Managing Editor’s Note: Tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET, Jeff is airing an important strategy session…
He’ll share the details of a strategy he’s developed for profiting from volatility in the crypto market.
Using a specially designed neural network, he’s leveraging the power of AI to help identify digital assets that are, according to the patterns that normally precede such swings, on the cusp of a surge.
We’re kicking things off at 8 p.m. ET, and you can go here to automatically add your name to the guest list.
Rocket envy.
It must be an affliction of billionaires.
First, make a fortune from other business ventures.
Then, use those ventures as a platform to pursue deep tech and invest for a decade-plus, losing money in pursuit of a big dream that could have a major impact on humanity.
Elon Musk’s vision for SpaceX is to enable the human race to become a multi-planetary species.
It’s an incredible goal. And it gives humans a backup plan in case things go pear-shaped on Earth – think global nuclear war or a direct strike by a massive comet or interstellar object.
A self-sustaining colony on Mars – or another moon in our solar system – could be our species’ only hope of survival.
Of course, that comes before inventing some form of advanced propulsion to deal with the vast expanse of our own galaxy, where NASA has already confirmed 6,045 exoplanets. (For the curious, you can find the database of these exoplanets right here.)
Notable billionaires who have dreamt big and pursued seemingly impossible endeavors are:
Last week was a huge victory for these dreamers, as the team at Blue Origin successfully launched its massive New Glenn rocket for just the second time.
It reached orbit… then successfully launched NASA’s two spacecraft ESCAPADE missions to Mars.
Even more exciting is that Blue Origin successfully demonstrated the return of New Glenn’s first-stage booster.
The booster returned to its recovery ship, Jacklyn – a floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.
This feat mirrors SpaceX’s approach to reusing rockets, having successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster on a drone ship for the first time on April 8, 2016, almost a decade ago.
New Glenn First Stage Returning to Earth | Source: Blue Origin
Blue Origin’s success last week is an incredible moment in history.
It is now only the second company to demonstrate the reusability of a heavy launch vehicle.
It also means that SpaceX now has a legitimate competitor in launching payloads into Earth’s orbit.
New Glenn’s first-stage booster stands at 57.5 meters compared to the SpaceX Super Heavy at 72.3 meters.
Both first stages are powered by liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (CH4).
The main difference is in the rocket engines.
The New Glenn uses 7 of the BE-4 engines (shown below), whereas the SpaceX Super Heavy uses 33 Raptor engines.
Blue Origin BE-4 Rocket Engines | Source: Blue Origin
This results in the New Glenn booster being capable of 3.85 million lbf (pounds of force) of thrust… versus the Super Heavy at 18.2 million lbf – roughly 4.7 times more thrust.
This equates to Blue Origin supporting payloads of 45 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO)… versus SpaceX at 100–150 tons to LEO.
What matters is that there are now two options for heavy launch vehicles in the aerospace industry capable of reusable rockets and large payloads into Earth’s orbit.
Of course, Musk congratulated the Blue Origin team on the success.
One might wonder why.
Smart executives know that in an emerging market like the burgeoning space economy, the ultimate goal is to increase the size of the industry, not to try to hoard it all.
A healthy industry with many successful players in the space economy results in even greater success. It’s not a zero-sum game.
Which is why Blue Origin’s success is so important.
It doesn’t matter if it is a decade behind SpaceX. What matters is that it made it.
And it accomplished what only one other company in history has been able to demonstrate.
What’s also striking is that all the companies doing the most incredible things in the aerospace industry right now – from reusable rockets to commercial space stations, to hypersonic aircraft/spacecraft – are almost entirely private companies.
It’s the renegades, the savants, and the entrepreneurs that are on the bleeding edge of aerospace technology…
Not the massive, well-funded, well-connected, well-entrenched, publicly traded aerospace companies.
How ironic.
And what a missed opportunity for those aerospace companies.
Fortunately, the world will benefit greatly for these innovators breaking the rules, thinking outside the box, and proving what many thought was impossible, to be possible.
And fortunately, Bezos’ rocket envy extends beyond Blue Origin’s desire to compete with Musk and SpaceX…
These kinds of competitive rivalries might appear silly to some. But in reality, they accelerate innovation, create jobs, and drive even more exciting breakthroughs.
Announced just a couple of days ago, Jeff Bezos is returning to an operational role in a new company currently known as Project Prometheus.
Project Prometheus was just founded with a mind-blowing $6.2 billion in seed capital, funded by Bezos himself and other undisclosed deep-pocketed investors.
The reported goal for the AI startup is to build products for engineering and manufacturing in computers, aerospace, and the automotive industry.
Sound familiar?
It sure sounds like the AI initiatives that Musk has undertaken at Tesla, SpaceX, and, most recently, xAI.
Project Prometheus is already staffed with about 100 AI researchers from companies like Meta, Google DeepMind, and OpenAI. The capital is clearly there.
Startups like this aren’t really startups, however. They are extremely well-capitalized companies with almost no capital constraints… and the ability to incentivize employees at levels that large, publicly traded corporations simply can’t.
Congratulations to Jeff Bezos and the team at Blue Origin for a historic accomplishment. And let’s hope that Project Prometheus is successful in even more breakthroughs.
What we’re experiencing right now is a radical shift in how research and development are performed, and new product development takes place.
Processes that have been in place for decades are being scrapped for faster, cheaper, better, tech-enabled product development, iteration, testing, and commercialization.
Smaller, nimble, well-funded startups can leverage capital far greater than large incumbents can, leading to leaps in performance and efficiency in nearly every industry.
Opportunity is everywhere.
The capital for great ideas and great people is abundant.
And the world that we once thought of as science fiction… is upon us today.
Jeff
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
