Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
JD Vance: "Gas prices are too high ... they skyrocket every time some tinpot dictator decides to throw a tantrum."
Sir, show some respect. That dictator is your boss.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
$ASTS: This story is making the rounds so I am going to address it: floridatoday.com/story/tech/…
On October 21, SpaceX VP Kiko Dontchev stated that SpaceX has a 6 week gap before the next Falcon 9 launch out of Florida, reason being for prep for Starship's debut in Florida. The 6 week gap aligns with Ben Cooper's manifest noting a "late November" launch for the Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-25 mission, so this should be the next F9 launch being referenced by Kiko Dontchev.
What this means for @AST_SpaceMobile:
+ BB14-16 are at Astrotech integrating for launch, and will be ready to go as soon as SpaceX Falcon 9 can launch them probably in December.
+ Why did AST ship if they don't have a launch? In my view it's one or both of two reasons: (1) AST was blindsided by SpaceX's sudden pause and/or (2) AST shipped to make room at their factory
+ This 6 week gap explains AST's silence on launch date PR. Their hands are literally tied.
+ Note that this Falcon 9 pause is not unique-to-ASTS as it impacts all Falcon 9 launches out of Florida, although you could make an argument that AST's payload is really the only one being impacted by this pause. That being said, I don't know the status of other Falcon 9 payloads that may or may not be impacted. Prep for Starship is a good excuse/reason though but yes it is unfortunate that AST's launch is being impacted.
+ How AST manages the narrative from here will be key, whether they do it with an interim update now or wait for the Q3 earnings call on November 9. The best thing for us shareholders and sentiment would be if AST can signal that production is going well and batches are continuing to get done and stockpile for a more rapid launch cadence starting in December when Falcon 9 returns to operation in Florida.
--> Note that if AST's production is going well in the background, then I think this pause from SpaceX helps explain the unusual gap between BB11-13 and BB14-16. And as mentioned in bullet 3 above, this explains the weird comms from AST surrounding BB14-16 batch.
--> Astrotech should have plenty of room to accept more BlueBirds if we can ship another batch or two while we wait for SpaceX to resume F9 operations in Florida.
In adjacent/related news, our boots on the ground are reporting that more shipping containers are arriving in Midland soon, which is a positive sign for more shipments coming in the near term: xitter.cf/DanteePacheco/status/2…
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
Arguably, the two largest detractors to $ASTS right now are production and launch. (Ignoring market/macro for a moment)
The perception is this: we aren't producing enough satellites per month, and even when we finally do we won't have enough launch slots.
But notice there is a word used twice there: "enough"
So let me ask you this. Enough for what?
Probably most would define "enough" based on external risk. They might say something like "if we don't go fast enough then Elon wins".
That is the common cliche of 'first mover advantage' being evoked breathlessly by FinX voices -- but it's a fallacy. It doesn't apply unless MNOs decide to go exclusive with one provider: Starlink Mobile.
But MNOs are signaling the opposite.
They don't want to be locked in, especially not with the heavily toxic Elon Musk.
They want a healthy, competitive market. They want alternatives to Elon, and to a company that is openly hostile to their business.
The point is this: we aren't in a critical race against time. Time isn't the key factor. The key factors are technology, business model and politics.
And on these $ASTS is in a prime position which looks to be gaining strength with every passing day.
The patient investor recognizes when time isn't the key factor. Relaxes when the really important factors continue to gain strength. And rests easier through macro drawdowns like we've had recently.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
The Student List had no party machinery. It operated through university assemblies, protests & hiking between towns.
They had 2% of national TV political advertising airtime vs 93% for Vučić.
One of the most remarkable grassroots democratic victories in modern European history.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
SpaceX Blocked A U.S. And NATO Satellite to Assist a Russian Intercept After Crippling Ukraine's Air Defenses
The Math Proves the Reality that Musk doesn't want you to see.
On Oct 13-14, SpaceX restricted Starshield/Starlink during a 39-missile Russian attack, cutting Ukrainian drone intercepts by 23% and stranding U.S. personnel in Kyiv. Forty-eight hours later (Oct 15), SpaceX blocked U.S.-licensed NRO, Space Force, and NATO radar satellite ICEYE-X36 in orbit so Russia's COSMOS 2612 weapon could intercept it (99.89%-99.98% posterior)
Our Model Demonstrates that the Russian intercept of the US/NATO ICEYE X-36 satellite (contemporaneous with the throttling of Starlink) would not have been possible, and almost certainly not been attempted, without SpaceX resources. At a material opportunity cost, Russia sprinted its COSMOS satellite to intercept ICEYE X36. Based on a previous attempt in June during which X36 maneuvered to evade COSMOS, Russia knew that this would be successful only if X36 could not maneuver. On October 15, SpaceX fixed X36 in place by issuing a collision alert for a sub-kilometer approach with its Starlink 35856 when SpaceX's own data shows that the actual distance was 4.8-5.0x as great. SpaceX issued no warning to COSMOS despite the fact that its sprint was far more threatening than the stable X36 orbit. SpaceX did not maneuver its Starlink 35856 satellite to clear the supposed collision risk. How, absent coordination with SpaceX, could Russia have known that SpaceX would take actions that (a) misrepresented the danger posed by X36, and (b) resulted in the fixing of X36 thereby enabling COSMOS's successful intercept? Thus, SpaceX was directly involved in simultaneously compromising Ukraine’s defensive and offensive capabilities. The conjunction of these two events makes innocent explanations untenable.
The Pentagon Capture & Iran Round Two Trap: Pentagon CTO Emil Michael who cashed out $7M–$35M from Musk’s inner-circle SpaceX vehicles (M8/Gigafund 0.1 and M6/Valor M33 II) and KQ Partners / xAI (selling xAIfor $5M–$25M three days before taking over CDAO/OSCand 21 days before SpaceX bought xAI, while keeping M8, M6, M9, M10 & Nomadic open) and Pete Hegseth purged rival Anthropic in two hours, surrendered combat command over US drones used to attack Iran to Starlink’s "Terms of Service," and on October 2 named Musk Co-Director of Project Meridian to design the Pentagon's "Future of Warfighting" just as America enters Iran Round Twowith depleted Patriot/THAAD magazines and Russia feeding U.S. warship/aircraft locations to Tehran.
SpaceX’s actions in Ukraine raise serious questions about its alignment with US security interests and its reliability as a cornerstone of US defense. These questions are particularly troubling given the effectively irreplaceable position SpaceX has been granted by the Hegseth/Emil Michael Pentagon.
$SPCX $TSLA
Our full quantitative analysis below w/ @streetwiseprof
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
$ASTS Yes, you did lose all your money.
But it's not just about the money. You also spent years of your life researching RF spectrum, link budgets & launch schedules, and alienated all your friends.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
💥 WASHINGTON CHOOSES $ASTS AS ITS OFFICIAL TECH SHOWCASE! 🇺🇸📡
Who just showed up directly at AST SpaceMobile headquarters? Fabiana Crestani (Program Manager at Tuatara Group).
Her role? Orchestrating missions for the USTDA (U.S. Trade and Development Agency), the U.S. federal agency responsible for exporting strategic U.S. technologies internationally.
🇺🇸 The raw facts of this visit:
• Washington's endorsement: The USTDA brought a high-level delegation of decision-makers from Latin America and the Caribbean to $ASTS.
• State validation: The United States is promoting AST SpaceMobile's technology as the global benchmark for direct-to-smartphone broadband.
• From diplomatic to commercial: These institutional missions pave the way for lowering regulatory barriers and securing future regional telecom agreements.
❓ The real question to ask: Following the sovereign model initiated in Japan (J-LEO / Rakuten), will we see tomorrow the creation of dedicated or state-co-financed constellations (such as in Latin America or the Caribbean) to guarantee telecom independence? 🌐
While the competition offers closed solutions, $ASTS is establishing itself under Washington's patronage as the universal standard. 🚀 $ASTS
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
Kristen Welker z NBC News punktuje Ławrowa:
"Oto fakty: blisko 50 tys. cywilów zostało zabitych lub rannych w tej wojnie. Zbombardowaliście porodówki, kościoły, szkoły, szpitale i przedszkola. Albo wasza armia nie ma precyzji, albo celujecie w cywilów."
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
OMG! This brilliant man just figured something out! Trump recently made a post about every Democrat vote equaling 3 Republican votes. Cryptic, right? Well, we're hearing that, in multiple states, people are trying to vote Democrat, but the voting machines are changing their votes to Republican! It's taking them 3 or 4 times to correct it! This could be the reason why Trump said that! RetrievalResists@Retrievals1, stated that "Every time they vote they're really making 4 choices. 3 for the opponent. 1 for the democrat."
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
Yep, Trumps addled brain gave away the whole scheme. "they" told him about people having to vote 3 times for the Democrat before it will stick, and he took it as 3 votes for Republicans. He can't keep his mouth shut, and keeps telling on himself and Musk.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
I find myself once again asking the question, why are two random real-estate developers negotiating all foreign deals on behalf of the United States government?
Why is Marco Rubio (US secretary of state) not the one doing the deals? I think this question will become important…
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
MAGA are the dumbest group of people to ever exist
Yesterday, after his rally in Iowa, President Trump was heading to the airport when he saw an old woman walking home — in the dark and all alone.
“Stop the car, Daquan!” He told his driver.
He got out and walked her 2 miles home.
No cameras. Just kindness.
That’s Trump.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The anecdote is fictional. Trump's Oct. 22 rally was at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City; his schedule shows direct arrival and departure from the site with no such walk. x.com/WHPressPool/st… ktiv.com/2026/10/21/how… desmoinesregister.com/story/news/pol… The photo is AI-generated and unrelated to any real event.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
There are only two ways to "fix" the GL heli sky terror, and WARDOGS did neither for season 2.
1) prevent passengers from equipping the GL on the heli (lame and lazy way to do it)
2) force the launched rounds to carry the same velocity as the helicopter.
Right now the grenades ignore physics. They hit where you aim regardless of direction or speed because they do not carry the velocity of the shooter.
By having the fired grenades maintain the helis velocity, it would be pure luck to hit shots while traveling at high speeds and during turns.
BUT... it wouldn't remove the strategic use of them.
If the pilot is willing to slow down, the grenadiers could still be moderately effective.
But we all know what happens to slow flying helis...
Choice 2 provides a strategic choice that still fits the spirit of the sandbox but limits the effectiveness it has in all envelopes.
This is in line with how you can shoot a single rocket from the side of the heli. It works, but at a pretty big cost.
Ravnir🇧🇻 retweeted
Він кинув хлібину і вийшов через задній вхід. Бо побачив, як у магазині його фото показують касиру.
Це був момент, коли Андрій зрозумів: його шукає ФСБ.
20-річний Андрій з Маріуполя прожив рік в окупації й займався партизанським рухом.
Він знав, що вже в усіх чорних списках росіян. І все одно ходив по місту, знімав, фотографував, збирав інформацію для "Маріуполь спротив". Кожен вихід міг стати останнім.
Одного разу на блокпості його зупинив військовий і сказав: "Давай телефон".
Андрій максимально ховав усе, що міг, але той знайшов у галереї одну стару фотографію - з дня вишиванки ще до війни.
Він видалив її й відпустив його, але попередив: "Якщо ще раз побачу - відведу до поліції".
А потім був грудень. Магазин, хлібина в руках - і чуже фото на екрані телефону.
Андрій кинув хліб і вийшов через задній вхід. Через тиждень він побачив себе в Telegram-каналі серед "екстремістів та терористів". Виїжджати треба було негайно.
Дорога з окупації тривала вісім днів. Через Росію, Білорусь, Мінськ - де в церкві їх зустріли українськими піснями й борщем. Остання точка - Брест.
Замінований кордон вони проходили пішки. Між мінами - десь двадцять сантиметрів. Попереду жінка з дитиною. Андрій взяв малу на руки, переніс, повернувся й допоміг з її валізою.
А потім він побачив українську стелу. Просто зупинився, обійняв її й плакав хвилин п'ятнадцять. Поруч обіймалися й плакали ті, хто пройшов разом з ним цей шлях.
Сьогодні Андрій живе у Дніпрі, навчається на трьох напрямках Приазовського державного технічного університету, працює в приймальній комісії й очолює студентський сенат.
Але найбільше він мріє про одне - повернутися до деокупованого Маріуполя й відбудувати своє місто.
Він не зламався. І таких, як він, - сотні. Просто про них рідко пишуть.
