GM.

Are you still hungover from Halloween? If you are, then this newsletter will be like a bottle of Pedialyte for you. Today we cover some news about:

the commercial space industry
a Disney Channel Star (and it's actually good news for once?)
and tech companies spending tons of money on AI.

Also, here is the vibe for today to ease you back into the work week.

(1/3) Lost in Space

Is the title a bit dramatic? Yes. Is Boeing losing $1.85 billion (with a b) on their Starliner program dramatic? Yes.

Boeing has a new CEO who wants to reevaluate it's non-core lines of business, including the Boeing Space division. Not only that, Boeing told NASA they are done bidding on Fixed Price contracts.

(FYI, most contracts are now Fixed Price as opposed to Cost Plus)

Fixed Price rewards efficient and innovative companies (ie. SpaceX) whereas Cost Plus generally rewards slow and inefficient companies.

Meanwhile, Starliner returned to earth safely and empty. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are on the ISS, currently without a vehicle to return on.

Outlook: NASA wants another option in addition to SpaceX's Dragon Capsule to support multiple commercial Space Stations in the near future.

(2/3) Bridgit Mendler (yes, that one from the Disney Channel) is a CEO

I didn't know this until about 5 minutes ago but after her Disney Channel acting career, Bridgit Mendler studied at MIT and Harvard. Is this a red flag? Maybe.

Regardless, she is now the CEO of an impressive commercial space startup called Northwood Space that's aiming to mass-produce ground stations for satellites.

Mendler said, “To actually fulfill the benefit of people in the world, you have to invest in unsexy problems, like building a ground network. I personally think that’s pretty sexy and fun. It’s absolutely not what most people think of when they think of the space industry. I think they think of rockets, they think of satellites, but they don’t think about ground infrastructure.”

So far she's raised $6m for her space startup from some big investment firms.

“It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it plays out for em.” - That one guy from Dodgeball

(3/3) Kairos Power is Building Some Big Boy Energy Plants for Google

Apart from having one of the coolest names I've heard, Kairos Power is a California startup that somehow makes Small Nuclear Reactors (SMR).

They recently entered an agreement with Google to build a SMR to feed the power hungry demands of AI.

Google is expecting to commission about 5 SMR's over the next decade
This will add 500MW of clean energy to the power grid**

Why did I put an asterisk? It just seems like a wild statement so it deserved not one, but two.

Given the tech industry's massive investments in clean energy to fuel their AI advancements, this seems possible. Kairos is using some unique technology which you can read about here. I really have no idea what it means but if you do, more power to you. (See what I did there?)

(Snippet from the Blog)

PDA vs PDCA

PDA means public display of affection, which can almost be as cringe as LinkedIn influencers. If you’re a fan of unhinged engineering then there’s a good chance you have nobody to partake in PDA with. And that’s ok, instead of finding love, enjoy this article about PDCA: Plan-Do-Check-Act. This is the foundation the modern world is built on.

PDCA is a repeating cycle that’s used to solve problems or improve things. If you’re familiar with the scientific method, then you’re familiar with PDCA.

In Other News…

This girl made one of the best Halloween costumes I've seen this year. It's a little Ratatouille animatronic that sits on her head.
Ever wondered who invented the rice cooker? Me neither, but here you go. (Spoiler, it's actually a very interesting story.)
Technology and Disney really haven't been besties over the last 20 or so years. But, they just made a special business unit to develop their AI and augmented reality strategy. Also, two Disney references in one newsletter, that's a record.
NVIDIA to replace rival Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Is this drama? It seems like drama.
Forecasts show tech companies will spend around $200b on AI advancements this year.

Quote of the day

“By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work 12 hours a day.”

— Robert Frost

Thanks for reading and be sure to forward this on to another unsuspecting victim if you enjoyed it.

Disclaimer: Nothing in here is financial advice or career advice. If you follow my advice you will probably lose all of your money.

Lost in Space, Bridgit Mendler, a Ratatouille Costume, and a Gas Station for Rockets