🛰️  Space for lease

👋  Heads up! No, literally: NASA’s 3.2k-pound Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope is due to plunge back to Earth tomorrow. Launched in 2004, the orbital space telescope is sadly not expected to survive its reentry after spending the last two decades gazing at the cosmos and providing data for ~7k scientific papers. What goes up, must come down. 

NEWS FLASH 

🧵 Nice threads: Love cashmere but not the price tag, fussy upkeep, and environmental toll? In time for sweater season, the startup Everbloom has developed a cheaper and easier-to-wash alternative with the look and feel of cashmere. Renoa, the first new fiber to receive FTC approval in 25 years, is made from waste proteins, like cashmere and wool scraps, and feather "lint," which is processed with a biodegradable polymer to mimic natural fibers. The company's first products are expected to hit shelves next year.

📸 Just point and shoot: In need of a videographer or photographer for a last-minute product shoot, or maybe a spontaneous elopement? Welsh startup FrameGo aims to connect anyone looking for on-demand creative work with local talent as easily as ordering an Uber. The app allows users to search for vetted "storytellers" based on style, budget, and availability, with built-in communication and real-time tracking. There are also built-in scheduling and travel time buffers, and cancellation policies for both parties.

🦟 Solving a pesky problem: Chinese startup Photon Matrix just started selling its $1k AI-powered laser that tracks mosquitoes using self-driving car sensors and burns off their wings mid-flight. If being bite-free for the summer sounds too good to be true, there’s a tiny catch: The tech uses a Class 4 laser, the most powerful classification, which can cause retinal injury in under a second. Buyers have to pass a 15-question safety test and register a fingerprint before the device will fire, and the company’s already racked up 5k prepaid orders.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Off the beaten path: National park officials and other wilderness experts warn that hikers are increasingly outsourcing critical decision-making to AI chatbots when they hit the trail, a habit that could potentially lead to dangerous missteps.
  
• Better late than never? My Chemical Romance’s 2006 album “The Black Parade” just hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the first time — 20 years after release. It’s the longest wait ever for an album to top the chart, fueled by a 20th-anniversary reissue that spiked weekly sales 653%.
  
  
• But did they see it coming? Psychics are pushing back on a growing trend of AI-powered psychic readings that they say risk inaccurate hallucinations and mental health concerns. Meanwhile, startup MysticTwin recruits psychics to create AI doubles that serve clients while they sleep (and collect 50% of revenue).
  
• Crypto bank run: Binance customers pulled $4.6B+ from the exchange after it suffered the largest crypto heist ever — a $6.3B theft which the FBI linked to North Korea — though Binance says the withdrawals represent just 2.1% of its $171B in total assets.
  

YOUR SECOND BRAIN

Why does one need an AI wiki?

So that every LLM you prompt has the same layer of context. And you save yourself from typing out the same spiels, day after day.

This is how you build a second brain in Obsidian, a free, local note-taking app. AI educator Matt Wolfe published his silo-busting system for:

1. Setting up your Obsidian vault files
2. Writing core brief documents
3. Configure cross-linking
4. Install a one-click capture extension
5. Link with your AI tool of choice
6. Install a weekly checkup workflow

Made for marketers. Useful for anyone.

Build your knowledge vault

THE BIG IDEA

The ISS is retiring — this startup wants its spot

Congratulations on a long career, International Space Station (ISS) — they’re hard to come by these days.

There'll be some large shoes to fill when it retires around 2030. But one company hasn’t been shy about a promotion.

Meet Axiom Station, a commercial space station hoping to replace the International Space Station (ISS).

So while the ISS gets ready to sip Tang on Myrtle Beach, Axiom Space keeps adding to the ol’ resume...

“Every month matters with the ISS retiring at the end of the decade, which is why we’re moving forward on Axiom Station now,” an Axiom representative told The Hustle.

How it started

Axiom was founded in 2016 by Kam Ghaffarian and Michael Suffredini. Suffredini managed the ISS program from 2005 to 2015. They saw the need for a new space station and later joined the NASA Private Astronaut Mission Program, where Axiom Space ran four private astronaut missions in four years.

Those missions saw:

• 14 astronauts from 11 nations
  
• 160+ research activities
  
• 50+ research partners

“Each mission rehearsed what Axiom Station will need to be operational, so crews, ground teams, and the platform will be ready from day one,” the representative said.

Aiming for the stars

Axiom needs to receive a “yes” from NASA. Once it does, the company is ready for blast off.

Since its four initial missions, Axiom has:

• Raised a $525m+ round, which mostly went toward construction.
  
• Been building Module 1 in Turin, Italy, which will launch no earlier than 2028, with Module 2 following less than a year later. 
  
• Already signed 50+ international agreements.
  
• A fifth private astronaut mission is set for 2027.

Governments are the company's anchor customers, followed by researchers, manufacturers, defense agencies, and orbital data centers.

What's ahead

Axiom Space will have a continuously crewed space station, providing global customers with uninterrupted access to microgravity and returning benefits from research, discovery, and in-space manufacturing to Earth — and continuing to work side by side with NASA.

The company also holds NASA’s sole contracts for next-gen moon suits, built in partnership with Prada, Oakley, and Nokia.

Enjoy your meeting-less Mondays, ISS!

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Under three months… might be all the time you need to build a $10k/month app. Here’s how. 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How much the number of first-time entrepreneurs selling on Shopify has grown since 2018.

The company attributes the jump to falling barriers to starting a business: less capital required, fewer specialized skills needed, and AI tools doing work that used to require a whole team.

Business applications in the US have also hit historic highs in recent years, suggesting entrepreneurship is having a real moment.

Maybe it’s time to add “building something” to your LinkedIn bio?

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 1998, Minnesota elected ex-pro wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura as its governor.

🤯  Whoa: Behind the scenes of Wildwood, the longest stop-motion film ever made.

🔭  Behold: NASA’s latest images of the Cat’s Head Nebula.

🗳  Haha: If ever there’s a day for The Onion’s voting simulator game, it’s today. Beware some NSFW bits.

🐳  Aww: When will the long cycle of puppy-on-whale violence be broken?

SHOWER THOUGHT

Saturn's shadow falls on its rings, and the rings' shadow falls on Saturn.  SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Danny Jensen and Bill Meincke.

Editing by: Sara "A little space, please?" Friedman.

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