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SpaceX Wants to Blast Data Centers Into Orbit. Here’s What It May Take by Claire Hogan

Earlier this year, SpaceX filed an application with the FCC petitioning to launch up to a million satellites as part of an “orbital data center.” It has also become a big part of Elon Musk’spitch to investors ahead of his massive SpaceX IPO. We asked an engineer to break down the biggest technical hurdles and costly barriers to putting data centers in space. Watch the video to see what it would actually take to make it work.  SpaceX Wants to Blast Data Centers Into Orbit. Here’s What It May Take. – WSJ

What to Know About Elon Musk’s Merger of SpaceX With His AI Company by Laurence Darmiento

Elon Musk recently announced what seemed like an odd pairing of his companies: SpaceX was acquiring xAI, the artificial intelligence firm that also owns the social media platform X. The merger combines a highly profitable rocket company with an AI startup that is burning through billions of dollars as it competes with OpenAI and other rivals for dominance in artificial intelligence. The merged companies are valued at $1.25 trillion. That is higher than recent separate valuations of SpaceX at $800 billion and xAI’s holding company at $230 billion. IPO shares are expected to price at roughly $525. Aside from the financial benefits, there are technical reasons. Musk has sketched out a futuristic plan that involves sending up to a million satellites — called data centers — into an orbit, where the sun could power them all day and night while they do artificial intelligence computations. What to know about Elon Musk’s merger of SpaceX with his AI company

Elon Musk Combined SpaceX and xAI

In the rare mega-merger of companies run by the same guy, Musk has brought together his rocket company, which has been planning an IPO, and his AI company, which is best known for Grok, the off-color chatbot that’s good at generating NSFW images. Sources told Bloomberg that the deal, which merges two of the world’s largest private companies, values the combined company at $1.25 trillion. Musk said the tie-up would help him put data centers in space, funding bases on the moon and a colony on Mars. He also said the combination would provide scale “to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Morning Brew

SpaceX Plans 2026 IPO

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called reports of a planned IPO by SpaceX “accurate” on X, setting the stage for what could be a massing financial infusion for the company. Analysts are speculating the IPO could draw at least $800 billion to the company. Musk says a key strategy for SpaceX will include data centers in space, and the IPO will help fund the potential project. The per share price is expected to begin at $421. If the IPO happens next year, it could make SpaceX the most valuable company in the world. Business News Today – tEDmag

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind – The last time human beings headed moonward was on the Apollo 17 flight that launched Dec. 7, 1972—before any of the Artemis II crew members were born. Today’s crew will not land on the moon—they won’t even orbit the moon. But they will whip around the lunar far side, on a shakedown mission test-flying the Orion spacecraft. This is essential preparatory work for achieving NASA’s bigger lunar goals. Next year there will be another test flight in low Earth orbit during the flight of Artemis III, followed by up to two moon landings by Artemis IV and V in 2028, and annual landings thereafter. Unlike the Apollo program, Artemis aims not just for the so-called flags-and-footprints model of short, one- to three-day stays on the moon, but for a long-term presence at a long-term moon base in the south lunar pole, where deposits of ice can provide drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and oxygen-hydrogen rocket fuel. Very much like the Apollo program, Artemis finds itself in a closely watched moon race, not with the old Soviet Union this time, but with China, which has announced its intention to have astronauts on the moon by 2030. The U.S. is not going it alone this time, however. While Apollo was an entirely American enterprise, Artemis flies under the flag of 60 countries, signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international pact whose members vow to support the peaceful exploration of space and contribute money, modules, and astronauts to the Artemis cause. Artemis II Has Launched. Here’s Everything You Need to Know