The Saturday Morning Newsletter #84
Successful Artemis II Launch, The Secret of Exploration, and Where Every President Fails
This Week I’m Tracking: 15 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 6 minutes of curated insights
Your weekly pulse check: The most important events in venture capital, energy, space, economics, intellectual property, philosophy, and more. I distill the most important developments across sectors I track, saving you hours of research while keeping you ahead of the curve.
New to these updates? They pair with our bi-weekly Brainwave analyses for comprehensive sector coverage. Wednesday’s deep dive explored assassinations, threats, cover-ups, and greed - catch up here.
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Let’s dive in.
#1: Mantis Space
Description: Mantis Space is a space and advanced energy startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Mantis Space recently raised $10M in venture capital funding. Mantis Space strives to build space-based energy infrastructure. Their goal is to create a satellite network that can beam power to other satellites in Earth’s shadow, ensuring they receive sufficient power. These types of innovations will be critical for the development of further space infrastructure, as everything relies on energy.
#2: Factorial
Description: Factorial is a solid-state battery developer.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Factorial recently raised venture capital funding. Factorial is set on pushing the limits of battery technology. Current lithium-ion technology is reaching its limits, with only diminishing marginal returns from new innovations. Solid-state batteries, like those produced by Factorial, are the future, offering high returns and greater potential.
#3: Vast
Description: Vast is a producer of commercial space stations.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Vast recently raised $300M in venture capital funding. Vast is developing the next generation of space stations for in-space habitation and scientific development. Their initial tests have proven successful on rocket deployments, with further tests planned. With recent news that the U.S. may pause a new space station deployment, this model may be in flux, but it’s too early to tell.
#4: Hawkeye 360
Description: Hawkeye 360 is a supplier of space-based radio frequency data.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Hawkeye 360 recently raised $23M in venture capital funding. Hawkeye 360 is developing technologies to scan the entire broadband for signals, helping governments identify bad actors and illegal activity. Additionally, this technology is crucial for early threat detection, ensuring that communication with all end parties is correctly validated.
#5: Pave Space
Description: Pave Space is a developer of orbital transfer vehicles.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Pave Space recently raised $40M in venture capital funding. Orbital mobility will be a critical component of space infrastructure. Satellites will need to be moved between orbits, and other spacecraft will need to be adjusted, especially if they lose propulsion. Pave Space is developing the initial prototype that enables this movement while in orbit.
NPR: Trump Takes Aim at Windmills Despite Increasing Energy Costs
President Trump is actively pushing companies to keep coal-powered plants online. Simultaneously, Trump is battling any and all attempts to expand wind energy. Not one windmill has been approved since Trump has been in office. The Administration’s goal is to keep this trend going.
The New York Times: Forest Service Will Close Research Stations Studying Wildfires
The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research facilities under a reorganization plan this week. This will threaten the science of studying wildfires, droughts, pests, and global warming. This comes at a time when the Western United States is suffering from record temperatures and prolonged drought, which will dramatically increase the risk of wildfires this summer.
The New York Times: Avalanche Dogs
Nothing is better than a wholesome story about cute dogs. Avalanche dogs are trained for years, playing elaborate games of hide-and-seek. The goal is to be able to find people buried under snow very quickly, before they suffocate, freeze, or starve. Using their noses, these dogs can track people and ensure they’re identified in the proper order.
The New York Times: Artemis II Astronauts Fly Away From Earth Toward the Moon
Hopefully, you, like millions around the globe, watched the live launch of the Artemis II rocket. It could turn out to be a pinnacle moment in the history of space. Currently, these astronauts are flying towards and around the Moon, testing systems to enable a moon landing in 2027 or 2028. This is crazy futuristic stuff, happening right now!
Reuters: NASA Plans to Build $20B Moon Base
NASA announced that it is canceling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead plan to build a $20B base on the Moon’s surface and send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars. These are unprecedented changes to the Artemis program, all based on returning to the Moon before China sends its astronauts in 2030.
Pitchbook: OpenAI Buys TBPN
This week, OpenAI acquired TBPN, the daily livestreamed talk show and podcast. This is their first acquisition of a media player, following a trend of companies bypassing traditional press outlets to reach consumers directly. OpenAI isn’t a normal, regular company. As such, this move makes a lot of sense—they can help control the narrative and showcase their company as they see fit in the open market.
TechCrunch: Building Diverse Teams
Building diverse founding teams in a company starts on day one. Starting with diversity makes it easier to continue, rather than having to adopt it later. Now, when it comes to startups, often a major influence is their capital provider(s). These individuals and groups, if they aren’t diverse, can have a major effect due to their outright or implicit biases (not to say that diverse groups don’t have that as well; it’s usually just less). Having diverse venture capital groups helps drive diversity and ultimately returns in startups.
The New York Times: Every President Tries It. It Never Works
Every president tries to return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. They’ve all found it’s extremely hard, and not necessarily in favor of the country’s long-term interests. When presidents try to reverse this trend, they mostly only succeed in shifting jobs from one industry to another rather than expanding the pie overall. There are many economic costs we have to bear when manufacturing is returned—is that worth the benefits? Opponents argue there are smarter economic strategies out there.
Lexology: Key IP Trends in 2025
This author summarizes key intellectual property trends that shaped the industry in 2025:
Redefining ownership using AI
Patent filing gets smarter and faster
Digital content protection and copyright reform
Fighting deepfakes and counterfeits
Surge in multi-jurisdictional IP litigation and online hearings
Harmonizing global IP laws
Surge in trade secrets litigation
The Wall Street Journal: The Secret to America’s Success in Exploring the World
I loved some of the nuggets from this recent article, leading up to the fantastic Artemis II launch.
This author explores how and why Americans have been leading the world in the exploration of our world and beyond. Classic qualities like grit, determination, and perseverance help, but there’s more.
Firstly, the free market system, combined with strong intellectual property laws, rewards innovation and risk-taking. This encourages explorers to go out and dare.
Second, explorers have always been able to tap into large pools of capital to finance their ventures, whether from the private or public markets. These fund initiatives that otherwise may not have happened.
I think it’s super interesting to dwell on this combination of factors that has driven the U.S. to now be launching humans back around the Moon. We’re built to explore—and we’re built so everyone has a shot to do that if they so desire.
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
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Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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Next Deep Dive: Opponents of Venture Capital - April 15th, 2026
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