The lunar surface has claimed another victim. Russia’s Luna-25 crash-landed on the Moon this weekend after the spacecraft fired its engines in an attempt to maneuver into its pre-landing orbit. The failed mission is a blow to the Russian space program, which hoped for a triumphant return to the lunar surface after a 47-year absence. […]
True Anomaly unveiled a flurry of announcements yesterday, including the opening of a 35,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Colorado and new authorization from the government to image other space assets and rendezvous with spacecraft in orbit. True Anomaly 101: The company emerged from stealth in April with $30M in funding. The startup builds spacecraft […]
Partners are teaming up across the pond to work on spacecraft propulsion tech. Pulsar Fusion, a propulsion startup based in England, announced last week it is partnering with the University of Michigan to research electric Hall-effect thruster tech. The UK Space Agency is funding the collaboration. “This is another key US partnership for Pulsar—we continue […]
SpaceX has filed a final mishap investigation report to the FAA for its April 20 Starship integrated flight test, the FAA told Payload on Tuesday. Submitting the report is an important regulatory step toward SpaceX launching Starship on its second orbital test flight, a milestone that will require sign-off from the FAA. “When a final […]
Collins Aerospace nabbed a $36M Air Force Research Laboratory contract last week to develop a comms terminal to feed military and commercial satellite data directly to cockpits. “This resilient communications terminal is designed for survivability in degraded environments to offer military leaders enhanced situational awareness to make better decisions, faster across the battlespace” Collins VP […]
When Tom Marotta founded The Spaceport Company last year, he knew he was entering a domain usually reserved for governments or large corporations. “I said I think I want to go build a spaceport,” Marotta told Payload. “Which is a weird thing to say, right? “It’s like saying I want to go build a railroad […]
Earnings season is in full swing, with several closely-watched companies reporting financial results this week. Here’s our high-level takeaway on what you need to know. Rocket Lab ($RKLB): While a number of space SPACs are just trying to keep their heads above water, Rocket Lab continues to be a bright spot. The company executed three […]
Commercial space imaging hit a new resolution high-water mark. Satellite operator Umbra released a 16 cm/pixel Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image today, making it the highest-res commercial satellite image ever dropped, according to the company. The image is comparable to the resolution that was previously restricted to government use. “This means that we are finally […]
Wait your turn, room-temp superconductor. We’re still not finished with the AI craze. NASA and IBM launched their open-source geospatial foundation model on the AI platform Hugging Face, the team announced yesterday. The model leverages NASA’s vast inventory of satellite data to provide insight and modeling on the impacts of climate change. “We believe that […]
Northrop Grumman’s farewell launch of its Antares 230+ rocket on Tuesday marked the end of an era for Russian tech on the company’s launch vehicles. The Antares 230+ was powered by Russia’s RD-181 engines. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the US intensified sanctions against Moscow and rocket technology transfers—including the RD-181—came to a screeching […]
iRocket announced a partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory today, which will give the company exclusive access to a test facility at Edwards Air Force Base and the opportunity to collaborate on its reusable rocket. The AFRL Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) will help accelerate development of its methalox engines and fully reusable […]
Tilebox, a startup building software to host and manage raw satellite data, raised $1.7M in a pre-seed round to build out its team and expand its product offering. “We’re really excited about the space because we see the growth,” Tilebox cofounder Laura Costa told Payload. “The software part of the data management and processing is […]
