James Altucher:

After Recent Tests, China Appears Likely To Beat the United States Back to the Moon

In recent weeks, the secretive Chinese space program has reported some significant milestones in developing its program to land astronauts on the lunar surface by the year 2030.

On August 6, the China Manned Space Agency successfully tested a high-fidelity mockup of its 26-ton "Lanyue" lunar lander. The test, conducted outside of Beijing, used giant tethers to simulate lunar gravity as the vehicle fired main engines and fine control thrusters to land on a cratered surface and take off from there.

Then, last Friday, the space agency successfully conducted a 30-second test firing of the Long March 10 rocket's center core. The primary variant of the rocket will combine three of these cores to lift about 70 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.

Meanwhile, recent setbacks with SpaceX's Starship vehicle — one of two lunar landers under contract with NASA, alongside Blue Origin's Mark 2 lander — indicate that it will still be several years until these newer technologies are ready to go. 

So it's now probable that China will "beat" NASA back to the Moon this decade and win at least the initial heat of this new space race – to the detriment of America.

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Alan Knuckman:

Intel Stock Surges 10% As SoftBank Takes $2 Billion Stake in Ailing Chip Company

Intel (INTC) stock climbed over 9% on Tuesday following the announcement that SoftBank Group (SFTBY) will take a $2 billion stake in the ailing chip giant.

It's been a roller coaster few days for Intel. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was interested in taking its own stake in the company, sending shares higher into Friday. But on Monday, the stock fell on reports that the government would buy up as much as 10% of Intel, closing out the trading day down 3.6%.

Shares of Intel are up 18% year to date and 13% over the last 12 months.

The SoftBank Group news comes as Intel continues to navigate its rocky turnaround plan that began under previous CEO Pat Gelsinger. Current CEO Lip-Bu Tan has scaled back Gelsinger's original vision, canceling construction of international plants and further delaying Intel's $20 billion Ohio chip complex.

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Ray Blanco:

SpaceX Gives Starship Megarocket a Redesign Ahead of Next Flight. When Will It Launch?

A new-and-improved Starship is due to launch in a matter of days, according to SpaceX. The company announced a target launch date for a mission referred to as flight 10, which will undoubtedly be a critical test for the gigantic 400-foot Starship spacecraft.

For one thing, it's been nearly three months since SpaceX last conducted an uncrewed flight test for a vehicle that was intended to begin launching more frequently in 2025. And for another, the company has struggled this year to repeat the successes of previous Starship test flights.

The first two Starship launches of 2025 ended with explosions minutes into the missions. While Starship streaked further through suborbital space during the most recent May 27 launch, the vehicle still met an untimely end when it spun out of control about halfway through its flight.

SpaceX's 10th flight test since April 2023 was then delayed June 18, when the upper stage, simply known as Starship, unexpectedly exploded on the test stand before it was mounted to the rocket booster.

SpaceX has announced plans to conduct the 10th flight test of its Starship spacecraft Sunday, Aug. 24, with a target liftoff time of 6:30 p.m. CT.

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