts, the aircraft is designed to carry the company’s rocket ship — called SpaceShipTwo — to high altitudes where it will detach and take paying tourists the rest of the way to the edge of space.

While Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides wasn’t willing to put a firm date on when flights might begin, he said the company is on track with its internal schedule and is making progress with testing of its new spaceship in California.

“I think getting the vehicle in test flight is a key milestone and this time around we’re doing all that internally with our own staff so we hope we’ll be able to make rapid progress,” he said while standing on the tarmac as WhiteKnightTwo landed after an hour of touch-and-go’s.

After years of development, Virgin Galactic appeared to be nearing the goal of turning ordinary civilians into astronauts when the first SpaceShipTwo broke apart on Oct. 31, 2014, during its fourth rocket-powered flight over the Mojave Desert, killing the pilot.

Its new spaceship finished up a round of electronic and aviation testing just last week, and Whitesides said he hopes test flights for that craft will begin soon.

  • Chinese electric car maker enters US market by selling buses

The Chinese automaker that sold more electric cars last year than Tesla, Nissan or GM is taking a back road into the American market on a battery-powered bus.

Detouring around the cost and risk of consumer sales, BYD Co. has quietly built a U.S. business supplying rechargeable buses to environmentally-minded transit agencies. Its factory north of Los Angeles, opened in 2013, is on track to deliver 300 this year.

The company has dipped its toe into the U.S. auto market by launching test fleets of plug-in electric taxis in Chicago and New York City.

Consumer sales are coming but BYD has yet to decide when, said Michael Austin, its vice president for the United States. He said it might start developing a sales network in the next two years.

“We have the manufacturing scale that can drive the cost to a point where we can bring vehicles to export markets including the United States, Latin America and Europe that will be game-changing,” said Austin at BYD’s headquarters in this southern city adjacent to Hong Kong.

Once that comes, “we get brand recognition because people already are riding ourbuses,” said Austin.

BYD — the name stands for “Build Your Dreams” — is part of an emerging wave ofChinese companies that stand to profit from global demand for solar and wind power,electric cars and other clean and renewable energy.

  • Apple delays earnings report for business advisor’s memorial

Apple will announce quarterly financial results one day later than planned next week, to avoid reporting on the day of a memorial service for Silicon Valley business leader Bill Campbell, a mentor to former Apple chief Steve Jobs and other tech leaders.

The world’s most valuable publicly traded company was scheduled to report Monday on its performance for the first three months of the year. Instead, Apple said it will reporton Tuesday “out of respect” for Campbell’s friends and family.

Though little-known outside Silicon Valley, the 75-year-old Campbell was a respected industry figure who advised leaders at Apple, Google and other firms. The former CEO and chairman of Intuit died Monday of cancer.

Apple said a number of its executives and employees would attend the service.