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TECH & AI
Report Says SpaceX Plans to Launch Space Data Center Test by Late 2027
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Reuters reported Tuesday that “two people who attended investor presentations” ahead of the SpaceX IPO have leaked exciting news about SpaceX’s plan for AI data centers in space: There will supposedly be a tech demo launched by the end of next year. That’s super soon when you consider the company has also said in its S-1 filing (also according to Reuters), that the related initiatives “involve significant technical complexity and unproven technologies, and may not achieve commercial viability.” Gizmodo is not a source of investment advice, but it seems like if you’re looking for a clear picture of a company’s proximity to a technological breakthrough, if that company is on the verge of an IPO, it might just be offering less than reliable predictions.

For instance, if you look at the Lyft prospectus, released just before that rideshare company’s 2019 IPO, you can read an awful lot about autonomous vehicles. The company said it was building a “world-class autonomous vehicle system at (its) Level 5 Engineering Center, with the goal of ensuring access to affordable and reliable autonomous technology.” The prospectus later says:

“Within 10 years, our goal is to have deployed a low-cost, scaled autonomous vehicle network that is capable of delivering a majority of the rides on the Lyft platform.” Almost exactly two years after the IPO, the aforementioned engineering division, Level 5, was sold to Toyota for $550 million. For all anyone knows, Lyft may still roll out a network of AV’s—it hasn’t given up altogether—but it’ll be tricky to do it by 2029 without the engineering division purpose-built for that job. So tech companies in the midst of IPOs can be a bit blustery. Nonetheless, this is far from the most outlandish of Elon Musk’s hi-tech fever dreams (ahem). According to SpaceX’s own artists’ rendering, space data centers will be satellites—big satellites, but otherwise not too different from what you probably picture when you close your eyes and imagine a satellite: a 20-foot by 70-foot structure, mostly made up of two solar panel “wings,” with another panel in the middle housing the silicon needed to train and run AI models. As one of my Gizmodo colleagues noted last year, “the company does appear uniquely well-positioned to lay the groundwork for orbital server farms.”

Any given expert analysis of the SpaceX plan to put AI data centers in space generally coalesces around the same points: it’s not impossible based on existing technology, but it’s intricate and fraught with potential drawbacks. Moreover, success would not clearly be a slam dunk when it comes to competing with earthbound hyperscalers.



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WORLD
Reuters: The price of SpaceX Starlink increased due to the US-Iraq war and the Pentagon was forced to foot the bill | International | Central News Agency CNA
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Please agree to our privacy policy to enable news listening. (Central News Agency, New York, Comprehensive Foreign Reports on the 26th) As American suicide drones guided by Elon Musk’s Starlink network began to achieve significant results in the U.S.-Iran War, SpaceX executives came to the conclusion that the Pentagon should pay more for the use of its satellite Wi-Fi network. According to two people familiar with the matter and Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, within weeks of the U.S. military’s bombing campaign against Iran, SpaceX executives met with Pentagon officials and argued that the military would only pay about $5,000 for each terminal to connect to it, while in fact using high-end services worth nearly $25,000. Five people familiar with the situation said in an interview that the two sides have differences over the use of Starlink on the LUCAS suicide drone. This affordable U.S. drone is comparable to Iran’s “Shahed” drone and can hover over a target area before diving, impacting and detonating. People familiar with the matter pointed out that unlike the consumer Starlink terminals sold in stores such as Walmart, SpaceX will sell a military version called “Starshield” to the Pentagon under a 2023 agreement. StarShield terminals can be connected to commercial Starlink satellites or to another independent satellite group also named “StarShield” with higher security. One of the sources revealed that SpaceX argued that the operating conditions of LUCAS drones were more consistent with its aviation-type subscription services, rather than lower-priced land or mobile services. Pentagon officials countered that the $25,000 monthly fee was designed for aircraft, not suicide drones that would only use Starlink for a few minutes or hours. The Pentagon, which is increasing its air strikes against Iran, finally agreed to SpaceX’s price increase request, nearly doubling the cost of each LUCAS drone. The Pentagon initially paid about $30,000 per drone. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. The Pentagon also declined to comment on Reuters reports on SpaceX’s price hikes, its payment decisions, or its plans to provide Starlink mobile phone service to Iranian citizens. Pentagon officials said in a statement that the Commercial Satellite Communications Office, which purchases the terminals, is working to find other competitors. (Compiled by: Liu Shuqin) 1150526 Support Central News Agency’s choice to stand with the facts. Every donation you make is a small amount of sponsorship to protect press freedom. Download the Central News Agency’s “First-hand News” APP to get the latest news in real time. The text, pictures and audio and video of this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast or publicly transmitted and used without authorization.



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TECH & AI
SpaceX Taps Crypto Billionaire to Lead First Crewed Mission to Mars
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SpaceX may have failed to get Starship V3 off the ground on Thursday, but the company revealed some interesting information in the lead-up to its launch attempt. With less than 15 minutes left in the countdown, commentators introduced the man who plans to lead SpaceX’s first crewed mission to Mars. During the live webcast, SpaceX played a video of cryptocurrency billionaire and civilian astronaut Chun Wang speaking from Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Wang, who has gone to space one time before, explained that he will embark on a Starship flyby of the Moon and Mars. SpaceX has not shared a target launch date for the mission, but it could be the world’s first interplanetary human spaceflight. Who is Chun Wang? Wang co-founded F2Pool, one of the first Bitcoin mining pools in China. Having made a fortune off his cryptocurrency venture, he now describes himself as a “full time traveler” and has taken an interest in commercial spaceflight in recent years.

Wang has flown to space one time before, having served as the commander of SpaceX’s Fram2 mission. Wang also funded the flight, which took him and three other first-time civilian astronauts on a three-day journey around Earth’s poles. They flew aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on March 31, 2025.

Wang’s upcoming mission to Mars will be a far greater feat. According to spacepolicyonline.com, the round-trip flight will take approximately two years. During the recorded interview with SpaceX Communications Manager Huot, however, Wang said he’s not worried about the long journey. “I can stare at the map view on airplanes all the way from takeoff through landing, so I think I’m going to enjoy the trip,” he said. But the journey from Starship V3’s first test flight to its first interplanetary mission could take even longer.

Starship V3 stumbles again After canceling Thursday’s launch attempt at the last minute due to a mechanical issue with the launch tower, SpaceX plans to try again today, targeting liftoff at 6:30 p.m. ET. You can watch live here. Anticipation for Starship V3’s first flight has been building for months. This newest iteration of the company’s super heavy-lift launch vehicle is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, and it’s critical to both SpaceX’s and NASA’s objectives. The agency originally planned to use a modified version of Starship V3 to return astronauts to the lunar surface, but due to significant developmental delays, it is also considering a lander being developed by Blue Origin. There is a large pipeline of V3 ships and boosters in the factory. The delay from last launch was due to the almost total redesign of the primary structure, engines, electronics and launch tower from V2. Failure today will not affect schedule by more than a month or so. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2026 “For NASA, it is borderline essential that this flight go pretty well,” Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, said in an X post prior to Thursday’s scrub. “Another six months of Starship developmental delays probably means that Blue Origin becomes the agency’s best option for a lunar landing in 2028 or 2029.”

That got Musk’s attention. “There is a large pipeline of V3 ships and boosters in the factory,” he replied. “The delay from last launch was due to the almost total redesign of the primary structure, engines, electronics and launch tower from V2. Failure today will not affect schedule by more than a month or so.” The issue that forced SpaceX to stand down from Thursday’s launch attempt had nothing to do with the rocket, so hopefully engineers can resolve it quickly and get this Starship V3 off the ground tonight. But if the vehicle experiences a string of early failures similar to what we saw with Starship V2, Wang could be waiting a long time for his trip to Mars.



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