Relaying what matters next.
The Relay is a new media project dedicated to covering slightly futuristic domains such as artificial intelligence, space exploration, longevity science, crypto and blockchain, advanced biology, and defense technologies. Our mission is to capture the signals of tomorrow and relay them forward with clarity, depth, and context.
What's happening today?
LEO Goes Live: SDA Tranche 1 and HBTSS reset hypersonic defense
With the first operational Tranche 1 satellites launched on September 10, 2025 and MDA’s HBTSS prototypes already on orbit, the United States is shifting from radar-first to space-first missile defense. Here is what will change from 2026 to 2028 and how operators can exploit it.
Bigger Blocks, Bigger Stakes: Solana’s Firedancer Gambit
Jump Crypto’s Firedancer proposes lifting Solana’s per‑block compute cap after Alpenglow, promising fewer failed trades, new MEV dynamics, and bigger bursts.
K2-18b’s biosignature showdown and the road to 5 sigma
Between April and September 2025, teams using JWST reported a 3 sigma hint of dimethyl sulfide or dimethyl disulfide in K2-18b’s atmosphere. Here is what that actually means and the fastest plan to confirm or refute it.
Pig Kidneys Enter Trials: The 2025 Xenotransplant Pivot
In 2025, gene-edited pig kidneys moved from heroic one-offs to formal clinical trials. With multi month, dialysis free living at Mass General and FDA clearances for the first xenokidney trials, the field is now chasing measurable gains in late life health.
OpenAI and Jony Ive’s pocket AI sparks the ambient agent era
Fresh reporting points to a pocketable, always-on assistant from OpenAI and Jony Ive. If it ships by 2026, hardware becomes the agent runtime, with on-device context memory reshaping interactions, app distribution, and trust.
Telegram crowns TON and ships TON Wallet to the U.S.
Telegram set TON as the exclusive blockchain for Mini Apps and began rolling out its built-in TON Wallet in the United States. This move turns chats into one‑tap dollar payments, in‑app dApps, and direct creator payouts across a near‑billion user base.
Aging Biomarkers After LDT Rollback: The Trial-Grade Playbook
After the FDA’s September 2025 shift on lab-developed tests, epigenetic clocks and proteomic age panels have a clear path from CLIA labs to clinical trials and payer adoption. This playbook shows how to build trial-ready endpoints, win coverage, and deploy usable tools in primary care.
China’s Tianwen-2 targets a quasi-moon, then a comet
Launched May 29, 2025, China's Tianwen-2 will chase quasi-moon Kamoʻoalewa for a 2026 rendezvous, attempt anchor-and-attach sampling for a 2027 return, then slingshot to active asteroid 311P/PANSTARRS. Here is what to watch and why it matters.
Cheap DOE 1706 Loans Are Rewiring the American Grid
Cheap federal credit under Section 1706 has kicked off a utility debt supercycle that lowers bills, hardens reliability, and moves power through existing corridors faster. Here is how the window through September 30, 2026 is reshaping what gets built first.
Sovereign HODL: Seven Months Into the U.S. Bitcoin Reserve
Seven months after the March 6, 2025 order that created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, Washington has consolidated roughly 200,000 coins and signaled a no sell stance. Here is what October 2025 looks like, how the float tightened, and what comes next.
Sora’s Rights Rails and the App Store Era of AI Video
OpenAI Sora is moving from experiment to platform. New rightsholder controls, revenue sharing, and fast in-app blocking signal an App Store style model for licensed character agents, virtual actors, and creator marketplaces.
Japan’s shipboard railgun resets the math of air defense
Japan’s ATLA confirmed in September 2025 that a prototype railgun aboard JS Asuka hit a moving target at sea. Here is why that trial could bend the cost curve of naval air defense and what to watch next.
America’s 2025 Solar Tariff Shock and the Supply Chain Reset
New antidumping and countervailing duty orders on Southeast Asian solar imports took effect on June 24, 2025, and an August 29 vote opened probes into India, Indonesia, and Laos. Here is how prices, supply, and U.S. factory ramps will move next, plus the procurement plays that keep projects on schedule.
New Glenn to Mars: ESCAPADE and the private interplanetary dawn
Blue Origin’s second New Glenn flight is set to send NASA’s twin ESCAPADE probes toward Mars. Pairing low cost smallsats with a commercial heavy lifter could reshape planetary science, enable real time Mars space weather maps, and set a faster deep space tempo through 2030.
Epigenome Editing Enters Humans, Longevity’s Next Switch
Between January and April 2025, epigenome editing crossed into human trials. Tune Therapeutics secured approvals in Hong Kong and New Zealand and raised $175 million to launch TUNE-401 for chronic hepatitis B. Here is why this pivot could reshape prevention-first longevity.
Swift and Chainlink turn ISO 20022 into onchain fund flows
A new Swift, UBS and Chainlink pilot shows how standard ISO 20022 bank messages can mint and burn tokenized fund units onchain. Here is what shipped, why settlement compresses, what this unlocks for corporate actions and RWAs, and how builders can plug in.
The Sparse-Active Era: Qwen3‑Next Flips Inference Economics
Qwen3 Next pairs sparse-active Mixture of Experts, hybrid attention, and multi-token prediction to deliver long context at lower cost. Here is how it changes your serving stack, when to switch from dense 70B, and what to tune first.
XM30 goes software defined after key 2025 design gates
The Army’s next infantry fighting vehicle cleared its 2025 design gates and is being built as a software defined combat system. Hybrid power, MOSA, and native counter‑UAS aim to turn upgrades from years into months while a 50 mm weapon and AI‑aided fire control push lethality forward.


