Good morning and happy national filet mignon day. I hope you sit down and have a nice piece of meat for dinner while you enjoy today’s edition (which happens to be much cheaper than today’s steak themed holiday). I also wanted to wish a special happy birthday to my mom, Lisa. I love you!

Space

These stranded astronauts may not come home until 2025

A simple one week mission has turned into a six month nightmare. During a press conference last week, NASA said it’s preparing backup plans that would bring Boeing’s Starliner astronauts back to Earth in early 2025.

The announcement marks the most recent delay for the aerospace company’s first crewed launch into space amid arguments between NASA and Boeing on how to get the astronauts home safely.

They were only supposed to be up there for a week… but astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since June 6th. Here’s a brief timeline of the events:

• They arrived in Boeing’s Starliner rocket, which was the company’s first crewed voyage.

• Wilmore and Williams docked at the ISS soon after, but quickly discovered issues with the craft’s thrusters and found a number of helium leaks.

• NASA and Boeing have been attempting to fix the problems but they have persisted, forcing them to repeatedly push back the astronauts ride home.

NASA and Boeing can’t agree

According to a report by the WSJ, neither of the organizations can agree on when Starliner should be ready to come home:

• According to Boeing, new test data indicates that the issues are under control and their aircraft is prepared to take Williams and Wilmore back to Earth.

• While NASA has acknowledged some tests were encouraging, the agency still has reservations about other findings regarding whether Starliner is suitable to return the astronauts, which has prompted internal conflict within the space agency.

So what’s NASA’s backup plan? Although nothing is finalized, the space agency’s contingency plan would involve sending Wilmore and Williams back home in a SpaceX capsule.

• The news is the most recent blow to Boeing, which is still recovering from a plethora of issues regarding its commercial planes, as SpaceX is a direct competitor.

If NASA decides to go this route, they would have to wait for SpaceX’s upcoming Crew Dragon mission to the ISS in February, setting back the astronauts return for more than eight months.

Artificial Intelligence

Anduril is making the Pentagon autonomous fighter jets

This company is developing drone swarms capable of flying alongside Air Force fighter pilots… and they just raised a lot of money. Anduril Industries, an AI weapons developer, was recently valued at $14 billion after a new funding round.

Anduril was awarded a contract in collaboration with General Atomics this spring by the US Air Force to develop autonomous wingmen, which the Pentagon calls Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).

Lethal weapons

With the $1.5 billion it raised in the most recent fundraising round, Anduril intends to develop Arsenal-1, a manufacturing platform that will enable it to manufacture CCA's and other weapon systems far more quickly than currently feasible by other companies.

Palmer Luckey, who founded the weapons startup, said Anduril plans to break up the hegemony maintained by the long-standing defense behemoths, and thus far, its doing just that:

• Anduril beat out Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin for the Pentagon’s contract to develop CCA’s.

They want to go full speed ahead: Anduril claims that if the US were to enter a global war with China, it would run out of munitions in only eight days. The startup claims it’s highly-scalable manufacturing system could alleviate that problem.

Anduril says it wants to “hyper-scale” defense production at a rate that isn’t possible by current standards, creating a model that “scales indefinitely and makes it possible to rebuild the arsenal of democracy.”

Fun fact: Andruil is named after the sword used by Aragon, a character from The Lord of the Rings movie series.

In addition, Microsoft and Palantir (another startup named after a Lord of the Rings object) said they are providing AI services to the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies.

Retail

Costco is trying to end “membership sharing”

First Netflix and now our beloved Costco. What have we done to you? The only retailer that can sell you an “apocalypse bucket” stated this week that card scanners will now be a staple when you walk through the sliding doors, intensifying its efforts to eradicate membership-sharing.

Card, please

Looks like you can’t use mom’s card to grab a rotisserie chicken anymore.

Much like the usual process, an employee will be there to greet you at the door, but this time, with a card scanner. But instead of showing your typical membership pass, you’ll flash a digital card to the scanner.

Why does Costco want to get rid of membership sharing? Well, it makes a lot of money from membership fees… almost $4.6 billion of its revenue last fiscal year came from them (which is over 72% of its total income).

After the wholesale retailer started noticing more and more customers were using membership passes that didn’t belong to them, Costco decided to take a stand. It increased employee presence around entrances and requiring proof of ID if the membership card didn’t include a picture.

That’s not all: For the first time in seven years, memberships are also getting more expensive. Starting at the begining of next month, the Gold Star tier will rise from $60 to $65, while the Executive Membership will cost $130 instead of $120.

Grab Bag

Behind the scenes of Olympic technology

We’ve come a long way from the stopwatch. Crossing the finish line has been a spectacle since the beginning of the Games in 1896, and technology has only been making it more transparent for athletes and spectators to analyze what’s going on.

Adapting along with the AI revolution, the Olympics has partnered with Omega Timing, the official timekeeper of the Games, to change how the highest level of sports is timed and examined.

Cutting-edge calculations

The Olympics have increasingly utilized “Computervision”, a camera connected to a computerized brain that recognizes and analyzes athlete’s movements. Using the new tech, there has been a number of innovations across sporting events:

• Track and Field: Runners are using new smart bibs with sensors the size of a credit card that relay a huge amount of information directly to computers for analysis.

  • In addition, track cameras are four times faster than the last Olympics, shooting over 40,000 frames per second to help find the winner in close finishes.

• Tennis: Computervision watches players movements and learns how their swing time affects their return swing.

• Swimming: Stroke rates, distance, acceleration, and deceleration are all calculated in real time by Computervision, allowing the Olympic Aquatic Center to analyze specific data.

Computervision has already had an impact… when two athletes finished in an identical 9.79 seconds in the men’s 100-meter-race, Olympic officials used the new superfast cameras to find a winner.

Some of the tech is worn, too: Swimsuits from Fastskin LZR are coated with the same water repellent that shields satellites from radiation in orbit. Because of the suits' reduced friction, swimmers can move through the water with less effort.

Almost all gold medals (94%) at the 2008 Olympics were won by swimmers using LZR suits, according to NASA.

People don’t like Disneyland like they used to

Disneyland magic can’t stick around forever. The Q2 figures from domestic theme parks were underwhelming and indicated that the post-Covid ride is wearing off, and Disney's parks are no exception.

• Disney said its operating income (money left over after business expenses) dropped by 6%.

  • This is despite the company reporting a 3% spike in theme park revenue and similar attendance in line with 2023.

• Universal Destinations & Experiences, which is owned by Comcast, disclosed a 10% decline in park revenue, and Six Flags also reported a decline in attendance.

All three theme park owners have increased their entrance fees, among other prices to make up for the losses.

Where’s the magic?

Hugh Johnston, the CFO of Disney, blamed the disinterest in theme parks on both higher-class travellers, who are choosing to go abroad, and lower-class families who would simply rather avoid the expensive theme park gauntlet for something more affordable.

Some travel analysts say people could just be waiting for something new, and that they’re bored of going to see the same old rides, food, events, and shows, especially in the midst of higher prices.

It’s slow all around: People really just aren’t travelling as much. Bloomberg's analysis of travel data shows that, from their peak in September 2023, international flights decreased 10% in June.

Fast Facts

Dog Dolce: Dolce & Gabbana is selling a $100 dog cologne that blends ylang-lang, musk, and sandalwood. A small price to pay for some new puppies.

Iranian Interference: Iran was caught using online activity to influence the US presidential election, targeting left-leaning voters with fake articles about former president Trump. The country also attempted to hack one of the campaigns, according to Microsoft. 

Animal Actualities: Dogs actually don’t age 7 years for every human year. Here are some other myths about animals you didn’t know.

Self-Sabotage: The Financial Times reported that Meta and Google worked together to target teens with ads for Instagram on Youtube, going against Google’s own terms.

Olympic Obstruction: China had told its citizens to stop being so critical on social media toward the country’s Olympic athletes, as it was impacting their performances.