,
113 tweets,
23 min read
Read on Twitter
1/ NASA, NOAA, privatized data and the booming space and weather forecasting industries.
[Thread]
[Thread]
2/ Pete Worden was the director of the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley from 2006–2015. 
4/ Its research is foundational to human exploration of planet and space. go.nasa.gov/2gIZfdH
5/ Worden (Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret., PhD) is a recognized expert on civil and military space issues. 
7/ While working at Ames, (l) Chris Boshuizen, Marshall and Schingler developed a CubeSat. 
9/ In 2010, the 3 physicists left Ames and founded Cosmogia (later renamed Planet Labs).
go.nasa.gov/2yRJysL
go.nasa.gov/2yRJysL
11/ Breaking into the satellite imaging industry can get expensive.
14/ In 2013, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner led the $52 million Series B funding for Planet.
bit.ly/2ybQvYz
bit.ly/2ybQvYz
15/ He was also involved w/ Planet’s Series C round which raised $70 million. bit.ly/2zPHAbu
16/ Milner runs Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm that’s invested billions of dollars in U.S. startups like Zynga,…
17/ …Groupon, Twitter, Airbnb, Slack, Flexport, Wish and Boxed. bit.ly/2iDUMgp
18/ Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov owns 1/3 of DST and is its largest investor. His current estimated net worth is $15.6 billion.
20/ In 2015, DST raised $1.7 billion from 56 different investors. The fund, Global V, is registered in the Cayman Islands.
22/ In 2015, Milner launched Breakthrough Initiatives.
23/ The program was founded to search for extraterrestrial intelligence over a 10-year timespan.
bit.ly/2yo4VVz
bit.ly/2yo4VVz
24/ Breakthrough projects include: 
26/ Milner, Stephen Hawing and Mark Zuckerberg are on the advisory board.
27/ Thiel also has prior dealings in the commercial space and weather industries.
28/ Aside from Planet Labs, Founders Fund was the lead investor in a $50 million Series C round for Climate Corp.
bit.ly/2yRmlXr
bit.ly/2yRmlXr
29/ Climate Corp. uses satellite imagery to help farmers manage their crops. bit.ly/2hi5qG0
31/ In 2015, Founders Fund became the first institutional investor in the legal cannabis industry.
32/ The group invested “multi-millions” of dollars in Privateer Holdings, a marijuana company that owns the Canadian medical marijuana…
34/ Tilray produces and sales medical cannabis around the world. bit.ly/28JsWoK
35/ In 2016, Founders Fund raised $1.3 billion for its sixth round of funding.
37/ Thiel is Trump’s closest tech advisor. He’s been in talks to become the chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
39/ Thiel’s data analysis company Palantir has been working with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency for the last few years.
41/ Palantir‘s database is comprised of a wide-ranging array of datasets which are used in its top-secret algorithms to “track and assesses…
42/ …immigrants and other travelers.” 
43/ 
45/ Several of Thiel’s associates are in top positions in the Trump admin.
47/ Kevin Harrington is on the senior staff at the National Security Council. bit.ly/2xtpbAp
48/ Thiel is also playing a pivotal role in the negotiations going on at the National Space Council.
cnnmon.ie/2rxR8o3
cnnmon.ie/2rxR8o3
49/ Friction exists regarding the “direction” of the space council. 
50/ The tenured gov contractors have offices in Huntsville, AL where the Marshall Space Flight Center is located.
52/ The United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
53/ The ULA and other A&D contractors bring hundreds of millions of dollars into Session’s home state.
55/ The ULA uses the Russian RD-180 engine for its US Atlas V launch vehicle because it’s cheap and reliable. 
58/ Thiel’s FF has invested around $200M in SpaceX.
59/ As part of its initial $20M investment, FF partner Luke Nosek was added to the SpaceX board. Musk, Thiel and Nosek are OG PayPal Mafia.
60/ In July 2017, Nosek announced he was starting Gigafund, a new invest firm that initially raised $100M in SpaceX.
bit.ly/2xuYDPr
bit.ly/2xuYDPr
61/ Most of SpaceX work has been cargo supply missions to the Space Stn. It expects to launch astronauts in 2018.
bit.ly/2yVoCkv
bit.ly/2yVoCkv
62/ It launches satellites into space w/ its Flacon 9.
63/ It’s also working on the Falcon Heavy, a rocket that will carry up to 37,000 pounds of cargo and crew to Mars.
65/ In 2016, Planet Labs signed a $20M contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence agency.
66/ The NSG is the operating framework supported by producers, consumers or influencers of geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT.
67/ bit.ly/2sWFa7M
68/ Planet now has 144 satellites in space — the most of any company in the world. It will soon be imaging the entire earth every day.
69/ As the space and weather industries flourish, politicians favoring more privatized data are gaining full backing from Trump/GOP.
70/ Jim Bridenstine (R-Ok) is Trump’s pick to head NASA. 
71/ Bridenstine pushes “measures that would allow commercial comps to collect and sell weather forecasting data that would integrate with…
74/ Bridenstine’s Sen confirmation hearing was Wednesday. (11/01/17) bit.ly/2z4AEbh
75/ Barry Myers is Trump’s nominee for the dual post of NOAA Admin & Under Sec for Oceans and Atmosphere, Dept. of Commerce. 
76/ Myers is the CEO of AccuWeather, a private weather forecaster. His brother founded the company in 2007.
77/ He has a "direct responsibility for the company's rapidly growing New Media initiatives in the wired and mobile web...
79/ He does not have any formal education in science or meteorology.
81/ In 2012, Myer’s supported Rick Santorum’s bill that would have...
82/ ...“prohibited federal meteorologists from competing with comps such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel.”
politi.co/2ztCgOX
politi.co/2ztCgOX
83/ AccuWeather lobbied for the passage of the “Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017.”
bit.ly/2z2ehp3
bit.ly/2z2ehp3
84/ It became law on April 18, 2017. It’s the first major weather legislation enacted since the early 1990s.
wapo.st/2ihsqVl
wapo.st/2ihsqVl
85/ The law was passed to do the following: 
86/ There's concern Myers will attempt -through the new law and new data - to monopolize the data.
87/ Perhaps using it to unfairly benefit AccuWeather.
88/ Bridenstine, Trump’s nominee to head NASA , was a co-sponsor of the bill. So was Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).
bit.ly/2gKVfcg
bit.ly/2gKVfcg
89/ Rohrabacher represents Orange County.
90/ The area is home to various space contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
91/ He’s Vice Chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
92/ He’s been Chair of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee since he first entered Congress in 1989.
bit.ly/2g5uksb
bit.ly/2g5uksb
94/ The new wave of weather and space data will provide whole new insights into how the world operates.
95/ Experts can track deforestation, monitor natural disasters, track human and animal migration.
96/ Farmers will have better data to grow more efficient crops. Transport comps. will have improved supply chain logistics.
97/ It will be valuable data that provides strategic advantages. It will need to be secure.
98/ In Aug. 2017, it was reported that “unauthorized (user) location data was being sent from the AccuWeather iOS mobile app.
100/ The data was being sent from the AccuWeather app to a comp called Reveal Mobile. Reveal sells the info to retailers with the promise...
101/ ...of helping to “understand the path of a consumer and where they go throughout the day.”
bit.ly/2x12GXw
bit.ly/2x12GXw
102/ In 2011, AccuWeather was involved in a class action lawsuit over location tracking on an HTC EVO device.
bit.ly/2gRavrN
bit.ly/2gRavrN
103/ Trump/GOP are proposing to cut the NOAA budget by 16%. 
104/ Trump/GOP are proposing to cut the FEMA budget by $667 million. Trump also wants to eliminate the National Flood Insurance Program.
107/ In 2015, the DOD released the “Nat Security Implications of Climate-Related Risks and Climate Change” report.
archive.defense.gov/pubs/150724-co…
archive.defense.gov/pubs/150724-co…
108/ The report identified four main areas of climate-related security risks:
109/ 1. Recurring flooding, drought, and higher temperatures; 2. More frequent and/or more severe extreme weather events; 3. Sea level rise
110/ ...and temperature changes; 4. Decreases in Arctic ice cover, type, and thickness.
111/ The collection, dissemination and security of the growing data necessary to monitor these climate security risks are increasingly…
112/ …being taken over by private industry. The laws are being blurred between what data is publicly accessible and what data is private.
