Starship reaches orbit for the first time, one engine short
SpaceX's biggest rocket reached orbit on its 14th flight and carried the first Starlink V3 satellites. Also: the Bitget heist, Google's 403 million euro fine over your location, and Australia summons Altman and Amodei.
By Frank González
TL;DR Quick summary
- Starship reached orbit for the first time on September 28, at an altitude of about 275 km, on a flight of almost 10 hours and six laps around Earth.
- One of the ship's engines shut down early during ascent; even so it reached orbit, carrying 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
- Bitget reported the theft of about $351.6 million from its hot wallets; later reports put it closer to $390 million.
- Ireland fined Google 403 million euros over how it handled location data between 2018 and 2020.
- The Australian Senate asked the heads of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear on October 1, after the case of the agent that got into the Medicare portal.
The briefing on video
Video transcript
Starship, SpaceX's giant rocket, finally reached orbit. Thirteen attempts, several explosions and an engine that shut down halfway there. But it made it.
SpaceX launched flight fourteen from Texas this morning. The ship settled at about two hundred seventy-five kilometers up, with a plan of six laps around Earth in almost ten hours, and it was carrying twenty-six next-generation Starlink satellites.
Being in orbit isn't floating. It's moving sideways so fast that, as you fall, Earth curves away beneath you. Before, Starship went up and came down like a thrown rock. Today it went around and around, like a shuttle bus on a traffic circle.
The numbers: two hundred seventy-five kilometers up, twenty-six satellites, six laps and about ten hours of flight, with a splashdown planned in the Pacific, near Chile.
Even the most expensive rocket in the world moves forward by failing in public. And going around in circles isn't getting anywhere. It's falling forever without touching the ground. Sounds like my week.
On the bad side: someone pulled more than three hundred fifty million dollars out of the Bitget exchange's hot wallets. They tricked the system that authorizes payments. Today withdrawals start reopening in phases.
Ireland fined Google four hundred three million euros over how it handled your location between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty. You have those switches here too. Check them.
And Australia's Senate asked the heads of OpenAI and Anthropic to appear on October first, after an agent got into a government health portal.
All the sources are at ankincloud dot com slash noticias. I just read them so you wouldn't have to.
Anyway. I'm going to see if my internet reaches orbit too. I'm disappearing until further notice.
Today I'm starting with something that isn't a patch or a leak, and that alone is news. Starship, SpaceX's giant 123-meter rocket, finally made full laps around Earth. Thirteen suborbital attempts, several explosions and an engine that shut down early, but it made it.
Then comes the bad news: a cryptocurrency exchange lost hundreds of millions in no time, Google got hit with a fine for keeping track of where you were even though you thought you had turned it off, and Australia wants to sit the heads of AI in front of its Senate. Let's take it one piece at a time.
Starship reaches orbit for the first time with 26 Starlink V3 satellites
On the morning of September 28, SpaceX launched Starship's Flight 14 from Starbase, Texas, and for the first time the system reached orbit. According to AP, mission control confirmed the ship was in orbit, at an altitude of about 275 kilometers, with a plan of six laps around Earth in almost 10 hours and a splashdown in the Pacific, near Chile. The 13 previous flights were suborbital.
One of the ship's engines shut down early during ascent; controllers decided it could continue without it. The Super Heavy booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico minutes after liftoff; no stage was planned to be recovered on this flight. The payload: 26 Starlink V3 satellites, Starship's first real payload. Infobae reported that they were deployed; three carry cameras to inspect the ship's heat shield. As this edition closed, the ship was still in orbit.
Key facts
- 275 kmorbit altitude
- 26Starlink V3 satellites
- 6planned laps
- ~10 hflight duration
Explained for humans
What does reaching orbit mean?
Being in orbit means moving sideways so fast that, as you fall, Earth curves away beneath you and you never hit the ground. A suborbital flight goes up and comes back down, like a thrown rock.
Orbiting is a shuttle bus that keeps looping around a traffic circle without stopping: it needs speed, not height. To carry satellites for real, refuel in space or go to the Moon, Starship had to pull this off first.
- Super Heavy
- pushes and separates
- Starship upper stage
- enters orbit
- Orbit at 275 km
- releases satellites
- 26 Starlink V3
Why should you care?
Starlink is satellite internet, and in many small towns and ranches it's the only decent option. According to SpaceX, each V3 satellite adds about 1 terabit per second, and they could start serving customers within a few weeks. More capacity usually means less congestion at peak hours.
Frank's take
Thirteen attempts, several fireballs and an engine that gave up halfway, and it still made it. There's something comforting about seeing that even the most expensive rocket in the world moves forward by failing in public. I can't even restart the router without someone in the house asking me what I did. What really gets me is something else: going around in circles isn't getting anywhere, it's falling forever without touching the ground. Sounds like my week.
Glossary
4 terms
- Orbit
- The path of an object that falls toward Earth but moves sideways so fast that it never reaches it.
- Suborbital
- A flight that reaches space but without the speed to stay circling; it goes up and comes back down.
- Starlink
- SpaceX's satellite internet network, made up of thousands of satellites in low orbit.
- Heat shield
- The tiles that protect the ship from the heat when it comes back into the atmosphere.
Sources
- SpaceX's supersized Starship launches toward orbit for the first time (opens in a new tab) clickorlando.com
- SpaceX lanzó el vuelo 14 de Starship: despegó desde Texas en su primer viaje con destino a la órbita terrestre (opens in a new tab) infobae.com
- Live coverage: SpaceX to launch first Starlink V3 satellites to orbit on Starship (opens in a new tab) spaceflightnow.com
- SpaceX Starship Flight 14 To Attempt First Orbital Mission And Deploy 26 Starlink V3 Satellites (opens in a new tab) pulse2.com
Bitget loses hundreds of millions from its hot wallets and reopens withdrawals in phases starting today
On September 24 at 18:31 UTC, Bitget's systems detected unauthorized transfers from some of its hot and warm wallets. The exchange initially reported more than $350 million; The Hacker News and CoinDesk later reported about $390 million, across seven networks, including Ethereum and XRP Ledger. Bitget says its cold wallets were not touched and that its protection fund, worth more than $464 million, covers the loss.
According to The Hacker News, the attackers compromised an internal system in the wallet infrastructure, forged transaction data and used it to trigger the authorization process. The CEO said the method matches patterns of North Korean groups, and the firms TRM Labs and Elliptic linked it to the TraderTraitor group. Withdrawals resume in phases starting September 28 at 08:00 UTC.
Key facts
- 351.6 Mdollars, initial figure
- 7networks affected
- 464 M+dollars in protection fund
Explained for humans
What is a hot wallet and why is it the one that gets robbed?
An exchange keeps cryptocurrency in two kinds of wallets: the hot one, connected to the internet to pay out withdrawals instantly, and the cold one, offline, which holds almost everything.
The hot wallet is the cash register; the cold one is the bank vault. Here they didn't break the register: they forged the sales receipts so the cashier would hand over the money all on his own.
- Attackers
- compromise it
- Internal system
- fake data
- Authorization
- approves transfers
- Hot wallet
Why should you care?
If you keep cryptocurrency on an exchange, you don't have it: you have a promise from the exchange. This time there's a fund that covers the loss, but there isn't always one. And after every high-profile hack, scammers show up offering to recover funds or posing as support on social media and WhatsApp.
What to do
- If you have a Bitget account, check the status of withdrawals only from the app or the official announcement center, not from links you get in a message.
- Ignore anyone who offers to recover your funds in exchange for a payment or your keys: it's the scam that follows every hack.
- Never share your recovery phrase or your verification codes with anyone, not even with so-called support.
Frank's take
The protection fund covers the loss, they say. Great. It's like the bank getting its register emptied and telling you not to worry, they have another register. The point isn't that there's a backup, it's that the system that authorizes payments believed some fake receipts. That's what actually keeps me up at night.
Glossary
3 terms
- Exchange
- A platform for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrency, which holds its users' funds in custody.
- Hot wallet
- A cryptocurrency wallet connected to the internet to operate instantly; more convenient and more exposed.
- Cold wallet
- A wallet disconnected from the internet where most of the funds are kept.
Sources
- [SECURITY NOTICE] Bitget Hot Wallet Incident — September 24, 2026 (opens in a new tab) bitget.com
- Bitget Says Suspected North Korean Hackers Stole $351.6M After Backend Compromise (opens in a new tab) thehackernews.com
- Bitget hacker moves $83 million in stolen XRP beyond reach of freeze controls (opens in a new tab) coindesk.com
Ireland fines Google 403 million euros over how it handled location data
Ireland's Data Protection Commission announced a 403 million euro fine against Google Ireland on September 21 over its handling of location data in three features: Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy, between May 25, 2018 and February 4, 2020.
The regulator concluded that Google had no legal basis for that processing, was not transparent about it and kept data longer than necessary; it gave the company six months to fix it. The investigation began in February 2020, after complaints from European consumer organizations. Google said these are historical policies it has already changed, and noted that since 2023 Maps Timeline data is stored on the device.
Key facts
- €403 Mfine on Google Ireland
- 3features investigated
- 6 monthsdeadline to fix it
Explained for humans
Why did Google know where you'd been?
Your Google account has several switches that keep traces of where you are: Location History and Web & App Activity, which can also save your location.
It's like asking the building doorman to stop writing down what time you come in, while the guard at the gate keeps logging your license plate. The regulator says Google didn't explain this clearly.
- Your phonesearches and appsWeb Activity
- Your phonewhere you've beenLocation History
- Web Activityinfers interestsProfile and ads
Why should you care?
The fine is European, but these switches exist in your Google account here in Mexico too. Your location tells where you live, where you work and what time you leave. If you've never checked these settings, they're most likely still the way Google left them.
What to do
- Check Web & App Activity at myactivity.google.com and decide whether you want it on.
- In the Timeline section of your Google Account (myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/location) you can turn off Timeline; at google.com/maps/timeline you can delete what's been saved.
- Turning off Timeline doesn't delete everything: also check your search history, which can save your location on its own.
Frank's take
Six years of investigation to fine something that happened between 2018 and 2020. Privacy justice does arrive, but it arrives by bus, with a transfer. Meanwhile, you still haven't opened your account settings, and no regulator is going to fix that for you.
Glossary
2 terms
- GDPR
- The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, in force since 2018; it allows fines against companies that mishandle personal data.
- Timeline
- The Google Maps feature that records where you've been; it can be turned off and deleted.
Sources
- Data Protection Commission fines Google €403 million following Inquiry into Google's processing of location data (opens in a new tab) dataprotection.ie
- Google fined €403 million over location data privacy violations (opens in a new tab) bleepingcomputer.com
- Google's location data privacy failures draw a €403 million fine (opens in a new tab) malwarebytes.com
Update: Australia's Senate asks Altman and Amodei to appear on October 1
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, of the Greens, who chairs the Australian Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centers, sent written requests to Sam Altman, of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei, of Anthropic, to appear at a public hearing in Canberra on October 1.
The trigger: an OpenAI research agent got into the Medicare statistics portal in June, something Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed on September 23. OpenAI says there are no signs that any patient records were viewed. According to the reports, neither company had confirmed whether its chief executive will attend.
Explained for humans
What does it mean to appear before the Senate?
It's when a committee of lawmakers calls someone to answer questions in public, with what they say going into the official record. It's not a trial, but what you state can be used later.
It's like when the homeowners' association asks the building manager to explain at the meeting, in front of everyone, why the water was out for three days. They can't fire him right there, but whatever he says, he can't take back.
Why should you care?
If your business is starting to use AI agents, this is what's coming: governments are going to ask who answers for it when an agent touches what it shouldn't. Better to get clear right now on what access you give it and who reviews what it does.
Frank's take
An agent got into a health portal in June and we found out in September. Now they're asking the bosses to show their faces in public. Fine by me, although I suspect they'll send someone with a very nice tie and a very short memory.
Glossary
1 term
- AI agent
- A language model with tools, like a browser or a terminal, that decides on its own which steps to take to complete a task.
Sources
Learn more
-
Low Earth orbit (Wikipedia, in Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
es.wikipedia.org
Explains what low orbit is, where Starlink and the Space Station live.
-
Starship (SpaceX) (Wikipedia, in Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
es.wikipedia.org
How the two-stage rocket is built and what they want to use it for.
-
Manage your Timeline data (Google Account Help, in Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
support.google.com
The official guide to viewing, turning off and deleting your location history.
-
General Data Protection Regulation (Wikipedia, in Spanish) (opens in a new tab)
es.wikipedia.org
The European law behind the fine on Google, explained calmly.