SpaceX’s xAI merger makes the numbers look fake

SpaceX’s xAI merger makes the numbers look fake

SpaceX acquired xAI for $450 billion in stock, then the combined company was valued at $1.3 trillion, up from SpaceX’s standalone $852 billion valuation. Musk owns 42% of the combined entity, putting his stake at over $546 billion and pushing his total net worth past $1 trillion for the first time in human history. On the first day of trading after the deal, the combined SpaceX-xAI stock surged 28% to a $1.64 trillion valuation.

Gobble's Take: When a space company starts reading like a math prank, the market has clearly decided gravity is optional.
Source: Perplexity Search (community news)

NASA wants industry help building the Moon’s surface backbone

NASA is seeking feedback on a draft solicitation for the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator, aimed at developing lunar surface technologies and infrastructure capabilities. The focus includes surface power, power management and distribution, energy storage, radioisotope power, in-situ resource utilization oxygen production systems, in-space manufacturing tools, and advanced nanomaterials production. NASA says long-term lunar exploration requires technology, infrastructure, and operations that work together on the Moon, and that industry input will help shape the final requirements and solicitation parameters.

Gobble's Take: The Moon landing phase is getting a lot more practical and a lot less cinematic.
Source: Perplexity Search (community news)

Artemis 2 is still the crewed moon loop to watch

NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the moon, the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew is Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, flying aboard Orion on top of the Space Launch System. The mission is targeting no earlier than Feb. 5, 2026, with the launch window extending into April.

Gobble's Take: This is the kind of mission that makes “around the moon” sound both modest and wildly difficult.
Source: Perplexity Search (evergreen)

Interstellar objects are about to get a lot less rare

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time is now operational and is expected to raise interstellar object detection rates from one per decade to one every few months. The confirmed trio so far is 1I/’Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov, and 3I/ATLAS, each described as having anomalous characteristics that challenge conventional understanding of natural Solar System bodies.

Gobble's Take: Space is about to stop hiding its weirdest travelers in the statistical basement.
Source: Perplexity Search (community: Reddit/HN)

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• Space is becoming the new AI frontier