THE TICKER[LAUNCH] AST SpaceMobile will build its own rocket, Blacklift, with Firefly engines, in a deal of more than $1.3 billion.[LAUNCH] Europe's reusable Prometheus methane engine fired and restarted several times on an upgraded test stand in Germany.[LAUNCH] SpaceX's Starship Flight 15, which will try to catch both its booster and its ship, is in final checks for no earlier than Nov. 13 and still needs FAA approval.[LAUNCH] Italy's Avio scaled back its reusable rocket engine test program after technical trouble, with about 101 million euros of 217.5 million spent.[LAUNCH] No orbital launches flew worldwide in the window so far; the 2026 count stays at 257, with China's Ceres-2 and a Falcon 9 for the Space Force set for tonight.[ORBIT] The Space Force picked Viasat to build the control room for its Space Data Network, a contract worth up to $450 million.[ORBIT] Europe's Trace Gas Orbiter caught hydrogen chloride gas rising from fresh cracks on the Martian volcano Alba Mons, a hint that Mars may not be fully asleep.[ORBIT] Hubble shared a new picture of M30, a ball of ancient stars about 27,500 light-years away.[AIR] Wing, Alphabet's drone delivery company, will spend up to $125 million on a drone factory in Fort Worth, Texas.[AIR] Axon, the police body camera maker, is putting $1.2 billion more into drone maker Skydio, and Axon's stock fell about 18% Friday after weak quarterly results. Not investment advice.[AIR] Atlantic Aviation's vertiport company agreed to study landing spots around New York with Electra, whose planes need very short runways.[AI] Thinking Machines Lab released Inkling 2 Small, a model that scores 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, and says it plans to share the full model next week.[AI] Gemini 4 Carbon (High) still holds the top score of 60 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.[WILD] IBM turned on a Quantum System Two in Chicago, its first quantum computer in Illinois, to work on medicines, the power grid and physics.[WILD] Chip stocks won back part of Thursday's big drop: AMD closed up about 11% and Nvidia up about 3%. Not investment advice.[WILD] Cloudflare, which helps websites run fast and safely, grew its quarterly revenue 39% to $782.5 million, and its stock rose about 10%. Not investment advice.[WILD] French quantum company Pasqal reported 3.3 million euros of third quarter revenue, down from 5.7 million, with 312.8 million euros in cash. Not investment advice.[MED] An AI model in Nature Medicine predicted 1,887 health measures from 3D video of 3,328 people walking.[MED] A heart pill called HRS/BHB-1893 kept working for a year in people with a thickened heart muscle: 33 of 42 reached the target blood flow pressure.[MED] A drug called fazirsiran cut a harmful protein in the liver by a median of 89.6% in people with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.[DEF] The Army opened a $4.17 billion contract for 11 companies to design and build new Army ammunition plants.[DEF] Amentum won a $609 million contract to supply at least 500 extra workers to Army repair depots.[DEF] The Navy hired Vigor Marine for an $18.1 million, 59 day overhaul of the hospital ship USNS Mercy in early 2027.[POLICY] The Treasury's FinCEN and the Federal Reserve withdrew a 2020 plan to lower the Travel Rule limit on international transfers from $3,000 to $250.[POLICY] Forty-five state attorneys general asked Congress to pass the Senate's Kids Online Safety Act.[POLICY] California's privacy agency proposed rules so one "do not sell my data" setting in your browser covers every device linked to you.[TOKEN] Nigeria's central bank stablecoin rules took effect, requiring offshore issuers to get a local license. Not investment advice.[TOKEN] Hawkeye Digital plans to put its own shares on the Ethereum blockchain with Securitize, with the same dividends and votes. Not investment advice.[TOKEN] A CFTC staff letter lets clearinghouses use trust companies, including crypto-focused ones, to settle trades. Not investment advice.[TOKEN] Tokenized real-world assets stood at $39.36 billion, down from $39.70 billion on Thursday, per RWA.xyz. Not investment advice.
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