Top News

1. Falcon Heavy flies first NRO mission with new core stage

Side boosters B1104 on its second flight and B1072 on its fourth flight landed at LZ-1 and LZ-2. New core stage B1106 was expended after its first flight. The mission was the fourteenth Falcon Heavy flight and the first NRO use of the vehicle under the 2025 NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 contract. Source: keeptrack.space Source: keeptrack.space

1. Crew-13 sets U.S. record for fastest trip to the ISS
   The Dragon capsule docked at the Harmony forward port 7 hours and 55 minutes after liftoff. Commander Jessica Watkins became the first Black woman to command a spacecraft during orbital insertion. The crew includes pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Booster B1101 on its third flight landed at LZ-40. Source: unn.ua Source: stratnewsglobal.com
2. Rheinmetall and Argotec place first joint satellite in orbit
   The satellite launched October 1 on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg and will detect ground indicators of airborne threats. Data will be processed with AI and fed directly into national air-defense command systems. The mission marks the start of Rheinmetall’s satellite-based situational-awareness capability. Source: rheinmetall.com
3. Google tests Trillium TPUs aboard Planet Labs satellite
   The prototype carries four Trillium chips powered by solar panels and launched on Transporter-18. Engineers previously shook the satellite on all axes and exposed chips to proton beams to simulate launch and radiation. Contact was confirmed shortly after launch and commissioning is underway. Source: officechai.com
4. University of Memphis professor begins xAI data-center emissions study
   Professor Chunrong Jia is measuring air-quality and noise impacts around the Memphis Colossus site. The work responds to rapid expansion of multiple data-center projects in the region. Source: dailyhelmsman.com
5. Dredging begins on canal network at Starbase Louisiana
   Small canals originally dug by Humble Oil are being widened for construction access. The network connects to the larger Bayou Freshwater Canal and will support future pad and production operations. Source: reddit.com

Community Buzz

1. Golden dragon zero-g indicator flies on Crew-13
   The capsule carried a golden dragon plush as its official zero-g indicator. Observers noted the toy floating during live NASA coverage of the docking. Source: collectspace.com
2. Kyrgyz Republic president watches Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg
   President Sadyr Zhaparov viewed the Transporter-18 liftoff in person. The visit coincided with the launch of Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite. Source: vandenberg.spaceforce.mil
3. Reddit users share Falcon Heavy night-launch photos
   Multiple images captured the three-core stack climbing shortly after midnight. Side-booster separation and landing burn footage drew particular attention. Source: reddit.com
4. Dragon hatch opening streamed live from the ISS
   Crew-13 members floated into the station through the pressurized vestibule shortly after docking. Watkins radioed thanks for the ride during the live NASA broadcast. Source: nasa.gov

The Counterpoint

One thing worth watching is the 830 million dollar sequestration cut now facing unspent defense reconciliation funds. Space and missile-defense lines funded through the bill could see reduced buying power though the Pentagon has not identified which accounts are short. The outcome depends on whether Congress restores the funds or accepts the automatic reduction.

AI & Compute

Engineering Deep Dive

The Google TPU test satellite illustrates the core thermal and radiation constraints of orbital compute. In vacuum, heat can only leave through radiation or conduction along heat pipes, so the team sized radiators to keep junction temperatures inside the Trillium operating window. Each chip must survive 50-to-100 g launch loads and cumulative proton fluence that can flip bits in memory; pre-flight proton-beam tests quantified the error rate and the mitigation code that will run on orbit. If the four-chip stack stays within power and thermal limits, the next design step becomes a larger array linked by optical inter-satellite links that could move raw training data at tens of terabits per second without ground stations. That architecture trades the high cost of lifting mass for the eightfold increase in solar energy available in sun-synchronous orbit, exactly the trade SpaceX’s Starship mass-to-orbit numbers are meant to improve. The Idiot Index here is the ratio of finished satellite cost to the raw silicon, solar cells, and aluminum radiator mass; every gram of radiation shielding or extra radiator area multiplies that index until reuse or higher launch cadence brings it down.

Market Watch

SPCX is at $148.07, -0.5% vs the previous close.

That's the day at SpaceX.

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