Evening Edition No. 8
NASA Hires Three Companies to Carry Its Spacecraft's Calls Home, a Giant Free AI Model Arrives, and a Pancreatic Cancer Pill Reaches 5,000 Patients
Covers Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 6:00 PM ET to Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 6:00 PM ET
NASA picks Astranis, Global Enterprise Solutions and Viasat to build the next relay network for its spacecraft, Moonshot sets free its Kimi K3.1 Pro model, SpaceX picks Qualcomm for Starlink Mobile's ground network, Joby says its air taxi is in the last stage of FAA approval, a pancreatic cancer pill reaches more than 5,000 patients, the Space Force chief talks about a Russian satellite that tailed a radar satellite, the bank regulator sets out how to check AI that acts on its own, Schroders puts a bond fund on Solana, and Xiaomi's humanoid robots work a full factory shift.
In 60 Seconds
- NASA hired three companies, with contracts worth up to about $1.07 billion together, to build a new network of relay satellites that carries messages between spacecraft and Earth.
- Moonshot AI put its Kimi K3.1 Pro model online for anyone to download. It is the highest scoring free-to-download model on one leading scorecard.
- Voters in local races turned down data center plans in 37 of the 38 measures called so far, in early, unofficial results.
- Also: a pancreatic cancer pill reached more than 5,000 patients in its first weeks, and Xiaomi says its humanoid robots worked a full 8-hour shift in its car factory.
On the Dashboard
Lead Signal
NASA picks three companies to carry its spacecraft's calls home
NASA announced Wednesday that it picked Astranis, Global Enterprise Solutions and Viasat to develop commercial relay services in the A band of high radio frequencies, roughly 26 to 40 gigahertz, that can carry large amounts of data between spacecraft and the ground. In the Glossary, a high radio frequency that can carry a lot of data. A A satellite that passes signals between other spacecraft and the ground, like a cell tower in the sky, so a spacecraft can send data home without waiting to fly over a ground station. In the Glossary works like a cell tower in the sky: a spacecraft sends its data up to the relay, and the relay passes it down to Earth, so the spacecraft does not have to wait until it flies over a ground station. NASA's own relay fleet, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, is getting old and being retired, and NASA wants to buy the service from companies instead of owning the satellites. The contracts are firm-fixed-price, which means the company, not the taxpayer, covers any cost overruns. The most each company can be paid is $264.3 million for Astranis, $340.4 million for Global Enterprise Solutions and $460.9 million for Viasat, about $1.07 billion in all. The first phase runs from Nov. 4, 2026 to May 3, 2027, and options can stretch the work through 2029, ending with a test in space. NASA says the services must be "compatible with current missions in space," so spacecraft already flying can use them without changes.
The Desks
[AI] AI Models
Moonshot sets free Kimi K3.1 Pro, a 2.8 trillion parameter model anyone can download
Moonshot AI, a company in Beijing, put Kimi K3.1 Pro on Hugging Face on Wednesday, keeping its promise to share the model's The numbers an AI model learns during training. Publishing them lets anyone download the model and run it themselves. In the Glossary by Nov. 4. Weights are the numbers a model learns in training; publishing them lets anyone download the model and run it on their own computers. The model has 2.8 trillion The settings an AI model learns during training. More parameters usually means a bigger, more capable model. In the Glossary in all, but it is a An AI model design that sends each word to only a few specialist parts of the model, so just a slice of it does the work at once and it costs less to run. In the Glossary: it is split into 896 smaller expert parts and only 16 of them work on each word, so it uses about 104 billion parameters at a time. It reads text and pictures and can hold about a million A small piece of a word that an AI model reads or writes. A model's memory, or context, is measured in tokens. In the Glossary, small pieces of words, in mind at once. The full download is about 1.56 terabytes, Runtime Wire reports, far more than a home computer can run. Moonshot's own blog lists strong test scores, which it measured itself, and says it removed cyberattack material before release. The license is not fully open: companies with more than $20 million in yearly sales that sell the model's answers need a separate deal, OrcaRouter explains. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 46, the highest of any downloadable model, while the top overall, Gemini 4 Carbon (High), rose to 60. "We'll keep advancing open intelligence," Moonshot said.
[ORBIT] Satellites and Orbit
SpaceX picks Qualcomm to build the ground side of Starlink Mobile
SpaceX chose Qualcomm to supply 5G The radio equipment on a cell tower that sends and receives signals from phones. In the Glossary equipment for the ground part of SpaceX's satellite internet service, delivered by thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit to small dishes on homes, ships and planes. In the Glossary Mobile, its phone service, Qualcomm announced Wednesday morning. A base station is the radio box on a cell tower that talks to your phone. Qualcomm will provide its Dragonwing QRU100 and QDU100 platforms and radio units, which use Cell tower antennas made of many small elements that can talk to many phones at once on the same airwaves. In the Glossary, antennas with many small parts that can serve many phones at once on the same The range of radio frequencies used by phones, TV, Wi-Fi and drones. MHz, or megahertz, measures where a band sits and how wide it is. In the Glossary. The deal covers "tens of thousands of sites" over several years, with a nationwide U.S. rollout starting in 2027. Starlink already beams service from satellites straight to some phones, which helps in places with no towers at all; adding towers on the ground would carry heavier traffic in towns and cities, while satellites cover the gaps. SpaceX said the equipment gives "a flexible foundation for a multi-band network," Via Satellite reports. The dollar value was not shared.
[AIR] Air Mobility
Joby says its air taxi is in the last stage of FAA approval, and its sales climb
Joby Aviation reported $55 million in sales for July to September, most of it from Blade, the helicopter and plane booking service it owns, and raised its 2026 sales outlook by 15% to $135 million to $140 million. Blade flew more than 44,000 passengers in the quarter. Joby says its electric A small aircraft, usually an eVTOL, meant to carry a few passengers on short trips across or between cities, booked much like a ride-hailing car. In the Glossary is in the fifth and final stage of FAA The FAA's formal approval that an aircraft design is safe to build and fly for customers. In the Glossary, the government's check that an aircraft's design is safe, and that FAA pilots have finished a wide range of test flights that count toward approval. It has 17 aircraft in production and $2.2 billion in cash. Joby says its J208, a small plane fitted with self-flying technology, made the first fully autonomous civilian flight across the United States, and its Air Force contracts for self-flying work now total about $37 million, StockTitan's copy of the release shows. CEO JoeBen Bevirt pointed to "completing a wide range of 'for credit' testing with the FAA." Not investment advice.
[MED] Medicine
A new pancreatic cancer pill reaches more than 5,000 patients in its first weeks
Revolution Medicines said Wednesday at 4:02 PM ET that more than 5,000 patients in the U.S. were treated with A medicine that blocks RAS, a protein switch that gets stuck on in many cancers, including most pancreatic cancers, and keeps tumors growing. In the Glossary (daraxonrasib) by the end of September, about five weeks after it went on sale. Sales were $197.6 million in that time, including the first stocking of pharmacies. Rasonque is a RAS inhibitor, a medicine that blocks RAS, a protein switch that gets stuck on in most pancreatic cancers and keeps tumors growing. The FDA approved it on Aug. 26 for pancreatic cancer that has spread, GEN reports, after a trial in which patients on the pill lived a median of 13.2 months, against 6.7 months on chemotherapy. The FDA has now given a third An FDA label that gives a promising drug for a serious disease extra help and a faster review. In the Glossary, a fast lane for promising drugs, to using it as a first treatment together with chemotherapy, and European regulators have recommended approval. The list price is $39,800 a month. "This drug showed unprecedented results in an area of high unmet need," the FDA's Dr. Angelo de Claro said at approval.
[DEF] Defense
The Space Force chief talks about a Russian satellite that tailed a commercial radar satellite
Gen. Douglas Schiess, the Space Force's top officer, said Wednesday that his service tracked Russia's Cosmos 2612 satellite as it moved close to ICEYE-X36, a radar imaging satellite owned by the Finnish company ICEYE, and kept U.S. Space Command informed, DefenseScoop reports. He spoke at a Mitchell Institute event. The tracking company LeoLabs reported in October that from Oct. 15 to 19 the Russian satellite closed from about 400 kilometers away to 2 to 3 kilometers, at times about 500 meters. Moving one satellite close to another on purpose is called a rendezvous and proximity operation; it can be used to inspect, repair or threaten. LeoLabs said the moves do not prove the Russian satellite meant harm, and Breaking Defense called them potentially dangerous. "We're making sure that we get lessons learned from that," Schiess said. The U.S. has said only that it is watching.
[POLICY] Law and Policy
The bank regulator tells examiners how to check AI that acts on its own
The The Treasury Department office that charters and supervises national banks. In the Glossary, which oversees national banks, issued Bulletin 2026-54 on Wednesday, its first framework for how bank examiners should review AI. The 20-page document, titled "AI that would be smarter than the best humans at nearly every task. No such system exists yet; some labs are working toward it and others warn about it. In the Glossary: Guidance that tells examiners how to review something at the companies they oversee. It does not create new rules. In the Glossary," sorts AI systems into four risk tiers by what happens if they fail, not by how advanced they are. The riskiest tier covers AI software that takes actions on its own, such as making a payment or booking a trip, instead of only answering questions. In the Glossary, programs that take actions on their own, that move payments, make instant credit decisions or release fraud holds. The lowest covers office tools for staff. The OCC suggests safeguards such as An automatic stop that halts a system when it behaves strangely, so people can check what went wrong. In the Glossary, automatic stops when a system behaves oddly, plus limits on how fast it can act and kill switches, and controls on AI agents that customers send to their banks. It warns that "An agentic system could remain available while taking inappropriate or harmful actions." The bulletin is guidance for examiners and does not create new rules, Decrypt notes.
[TOKEN] Tokenized Assets
Schroders puts an emerging markets bond fund on the Solana blockchain
Schroders, a London fund manager that looks after about $1.1 trillion, launched a tokenized version of its Emerging Market Bond fund on the A public blockchain built for fast, low-cost transactions, used for payments, tokens and tokenized funds. In the Glossary blockchain with the Something of value, such as a bond, a fund share or a building, whose ownership is recorded as a digital token on a blockchain so it can be traded and settled at any hour. In the Glossary company Centrifuge, The Block reports. Emerging market bonds are loans to governments and companies in growing economies such as Brazil, India or Indonesia. Investors buy tokens of a A smaller fund that puts all its money into a larger main fund, often so different kinds of investors can reach it. In the Glossary, a small fund that puts all its money into the larger main fund, which holds about $2.2 billion, Cryptoast reports. It is Schroders' first fund on Solana. The size of the token fund, the minimum investment and who may buy were not shared. Schroders' John Mensack said the aim is to make funds "more accessible and fit for the future." Tokenized In blockchain finance, a traditional asset that exists outside the blockchain, such as a Treasury bill, a loan or a building, represented by a token on one. Often shortened to RWA. In the Glossary now total $39.40 billion, up from $39.27 billion on Tuesday, per RWA.xyz.
[WILD] Wildcard
Xiaomi's humanoid robots work a full 8-hour shift in its car factory
Xiaomi says its A robot built in roughly human shape, with arms, hands and often legs, so it can work in places and with tools designed for people. In the Glossary worked a full 8-hour shift in its electric car factory, sorting the side covers that fit around a car's center console and catching and fixing their own mistakes, Electrek reports. In March the robots managed a 90.2% success rate over 3 hours, with a How long it takes to finish one round of a repeated task, such as sorting one part on a factory line. In the Glossary, the time to finish one round of the task, of 76 seconds, and by July Xiaomi said they reached 98%. Xiaomi did not share how many parts were sorted this time, the success rate, or how often a person had to step in. Founder Lei Jun has said he wants humanoid robots working at large scale across Xiaomi's factories within 5 years. Xiaomi called the shift "another step toward real-world industrial deployment."
Watch
Fresh uploads from our usual channels were thin today, so these are in case you missed them.
Play video: Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, episode 307 (Oct. 31): how AI is moving the stock market, Google's profit pressure, and Sam Altman's latest comments.
Play video: All-In (Oct. 30): the hosts on Anthropic's filing to go public and Google's market drop.Disclosure: Singularity Nightly is drafted with help from Anthropic's Claude. We cover Anthropic like any other company.
Voices
- Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, on AI that helps build the next AI: "The point where human and machine intelligence converge, and together set off advances so fast and so large that nobody can picture what comes after. Ray Kurzweil, who popularized the idea, frames it as people merging with the intelligence they build. In the Glossary is now its own lead engineer." source (opinion)
By the Numbers
- $1.07 billion: the most NASA could pay the three relay companies together. NASA
- 2.8 trillion: parameters in Kimi K3.1 Pro, about 104 billion at work at a time. Hugging Face
- 60: the new top score on the A combined score from Artificial Analysis, an independent testing company, that ranks AI models across many reasoning, knowledge, math and coding tests. Higher is better. In the Glossary, Gemini 4 Carbon (High). Artificial Analysis
- 0: orbital launches worldwide in the window; 256 so far in 2026. Launch Library 2
- 5,000+: U.S. patients treated with Rasonque in about five weeks. Revolution Medicines
- 13.2 vs. 6.7 months: The point in a trial by which half the patients have died and half are still alive. A longer median means a treatment helps people live longer. In the Glossary on Rasonque against chemotherapy in its main trial. GEN
- $55 million: Joby's quarterly sales. Joby Not investment advice.
- 37 of 38: local A building full of computers that store data and run online services. Data centers for AI use large amounts of electricity. In the Glossary ballot measures called so far that went against data centers, unofficial. State Capital Lobbyist
- 4: risk tiers in the OCC's AI framework for banks. OCC
- 8 hours: the factory shift Xiaomi's humanoid robots completed. Electrek
- 47: novel drugs approved by the FDA in 2026, unchanged. FDA
- $39.40 billion: tokenized real-world assets, excluding A digital token designed to stay worth a fixed amount, usually one U.S. dollar, backed by cash and safe assets such as Treasury bills. In the Glossary. RWA.xyz Not investment advice.
Tomorrow's Watchlist
- Thu Nov. 5, 8:10 AM ET: When astronauts in spacesuits leave their spacecraft to work outside it. In the Glossary to install the last two new solar arrays on the space station.
- Thu Nov. 5, about 11:00 AM ET: Long March 2C launch from China.
- Thu Nov. 5: Agility Robotics begins trading on Nasdaq as AGLT; AASLD liver meeting opens in Denver (to Nov. 9).
- Fri Nov. 6: American Heart Association meeting begins (to Nov. 9); Ceres-2 launch from China, about 6:35 PM ET; Falcon 9 USSF-432 from Vandenberg, 7:46 PM ET (date may move).
- Sun Nov. 8: Precision BioSciences presents hepatitis B Tools that change a specific spot in a person's DNA, like fixing a typo in a long document. CRISPR is the best-known method. In the Glossary results at AASLD.
- Coming up: Archer results Nov. 9; Falcon 9 USSF-627 Nov. 9, 10:03 PM ET; Vulcan returns with Amazon Leo satellites Nov. 13, 12:54 PM ET; Electron's 100th flight Nov. 14; A missile that flies like a small, pilotless plane, low and steady, to its target. In the Glossary answers and the FCC open meeting on drone airwaves Nov. 19.