Month: September 2023

Enlarge / Gen. Chance Saltzman, the top general on the US Space Force, testifies before a Senate subcommittee in March. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Like the US Navy has long protected sea lanes during conflict, the military could be called upon to defend commercial satellites from attack, particularly as the Pentagon relies more on commercial networks for communication and surveillance, the Space Force's top general said last week.

In comments at a conference in Hawaii on September 20, Gen. Chance Saltzman echoed many statements made by military leaders over the last few years: US military space capabilities are under threat from China and Russia, military leaders need more information about what other countries are doing in space, and commercial satellites are playing an ever-larger role in the military's space programs.

But Saltzman went a little further in his comments when asked about the military's role in protecting commercial satellites from an attack. The questioner specifically asked how the US military might respond if Russia attacked SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, which Ukraine widely uses for Internet connectivity in its war with Russia, despite Elon Musk's refusal to allow Ukraine to employ Starlink services on certain military operations.

Enlarge / Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith (black hat) walks with Jeff Bezos after his flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard into space in July 2021. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

After six years of running Blue Origin, Bob Smith announced in a company-wide email on Monday that he will be "stepping aside" as chief executive of the space company founded by Jeff Bezos.

"It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin's greatest achievements are still ahead of us," Smith wrote in an email. "We've rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business."

Shortly after Smith's email, a Blue Origin spokesperson said the company's new chief executive will be Dave Limp, who stepped down as Amazon's vice president of devices and services last month.

Enlarge / Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith (black hat) walks with Jeff Bezos after his flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard into space in July 2021. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

After six years of running Blue Origin, Bob Smith announced in a company-wide email on Monday that he will be "stepping aside" as chief executive of the space company founded by Jeff Bezos.

"It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin's greatest achievements are still ahead of us," Smith wrote in an email. "We've rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business."

Shortly after Smith's email, a Blue Origin spokesperson said the company's new chief executive will be Dave Limp, who stepped down as Amazon's vice president of devices and services last month.

Enlarge / Ted Miller, manager of Ford Battery Cell Research and Advanced Engineering, holds a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery during a presentation on Monday, February 13, 2023 at Ford Ion Park in Romulus, Michigan. (credit: Ford)

The past couple of years have seen a flurry of newly announced battery factories in North America. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is the main reason—it ties an electric vehicle's federal tax credit to domestically sourced batteries, among other conditions, so automakers have been scrambling to build that capacity locally. But today's news is rather more unusual. According to the Detroit News, Ford is pushing pause on one such facility, suspending all work on the $3.5 billion project.

The plant in question is called Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan, located in Marshall, Michigan. Ford announced the new site in February, which it said would be responsible for making lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. This is a less energy-dense chemistry than lithium-ion chemistries (like nickel cobalt manganese or nickel cobalt aluminum), but it can tolerate more charging cycles and is cheaper to make.

Intellectually property issues have meant LFP cells have been uncommon in EVs outside of China, but that's beginning to change; Tesla fits some of its EVs with LFP cells, and Ford secured supplies of LFP cells from the Chinese battery company CATL for use in the Mustang Mach-E crossover and from next year, the F-150 Lightning pickup truck.

Enlarge / Ted Miller, manager of Ford Battery Cell Research and Advanced Engineering, holds a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery during a presentation on Monday, February 13, 2023 at Ford Ion Park in Romulus, Michigan. (credit: Ford)

The past couple of years have seen a flurry of newly announced battery factories in North America. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is the main reason—it ties an electric vehicle's federal tax credit to domestically sourced batteries, among other conditions, so automakers have been scrambling to build that capacity locally. But today's news is rather more unusual. According to the Detroit News, Ford is pushing pause on one such facility, suspending all work on the $3.5 billion project.

The plant in question is called Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan, located in Marshall, Michigan. Ford announced the new site in February, which it said would be responsible for making lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. This is a less energy-dense chemistry than lithium-ion chemistries (like nickel cobalt manganese or nickel cobalt aluminum), but it can tolerate more charging cycles and is cheaper to make.

Intellectually property issues have meant LFP cells have been uncommon in EVs outside of China, but that's beginning to change; Tesla fits some of its EVs with LFP cells, and Ford secured supplies of LFP cells from the Chinese battery company CATL for use in the Mustang Mach-E crossover and from next year, the F-150 Lightning pickup truck.

Enlarge / A woman walks past a WhatsApp logo during a Meta event in Mumbai, India in September 2023. (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has "collected thousands of staff messages from more than a dozen major investment companies" as it expands a probe into how employees and executives at Wall Street firms use private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Signal, Reuters reported today, citing "four people with direct knowledge of the matter."

Firms being investigated include Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management, KKR & Co., TPG, Blackstone, and hedge fund companies including Citadel, Reuters wrote. Senior executives are among the employees whose messages were reportedly collected.

"The executives gave their personal phones and other devices to their employers or lawyers to be copied, and messages discussing business have been handed to the SEC, three people said," according to Reuters.