A heavily redacted report reveals that SpaceX used videos from tourists in the Caribbean to help track falling debris.

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The Big Story

October 20, 2026 · View in browser

In today’s newsletter: Videos taken by Club Med tourists and Disney cruise guests helped SpaceX map and track falling debris after a Starship rocket exploded; a 26-year-old is the unofficial hotline for struggling families in Phoenix; how a concrete plant took over a Detroit community; and where our readers can open private schools.

Club Med, a Disney Cruise and an Exploding Starship: SpaceX Used Bystander Videos to Track Falling Debris

A heavily redacted report obtained from the FAA by ProPublica reveals that SpaceX used videos from tourists and travelers in the Caribbean to help track falling debris after one of its Starship rockets exploded last year.

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(Blurred for privacy by ProPublica)

For about a year, Austin Davis’ phone has been flooded with hundreds of pleas for help from homeless families across the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Nearly every person who’s reached out to Davis, a 26-year-old poet and advocate, says they’d first called 211, seeking help through the official channel, only to learn it could be months before they’d get shelter or a housing placement. Davis’ phone has become the unofficial hotline for emergency shelter. His path to becoming the de facto advocate of last resort illustrates how the system set up to care for families who are homeless in Maricopa County is failing them.

A spokesperson said Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is “deeply aware” of these challenges, noting Hobbs has allocated at least $245 million statewide on efforts such as eviction prevention, affordable housing, emergency shelter and rapidly rehousing people experiencing housing insecurity.

As Detroit rebuilds from the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, major construction has reshaped the city, from new sports complexes to the first new skyscraper in 50 years.

To meet the demand, at least three new concrete facilities have opened in the city since 2019. One of these plants was erected in a neighborhood called Cadillac Heights. We spoke to neighborhood residents who say the facility creates clouds of dust, makes noise in the early hours of the day and late into the night, and floods the area with industrial light.

A company representative called the facility “a good neighbor.” He also said the company complies with all permitting requirements and city ordinances, and that it properly mitigates dust. The representative added that readings from the company’s air monitor have never exceeded the city’s pollution limits and that the facility is “fully compliant.”

Watch our video to see how this plant has disrupted life in one community.

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Here’s Where Our Readers Can Open Schools

This year, we’ve been reporting on how easy it is to open a private school, even for people with no experience. To test the process, we started our own schools without much effort. (To be clear, we have no plans to operate them or enroll students).

We also created a 10-question quiz so readers could find out where they could open their own schools. We asked readers to share their results. Here are some of them:

Verified Preparatory Academy, which could open in Maine and 12 other states.
Maverick Preparatory Academy, which could open in Oklahoma and eight other states.
Unchecked Preparatory Academy, which could open in South Carolina and nine other states.
Ye Old New Venture Academy, which could open in Kansas and 23 other states.

If you haven’t taken the quiz yet, click below. Let us know where you can open your school by responding to this email.

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The Big Story

Club Med, a Disney Cruise and an Exploding Starship: SpaceX Used Bystander Videos to Track Falling Debris

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Here’s Where Our Readers Can Open Schools

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