Dear Studio Fam,
In a time of rising costs, we bring news of an incredible technical achievement at a record-low cost. We also check in on how SBF is doing in jail since his bail was revoked and look at how the dream of every startup founder – going public – doesn’t always work out. Finally, we take a look at the latest sudden feature announcement from X.
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Indian Lands On the Moon for Just $75 Million
Source: Aljazeera
India became the first country to land on the moon’s south pole this week, joining the USA, Russia, and China in the small club that makes up countries that have successfully sent spacecraft to Earth’s only natural satellite. Celebrations erupted throughout India on Wednesday after the Indian Space Command confirmed from its headquarters in Bengaluru that the Chandrayaan-3 lander had successfully touched down on the lunar surface.
The location of the landing is significant as previous lunar missions identified the southernmost part of the Moon as a likely source of frozen water that can be used to produce fuel to support a permanent base. But perhaps most significant is the efficiency with which India achieved its mission: the entire operation reportedly cost less than $75 million.
Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the Moon, cost a staggering $350 million in 1969 (over $3 billion in 2023 dollars). While the Chandrayaan-3 is unmanned, the low cost of its mission is remarkable considering the last successful unmanned lunar mission – China’s Chang’e 4 – landed on the moon in 2019 with a reported cost of over $2 billion. Even if the cost of India’s unsuccessful Chandrayaan-2 mission is included in the cost of the Chandrayaan-3, India landed on the moon for 80% less cost.
SBF Going Hungry In Jail
Source: NY Post
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been in jail for almost three weeks since his bail was revoked for alleged witness tampering and is not adapting well to his confinement, according to Court papers filed this week by his defense attorney. Previously remanded to house arrest inside of his parents’ Palo Alto home, SBF is now awaiting trial for fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering in the notorious MDC Brooklyn jail in New York City.
According to his defense attorney, the restrictions of SBF’s confinement are impairing his ability to prepare a defense for his October trial. In addition to Internet access being severely limited, SBF has been denied his daily 60mg of Adderall and is “subsisting on bread, water, and peanut butter” because the prison has so far refused to provide him vegan meals. “My client continues to follow his principles and cannot sustain himself when served a flesh diet,” SBF’s attorney stated in Court.
Better Goes Public With Calamitous SPAC
Source: CNBC
Softbank-funded mortgage technology company Better finally completed its long-delayed public listing. Like most companies that leveraged Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles (SPACs) to tap public markets, the real estate company experienced a precipitous drop in its valuation. On its first day of public trading, Better’s stock lost the majority of its value on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company ended the day with a market capitalization of approximately $920 million, knocking it out of the unicorn club.
Bad news is not new for Better, whose CEO Vishal Garg has been the subject of repeated reports of hostile and indifferent management. Garg first came to national prominence when he cried while laying off 900 workers on Zoom. Soon after, it was reported that Garg bought a celebratory hatchet for a manager in charge of the firings.
Considering that the company brought in $560 million of cash with the SPAC, the enterprise value of Better is now a far cry from its last private valuation of $7 billion: a mere $360 million. With a business model based on home sale volume, the future of Better remains unclear given the slowdown in new mortgage applications.
Elon Wants To Block Blocking
Sudden feature changes have become common on X as Elon Musk continues his plan to convert Twitter into “the everything app.” His latest announcement of an upcoming change came seemingly out of nowhere in the form of a random reply to a Tesla owners’ group: block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for direct messages.
In the current version of X, users have the ability to block accounts from interacting with their posts entirely, remove replies from a post, or simply mute a user so that their replies are ignored. Ironically, Elon’s announcement was quickly annotated with a Community Note stating that Apple iOS rules for social media apps actually require a block feature.
But details of “deleting” blocks have not yet been provided, so it’s possible that blocking on X will simply be called something else.