Tag: space

Space: The Now Frontier And The AI Revolution

After last Friday’s extreme move (More Than Rates Moving Markets) we had a relatively tame week with the S&P and Nasdaq both gaining around 0.7%, but neither getting back to their highs of the week, set on Tuesday. Yields drifted moderately lower on the week, primarily on the back of steep declines in the price of oil (though I do feel the need to point out the Jan 2027 WTI contract, which I’ve been focusing on, is still at $76.1, barely one dollar lower than where it closed last Friday – I remain in the higher for longer camp). Credit spreads remain firm and the asset class remains “boring” which is a good thing! 

Now let’s address two bigger picture issues that have been taking up a lot of time during recent client calls and visits. Space and AI. 

Space: The Now Frontier 

Space: The Final Frontier still gives me the chills! The excitement of exploration! The IPO of SpaceX and all the discussion it has created has brought back that feeling. 

A colony of 1 million people on Mars! I love the concept! I have 0 opinion on whether the number of shares that Musk gets for achieving that target is the right number, but I love having that concept out there. 

Think big:! This concept floating around, and now documented into Wall Street, excites me. On the back of Artemis II and the planned lunar landings, there is a lot of potential for new discoveries. 

On a more practical (or near-term outlook) it can lead to AI and Data Centers in space. New sources of energy and potentially other materials. 

But there are also important National Security elements that are gaining more attention. 

Many members of Academy’s Geopolitical Intelligence Group lament that we have been “soft” on space. That we have ignored the real dangers to national security by not focusing on space as much as we need to. While the Space Force was a step in the right direction, many argue that we are behind (some might argue woefully behind) where we should be in terms of ensuring that space is safe and our interests are protected! 

At the simple and on the not controversial end of the spectrum, is “space junk.” The debris in orbit is increasing. While not currently posing a risk, it is something that should be addressed better than it has been. 

What about GPS and communications? I’m not sure that I could walk to the corner store without using some map app. The working assumption that “no one is interested in disrupting GPS” may be naïve? While at least 95% of communication remains “terrestrial” (fiber optic cables, undersea cables, cell towers, etc.) space will become increasingly important to communications. While it might not be “mission critical” to protect the communications equipment in space today, it could be.

Who will control discoveries? 

Let’s say we find some vital resources on the moon (seems the most likely “surprise” that could occur in the near future). Who will control that material? 

  • At best, the discoverer and those with the capabilities to take advantage of such material.  
  • At worst, might is right. 

We expect this administration, and future administrations, will spend more on space to support National Security. This is a bipartisan issue as we think about the myriad of possibilities for space. Not just the good and altruistic possibilities, but also about the risk that some other country doesn’t share such a cooperative spirit about the future of space. 

This is by no means, “closing the barn door after the horses have run out,” but it is something that deserves more serious attention and money going forward.  

The national security elements are in addition to the commercial opportunities that will be funded as corporations rush to harness the potential! 

If waking up to a $2.1 trillion market cap (and the first trillionaire) doesn’t motivate entrepreneurial and capitalistic spirits, then I should just give up this job, because it would go against everything I understand about capitalism! 

Space may be the “final frontier” but it is also the “now” frontier, which is incredibly exciting! 

Keep reading

NASA Ends Mars Mission 6 Months After Losing Communication With Spacecraft

After more than a decade of service, unlocking treasure troves of insights into Mars’s atmosphere, NASA announced on June 3 that its MAVEN mission has come to an end after a still unknown anomaly threw the spacecraft off course and drained its battery.

Short for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution,” NASA’s MAVEN mission launched in November 2013 to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere, specifically how it interacts with solar flares and other types of space weather, as well as readings of the dust storms. The mission was supposed to last one year, but the hardware continued to operate for another decade, providing insights crucial to sending a human crew there with the right protection in the future. It was also able to give ground systems early warning of incoming coronal ejecta from the sun.

“MAVEN has profoundly advanced our understanding of Mars’s atmosphere, climate history, and habitability, making it a cornerstone of NASA’s exploration of Mars for over 11 years,” Tiffany Morgan, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said during a press call. “MAVEN’s findings have helped shape future mission designs and have strengthened our understanding of Mars as a system.“

MAVEN additionally served a crucial communication role as part of NASA’s Mars Relay Network, working alongside the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft to pass along priceless data collected by rovers on the Martian surface back to Earth. It was also recruited to help observe the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed through the solar system.

Mission leaders last heard from the spacecraft on Dec. 6, 2025, just before it made a routine pass behind the Red Planet – similar to how NASA lost signal with the Artemis II crew as they flew around the far side of the moon. Loss of signal was only supposed to last 30 minutes.

Mission leaders then explained that “a brief fragment of telemetry data” was able to be recovered by analyzing radio signals picked up by open-loop receivers on NASA’s Deep Space Network. That data showed the MAVEN spacecraft was in “safe mode” and caught in a spin when it emerged from behind Mars.

The spin indicated that there was a disruption in the spacecraft’s trajectory, and a review board concluded that the rotation caused batteries to drain, rendering it unrecoverable.

An anomaly review board was created in February to determine what happened to the spacecraft while it traveled around the far side of the planet. Mission leaders expected more questions to be answered in the coming months and declined multiple requests to share their own speculation of what happened.

As for MAVEN’s fate, NASA officials said that the spacecraft will continue to orbit Mars for 50 to 100 years

Keep reading

DANGER IN ORBIT: International Space Station Is Leaking Air Again in a Problem First Detected in 2019

The aging ISS is plagued by a dangerous air leak.

The leak was confirmed by NASA last week, another instance of a recurring problem that the agency thought it had resolved earlier this year.

The New York Post reported:

“The 27-year-old orbiting space station has been plagued with air leaks since 2019 in a part of the station called the PrK module, a narrow transfer tunnel or vestibule on the Russian segment.

In January, NASA announced that the PrK module had finally reached a ‘stable condition’ after multiple inspections and sealant applications. But on May 1, the issue returned.”

NASA confirmed a ‘slow pressure drop’ within the PrK module, noticed as Russian cosmonauts unloaded cargo.

Keep reading

‘Killshot’ Is Coming For Earth Warned CIA Remote Viewer Before Recent Death

A retired US Army major and former CIA-linked remote viewer issued stark final warnings of a devastating solar “Killshot” before his death in March, claiming the current period of heightened solar activity could trigger infrastructure collapse on a global scale.

Retired Major Ed Dames, who participated in the US government’s classified remote-viewing programs during the Cold War, described the event as enormous solar blasts that would knock out power grids, communications and essential services, potentially leading to millions of immediate deaths and widespread societal breakdown.

Dames died at age 76. In his last recorded interviews he tied the timing directly to Solar Cycle 25 and the recent passage of comet C/2023 A3.

whether psychic phenomena, particularly remote viewing—the claimed ability to perceive distant or hidden targets mentally—could be used for espionage.

The program originated amid Cold War concerns that the Soviet Union was investigating similar psychic capabilities. 

Dames, who had served in Airborne Infantry and later as a tactical electronic warfare officer, transferred into the remote-viewing unit after studying biophysics and Mandarin at UC Berkeley. 

He maintained that remote viewers sometimes supplied intelligence unavailable through conventional means.

The Stargate Project was, at least officially, shut down in 1995 after official reviews claimed it had not delivered reliable operational value.

In one of his last interviews, recently released, Dames stated: “Right now we’re at the beginning of the solar cycle. 25 Solar Max. Solar Max should last for about two years, and the sun’s doing unprecedented stuff. There are more solar spots than there have been in the last 20-something years.”

He continued: “I predict that this Solar Max will be the beginning of the kill shot sequence. But more, more interestingly, intriguingly, the comet C/2023 A3 that’s in the sky.”

“The timing of that appearance and the orbit exactly matches this passing space body with this huge event called the kill shot looming ahead,” Dames further suggested.

“This comet, we described as a passing space body. We didn’t know what it was, a planetoid or a comet, either one that is concomitant with the initiation of the kill shot sequence, and this comet, the trajectory and the timing is a perfect match,” he urged.

Dames warned of the practical consequences of such an event, “You wake up and there’s no power and there’s no water and there’s no gasoline, it’s going to be a bad nightmare scenario. That’s what you’re going to be confronted with. The government is not going to help you.”

Keep reading

These 2 companies want to start removing space junk from orbit in 2027

Two private companies are partnering up to establish a repeatable debris removal service for low Earth orbit.

The U.S. firm Portal Space Systems and Australian startup Paladin Space are working together to establish the commercial Debris Removal as a Service (DRAAS) for removing multiple debris objects during a single mission.

The partnership, which Portal announced on March 19, will see a combining of respective technologies to make the service possible. The platform will be based on Portal’s maneuverable, refuelable Starburst spacecraft and will integrate Paladin’s Triton payload for imaging, classifying and capturing tumbling debris objects under 1 meter (3 feet) in size.

Space debris experts estimate there are nearly 130 million pieces of junk in orbit, ranging from fragments from explosions and satellite deployments up to huge pieces such as abandoned spacecraft and spent rocket stages. That number alarms many people in the space community and has spurred efforts to start cleaning up our orbital neighborhood.

Some companies have already made serious headway on this effort, showing that debris capture is technically feasible. But Portal and Paladin want to go a few steps further.

“This is about making debris removal operational, not experimental,” said Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems, in a statement. “Satellite data underpins communications, navigation, weather forecasting, and national security. Maintaining that infrastructure requires active debris management.”

“Most collision-avoidance activity is driven by small debris,” said Harrison Box, CEO of Paladin Space. “Triton is built to remove dozens of those objects in a single mission, which fundamentally changes the cost structure of debris remediation and provides the greatest benefit to satellite operators.”

Keep reading

Astronauts Saw Strange Things in Space: UFO Files

The United States Defense/War Department published on Friday previously classified documents related to “aliens” and UFO/unidentified anomalous phenomena sightings. The drop includes transcripts of astronauts reporting strange lights and objects during space missions in the ’60s and ’70s.

Not the Whole Story

But, according to a member of Congress who has been very invested in this issue, the interesting stuff is yet to come. Around the same time, he also said the public will never be told everything. “The 1st drop will be big but in comparison to what is coming they will be a drop in the bucket,” Tennessee’s Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said on X Friday morning. “I would say ‘Holy Crap’ is coming.”

Burchett has made many comments over the last few months suggesting the government is concealing bombshell information about non-human intelligent beings on this planet. As a member of Congress, he has received briefings that include information not available to the public. The big questions are: How much of the information that he and other members of Congress have received is legitimate, and how much of it is mis- or disinformation?

In a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Burchett likened UFO-alien disclosure to MKUltra, the illegal CIA mind-control and human-experimentation program. In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered most MKUltra files to be destroyed. The order was carried out by Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who had been the longtime head of the program. Investigators on the Church Committee — the senate committee tasked in the mid-’70s with investigating questionable CIA activity — had to rely mostly on survivor testimony and the few remaining documents to get a glimpse into the program. To this day, it is generally agreed the public knows only a fraction of what the government did in it.

When it comes to “aliens” and UFOs, Burchett told Rogan, “It’s kinda like MK Ultra. …They’re not going to tell us everything. … I don’t think they’re going to give us half of what we should get.”

Keep reading

LUNAR ENCOUNTERS: Newly Released Documents Reveal Apollo Astronauts Saw UFOs From the Moon Surface

‘One step for man’, and unidentified flying objects above.

The first batch of the mega UFO documents released by the Donald J. Trump administration brings information about encounters witnessed by the Apollo astronauts.

When landing on the moon, the astronauts saw unidentified flying objects (UFOs) floating nearby on at least two separate missions.

The Telegraph reported:

“A photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the last time humans set foot on the lunar surface, shows three mysterious dots in a triangular formation floating in the sky.

Another photograph taken from the surface of the moon during the Apollo 12 mission, in 1969, appeared to show a vertical blue hazy phenomenon passing by.”

The ‘never-before-seen’ documents represent an unprecedented level of transparency, according to the Pentagon.

“[The Pentagon] added that Donald Trump – whose department of justice was heavily criticized over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files – ‘is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files’.”

Keep reading

Newly Released Documents Show UAP “Space Tiger Team” Built Around Space and Transmedium Cases

A newly released Department of War document obtained through a Freedom of Information Request request (FOIA case #24-F-1205) originally filed with U.S. Space Command (FOIA case #24-R-020), outlines the 2023 formation of a “UAP Space Tiger Team,” a coordinated effort led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to address unidentified anomalous phenomena specifically within the space domain.

The document, a Joint Staff Action Processing Form dated November 20, 2023, describes a structured initiative aimed at integrating UAP considerations into space-based operations and detection frameworks.

Framework for “Spaceborne and Transmedium UAP”

The document explicitly defines the scope of the effort as extending beyond traditional aerial encounters, focusing on phenomena operating across multiple domains:

“The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) will convene and chair a Space Tiger Team to guide the Department’s development of the space integration framework for spaceborne and transmedium UAP…”

The use of the terms “spaceborne” and “transmedium” indicates that the framework is intended to address objects or phenomena operating not only in space, but also across different physical environments.

The document further states that the effort will:

“identify opportunities for space-based UAP detection in support of other domains, and to identify reporting and deconfliction mechanisms for space-based UAP detections.”

Keep reading

Meta Inks Deal For Solar Power At Night, Beamed From Space

The race to secure electricity for AI models has reached new heights: Meta has signed an agreement with the startup Overview Energy that could see a thousand satellites beam infrared light to solar farms that power data centers at night.

In 2024, Meta’s data centers used more than 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity — roughly enough to power more than 1.7 million American homes for a year — and its need for compute power is only increasing. The company has committed to building 30 gigawatts of renewable power sources, with a focus on industrial-scale solar power plants.

Typically, data centers turning to solar power must either invest in battery storage or rely on other generation sources to operate at night.

Overview Energy, a four-year-old, Ashburn, Virginia, outfit that emerged from stealth in December, has a different solution: The company is developing spacecraft that collect plentiful solar power in space. It then plans to convert that energy to near-infrared light and beam it at sufficiently large solar farms — on the order of hundreds of megawatts — which can convert that light to electricity.

By using a wide, infrared beam to power existing terrestrial solar infrastructure, Overview thinks it can sidestep the technological challenges and safety and regulatory issues that bedevil plans to transmit power to Earth through high-power lasers or microwave beams. CEO Marc Berte says you’ll be able to stare right into his satellite’s beam with no ill effects.

The technology would increase the return on investment from building solar farms and reduce reliance on fossil fuels — if it can be deployed at scale.

Overview says it has already demonstrated power transmission to the ground from an aircraft, and is planning to launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in January 2028 to perform its first power transmission from space.

Keep reading

FAA Grounds Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Rocket in Epic Failure — Satellite Hurled into Wrong Orbit

In another humiliating blow to Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket following a spectacular mishap during its third flight.

The rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, April 19, and the booster even stuck the landing like a pro, but the upper stage completely botched the most critical part: putting a multi-million-dollar commercial satellite into the correct orbit.

The satellite is now a total loss, with its onboard thrusters unable to save it. It will deorbit and burn up in a fiery reentry.

Fox 35 reported:

The New Glenn rocket lifted off on Sunday without major issues, and its first-stage booster successfully landed on a drone ship, marking a technical achievement for Blue Origin. However, the payload — a communications satellite built by AST SpaceMobile — was placed into the wrong orbit, making it unusable.

The satellite, known as BlueBird 7, was intended to support direct-to-cellphone broadband service. Instead, it was deployed into a much lower orbit than planned, leaving it without enough propulsion to reach operational altitude. The satellite is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and be destroyed.

The lost payload represents a financial setback worth hundreds of millions of dollars and sent the company’s stock (NASDAQ: ASTS) lower on Monday. AST SpaceMobile is competing with firms including SpaceX and Amazon in the satellite communications market.

The FAA wasted no time slapping a “mishap” label on the mission and ordering a full investigation. New Glenn is now grounded indefinitely until Blue Origin and the feds sort out what went wrong with the second-stage engines.

Keep reading