Blain's Morning Porridge

Artemis II, Space X, Data Centres and Competition.


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Blain’s Morning Porridge April 2026 – Artemis II, Space X, Data Centres and Competition.

“Space will end up being one of the places that keeps making Earth better.”

Hype and reality seldom mix. Elon Musk is the exception that proves the rule. The Space X IPO is set to make him the first trillionaire – but what if Competition is already eating his lunch in space-based datacentres before he’s even looked at the menu? In the Tortoise vs the Hare space race – will Jeff Bezos emerge the winner?

Today’s launch of the Artemis II 4-man mission to circle the Moon is the most exciting thing to happen in Space exploration in decades.  Commercially? The financial markets are focused entirely on how superlative the Space-X IPO is set to be in terms of size, price and profit action – or at least they were…

The excitement around the Artemis mission obscured the success of yesterday’s launch of a duo of geo-sync satellites built by Singapore tech firm JieYuren on a prototype Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. The launch wasn’t only a rare example of Asian/American corporate tech co-operation but could be the straw that breaks the Elon Musk Myth. If any of Musk’s legion of fanboys were paying attention, it should have reminded them that the new ex-Earth based economy will literally be a competitive “space”. (Hah!)

The future never stays the same. Not only has Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin achieved multiple orbital insertions of the New Glenn rocket, and delivered a package into high orbit, but the two JieYuren satellites are prototype units for orbital data-centres – a concept Musk thought he’d pretty much patented!

According to Avril Salmon, JieYuren’s spokesperson, yesterday’s joint launch is not a deliberate spoiler for Space-X – but a clear demonstration that there are multiple pathways to monetise space – not just the Musk vision. The Space-X IPO is expected to value Musk’s firm at $1.75-2 trillion on a $75 bln record float as early as June.  


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Blain's Morning PorridgeBy Bill Blain