Astronauts Suit Up for Launch of Artemis II
Speakers
Summary
- The Artemis II mission is a historic, crewed lunar mission—the first in 50 years—using the SLS rocket, the most powerful human-rated system ever launched.
- The SLS program is over budget, years behind schedule, and has faced technical challenges, particularly with hydrogen fuel leaks, making this a high-stakes "dress rehearsal."
- The renewed geopolitical "space race" is a key driver, with China targeting a 2030 moon landing and NASA aiming for 2028, accelerating efforts.
- Long-term strategic goals include establishing a lunar resource base (minerals, oxygen) to enable future missions to Mars.
- SpaceX has confidentially filed for an IPO to raise capital for its future business plan, which is centered on the Starship vehicle for space-based data centers and lunar missions.
- A specific SpaceX proposal for Artemis involves using Starship to dock with NASA's Orion capsule in orbit and complete the journey to the moon.
- The economics of SpaceX's ambitious plans hinge on proving a low dollar-per-kilogram launch cost with Starship, which remains unproven.
- Hyperscalers (Microsoft, Amazon, Google) are the largest corporate energy buyers, facing a critical bottleneck in securing power for announced AI data centers.
- A specific, exclusive deal between Microsoft and Chevron (with Engine No. 1) aims to underpin a West Texas power plant for a data center campus, highlighting the scramble for guaranteed energy supply.
- Natural gas is emerging as a more immediately applicable energy source for data centers compared to longer-lead-time alternatives like nuclear.
- While corporate energy buying could be deflationary long-term, current supply shortages are driving up prices in data center zip codes, with permit expediting being a key governmental response.
Trade Ideas
SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO to fund its future business plan centered on space-based data centers and the Starship vehicle, which is critical for its economics (dollar per kilogram) and lunar ambitions. The company needs significant capital to develop and prove Starship's capabilities, which are foundational to its next-phase business model. An IPO provides that capital. WATCH because the filing indicates a major capital event and a pivotal attempt to fund an ambitious, unproven, but potentially transformative business plan. Starship fails to achieve its promised low-cost economics or faces further developmental delays, undermining the core rationale for the capital raise.
Microsoft is in exclusive talks with Chevron and Engine No. 1 on a long-term deal to underpin a giant power plant in West Texas, providing electricity for a large data center campus. Hyperscalers face a severe bottleneck in securing guaranteed energy supply for their announced AI data center builds. This deal is a direct attempt to lock in that critical input. WATCH as this exemplifies the intense, strategic scramble by leading tech firms to secure energy assets, which is becoming a primary constraint and competitive factor in AI infrastructure expansion. Deal talks fall through, or the scale of energy demand outpaces the ability of such bespoke deals to meet it, leaving capacity constraints unaddressed.
Up Next
This Bloomberg Markets video, published April 01, 2026, features Ed Ludlow discussing SPACEX, MSFT. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.