$ASTS, $QS, $AUR | economics, theology, philosophy, and the UAP phenomenon | Lost access to @Defiantclient
Joined June 2025
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Kevin Chen retweeted
$ASTS SECURES A NEW U.S. PATENT (OCT 20, 2026)
The USPTO has granted AST & Science,m, U.S. Patent 12,771,024 B1, "Compensating Oscillations in a Large-Aperture Phased Array Antenna". It is a continuation with new claims on the same technology, joining US 12,040,553 and US 12,046,831 in the same family.
It protects a system that measures in real time how a large-aperture phased array deforms in orbit, using sensors such as differential GPS and accelerometers, and adjusts the beam phase in closed loop to offset it. It also covers a two-level correction, mechanical for the bulk of the deformation and phase-based for the rest, and its use in LEO for direct communication with end-user devices on the ground.
That is the structural challenge built into BlueBird: arrays of hinged modules that unfold in orbit and then flex and oscillate. In the patent's simulation, an 8.7-degree bend in a 10.3 m array splits the main lobe and costs about 3 dB of gain, roughly half the power in the beam direction. With compensation, the pattern returns to near-nominal. As apertures grow with Block 2, this compensation matters more.
Kevin Chen retweeted
🚨 BREAKING: $QS just released its Q3 2026 Shareholder Letter. QS delivered major commercial milestones beyond automotive, recorded customer billings, and introduced a 100 MWh mass-production scaleup plan!
1/8 Here is the complete breakdown 👇
Kevin Chen retweeted
QuantumScape $QS on the Q3 call: it will look at government grants, loans and other instruments, including possible Department of War support, for non-dilutive funding.
QuantumScape $QS wants its first mass production line funded without new stock.
Asked on the Q3 call who pays for the 100-MWh line with Muehlbauer Group, management put the target equipment cost to QuantumScape at under $100M.
QuantumScape $QS management on the call:
'𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙪𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙤𝙣-𝙙𝙞𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙨, 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙨, 𝙜𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨.'
Site selection is underway and will stay confidential for now. A capital plan comes with 2027 financial guidance on the Q4 earnings call.
Kevin Chen retweeted
$ASTS $SPCX Every Elon shill and SpaceX fanboy point out the difference between Starshield and Starlink. That’s the novice take.
Starshield is owned by US DOD including Mission Control, HOWEVER Starshield is operated via a SpaceX satellite operations center via a contractor relationship with the US DOD.
It are SpaceX employees that processed the speed limit in Ukraine via the SpaceX SOC. Elon is their boss and can give those engineers orders as well.
The question is did Elon act unilaterally and break his contract and later tried to fix that with the White House or did the White House give the order.
Regardless Elon and SpaceX are involved one way or the other.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that decisions regarding Ukraine's access to Starlink were up to SpaceX and Elon Musk, not the White House, comments that suggested Musk may have restricted Kyiv's access to the service reut.rs/4yJ7cUM
Kevin Chen retweeted
Last night, the payload fairing with the 40 Amazon Leo satellite for the Leo Vulcan 01 mission was rolled to SLC-41 for stacking atop the Vulcan rocket! This is a good sign final preparations are progressing for launch in the coming weeks.
📸 nsf.live/spacecoast
Kevin Chen retweeted
SpaceX had their earnings call today. I’ve never been more bullish on this sector. Some highlights in connectivity:
• Elon said they see "a clear path to several hundred billion dollars a year in connectivity revenue." The biggest company in space just told everyone this market is worth hundreds of billions. That's the market $ASTS is built for.
• Their connectivity business did $5.25B in one quarter, up 69% from last year. Annualized that's about a $21B run rate, which is literally more revenue than $ASTS is worth as an entire company right now. Let that one sit for a second.
• Starlink Mobile already has 22 million monthly users and grew 37% in one quarter. People keep asking if anyone actually wants satellite service on their phone. Yeah. They do. Millions of them, growing fast.
• Their timeline is slower than people think. Mobile V2 sats start flying on Starship in 2027, spectrum gets folded in after, and the big US service turn on is early 2028. $ASTS said THIS MORNING they're targeting initial coverage before the end of this year. There's a real window here and AST is already in it.
• Shotwell admitted how the network actually has to work. S-band carries most of the traffic, low band is needed to get into buildings, and most mobile data still rides WiFi anyway. It's a spectrum game at the end of the day. Always was. That's literally the game AST plays with its carrier partners.
• SpaceX told investors they want to become a major mobile carrier in the US. Not a partner. A carrier. So if you're AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile, your choices are the company openly coming for your customers, or $ASTS, the one that runs through your spectrum and makes you money. Pretty easy pick.
• And this wasn't some money losing experiment either. That segment printed about $2.4B in operating income in the quarter with 55% gross margins. Satellite connectivity makes real money when it's built out. That's the whole AST model once the BlueBirds are up.
SpaceX basically got on a call today and validated the market, the demand, the business model and the timeline for us.
The race is on. Go AST!
Kevin Chen retweeted
Space Development Agency eyes new missile-tracking technologies for future satellites spacenews.com/space-developm…
Kevin Chen retweeted
$AUR In one of his most recent interviews, Urmson mentioned Daimler as a potential future partner. Now this information comes to light. Perhaps something is brewing behind the scenes.
Interesting shift from Daimler.
The company is building autonomy-ready Freightliner trucks but won't limit them to its own subsidiary, Torc Robotics. Other autonomous-driving companies could eventually use the same platform.
This could benefit companies like Aurora $AUR and Kodiak $KDK .
Aurora has already logged over 500,000 driverless miles on public roads. That operating experience could carry real weight as truck manufacturers begin opening their platforms to competing software providers.
Daimler seems to be making a calculated bet: sell the trucks regardless of whose autonomous-driving technology wins.
freightwaves.com/news/daimle…
Kevin Chen retweeted
Nobody wants to own up to crippling Ukraine's military communications: Marco Rubio is now stating that SpaceX has the ability to modify the operation of Starshield without the direction or consent of the American government.
Kevin Chen retweeted
$ASTS - As promised, here is my latest report on AST SpaceMobile, specifically in two countries: Chile and Brazil. I will start off with Chile as it's a single update.
On October 15th, Chile's SUBTEL established into a decree ASTs authorization to use specific bands in Chile...
Kevin Chen retweeted
Andrew M. Johnson has been CFO (and CLO) during a period of heavy and successful capital markets activity. AST SpaceMobile $ASTS executed multiple large convertible note offerings in 2025–2026, including (but not limited to):
• $1.15 billion (Oct 2025, 2% notes due 2036 — one of the longer-dated CBs in the U.S. market in years 👏)
• Additional ~$1.075 billion and $1.0 billion+ deals in 2026 (2.25% and 1.625% 👀notes)
These were structured with low coupons, meaningful conversion premiums, and in some cases paired with stock sales used to repurchase higher-cost older paper. These three remain fully outstanding.
Johnson signed the relevant 8-Ks as CFO/CLO. Given his background (prior capital markets and corporate development experience at 3D Systems) and dual legal/finance role, he would have been closely involved in the structuring, documentation, and execution.
Now the company renews his contract (three more years). It’s a big win for the company in my humble opinion. And includes some humble improvements also for Andy.
I’m very happy we get to keep this talent.
As for Change of Control terms, while the new contract states he is elligible it’s no change in this respect. He clearly was that under the recently adopted policy. So that’s not the cause of the new contract.
It’s to signup for 3 more years and keep this talent.
Not having performed these funding rounds when the company did would have been a small nightmare now with the general headwind of the sector.
We all owe Andy a Thank You for this fact. And I’m glad it’s recognised in this new contract.
-Thank You Andy! 🐾
$ASTS This 8K filing may be just general housekeeping, however, it could also be related to M&A discussions and a way to lock in your CFO and/or give them confidence they will survive the merger (or get paid but recent change of control docs may cover that).
app.quotemedia.com/data/down…
Kevin Chen retweeted
here’s the clip. note Gwynne’s emphasis on the words too.
major. mobile. carrier. in the US 👀
Kevin Chen retweeted
$QS | Per The Elec, Korea’s Mplus has developed assembly equipment for QuantumScape cells and is validating it for mass production (industry sources, not confirmed by QS or Mplus).
This lines up with QS’s Q2 2026 letter, which says the company is working closely with established battery equipment vendors to lay the groundwork for future factories. Mplus would be one of them.
The trail goes back to spring. In April, Mplus said it had completed its solid-state equipment development and won pilot orders, adding it had already supplied pilot lines for several global SSB makers. In late July, Mplus said it was co-developing assembly equipment with an unnamed US SSB maker, with joint testing and validation at the customer’s request. On October 20, The Elec named that customer: QuantumScape.
Reported scope: notching, stacking, packaging, plus high-temperature / high-pressure tools specific to solid-state.
Who is Mplus: historically an SK On supplier (over 80% of revenue in 2022, about 22% in 2025). It has since broadened its base to US and European battery makers, including a European defense player for prismatic cells, believed to be Saft per the article. Order backlog: KRW 63.1B at end of Q2 2026.
Eagle Line reminder (Q2 letter): core tool uptime > 90%, targeting another doubling of cell output in H2 2026.
Most speculative part of the article: QS is reportedly considering outsourcing line operations, with talks with Korean battery makers. Nothing in QS disclosures confirms this so far.
My hypothesis: in a licensing model (PowerCo up to 85 GWh/yr), an equipment vendor with tools already tuned to the QS process shortens ramp-up for every future licensee.
Kevin Chen retweeted
AST SpaceMobile said it plans to offer “initial, intermittent coverage” before the end of 2026 in the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia.
MORE: linkedin.com/pulse/more-d2d-…
Kevin Chen retweeted
SpaceX Earnings Q3 2026 $SPCX
EPS $0.35, est. $0.15
Revenue $14.58B, est. $12.87B, +161% Y/Y
Net Income $4.40B, est. $1.88B
Adjusted EBITDA $8.81B, est. $6.59B
Operating Income $2.79B, est. $2.24B
AI Revenue $7.56B, est. $6.3B
Connectivity Revenue $5.25B, est. $4.86B
Space Revenue $1.77B, est. $1.43B
Capex $19.59B, est. $19.6B
AI Capex $16.44B, est. $16.9B
Total Costs & Expenses $11.78B, est. $11.23B
Kevin Chen retweeted
.@SECWAR "The days of the Pentagon rewarding the comfortable old guard for failure are over.
Rewarding the same contracts, the same people who have the most lobbyists and the most political connections ARE OVER.
We don’t care whose name is on the side of that capability. We simply want the best."
Kevin Chen retweeted
.@SECWAR "My job at the Department of War is to kick the door WIDE OPEN for commercial disruptors, nontraditional vendors, and venture-backed builders—and actively create that next generation of large and medium-sized businesses in our ARSENAL OF FREEDOM.
Modern deterrence relies on true commercial speed."