In the early stages of the invasion of Ukraine, the defenders had a real advantage. They began using Starlink to gain Internet access via Elon Musk’s constellation of satellites. This allowed the military to coordinate and communicate securely across the country despite loss of cell phone infrastructure and problematic power grid issues. This also allowed them to make wide use of drones, for reconnaissance and for attacks. (Concerned about getting too involved in the war, Musk took steps to limit Ukraine’s access.) In contrast, Russian forces struggled with poor communications that e ..read more

Guest: Labor journalist, author Steven Greenhouse Also: Putin steals another election Trump tries to avoid coughing up $450M in NY... On today's BradCast: Given all of the ongoing madness, this story has not yet broken through all of the noise. But there is a concerted effort by several large corporations underway right now to undermine nearly 100 years of labor law in these United States. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.] After some news headlines from today and the past several, we're joined by longtime, award-winning labor journalist STEVEN GREENHOUSE, formerly of the New Yo ..read more

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Today’s IFT (integrated flight test) will have Spacex and NASA at least contemplating doing cartwheels. While it didn’t quite meet all of its stretch goals it came very close and exceeded its main goal by some distance. We will not know how well it actually did because so much data was collected. How successful the in flight propellant transfer performed will have to wait and there is a huge range of possible success and failure point with it. However they actually now have data to analyze a huge step forward. Recapping: After some holds and false starts caused by boaters failing to clear the ..read more

UPDATE at T+1:06 : Wheee! That was fun! The best part, if you don’t care about details, is at T+46. You can see plasma coming off the ship as it re-enters the atmosphere.  The whole thing has incredible views. The booster made it all the way to its landing burn. The payload doors opened, and apparently closed (although it’s not clear from the video if they really closed). The propellant transfer test completed.  No official info on how well it worked, but nothing blew up! The engine restart test was skipped.  My unofficial/amateur guess is that the gas thrusters didn’t hav ..read more

Intuitive Machines has landed its Odysseus spacecraft on the moon. And they are the first private company to achieve this feat.  Sorry, Tesla dude. 'Welcome to the Moon' After a round of somewhat muted applause, we've just heard CEO Steve Altemus tell his team: "welcome to the moon". Speaking to his team, Altemus says that Odysseus has found its "new home". They're still having some communications issues, but the team has confirmed that the spacecraft is on the surface of the moon and transmitting. Follow live BBC updates here: www.bbc.com ..read more

The latest tactic in the 2024 war on workers has made itself known! It’s claiming the federal agency created to protect them is “unconstitutional.” So far this year, three corporations—SpaceX, Trader Joe’s, and most recently, Amazon—have argued that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. Amazon made its “unconstitutional” filing Feb. 15, in response to allegations that the company violated federal labor laws by retaliating against warehouse workers who voted to unionize in 2022. Despite Amazon’s multimillion-dollar union-busting tactics, the Staten Island warehouse ..read more

The Delaware Chancery Court ruled on Tuesday that a nearly $56 billion compensation package awarded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2018 was invalid. The decision was made by Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the same judge who forced Musk to go through with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in 2022 after he tried to back out. That’s an even $100 billion that Musk has lost to the rulings of this single judge. Combined, this would be the single greatest loss of personal wealth in human history, except that someone topped it in 2023. And that someone … was also Elon Musk. The decision voiding ..read more

Hadn’t seen this yet here, so wanted to post it before hitting the lights. For this to have made it past the Journal’s lawyers and the Murdochs, things must be grave and off the rails. Headline—  Elon Musk Has Used Illegal Drugs, Worrying Leaders at Tesla and SpaceX Subhead— Some of executives and board members fear the billionaire’s use of drugs—including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine—could harm his companies www.wsj.com/… Two key grafs — “People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine, and that they are concerned ..read more

On Wednesday, the NLRB issued a complaint against SpaceX alleging that the company violated federal labor law by firing eight workers who wrote a letter critical of CEO Elon Musk. It wasn’t a particularly unusual complaint, especially by the current labor board’s standards. The proposed penalties were actually very minimal — the NLRB wants SpaceX to read a notice to employees, put up a poster that lists employees’ rights, undergo a training for management, and apologize to the impacted workers. Yet Musk, who has been openly anti-union for years, responded to the proposed slap on the ..read more