Russia will select the first cohort of Russian Orbital Station (ROS) cosmonauts by next year, officials announced last week. Development of the training program for the selected cosmonauts is expected to be completed by 2025. Russian Orbital Station 101: With the ISS set to deorbit by the end of the decade, Russia has proposed building […]
Launch startup Firefly Aerospace announced yesterday that it has acquired Spaceflight Inc., a space services and transportation company, to build its on-orbit service offerings. Firefly did not disclose the terms of the deal. Firefly: The Texas-based rocket startup, which focuses on the small to medium-lift market, achieved orbit for the first time in October with […]
Russia’s lunar race has a new start date. After years of delays, Russia’s Luna-25 probe is slated to launch to the Moon aboard a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket on Aug. 11, according to Russian state news site TASS and local tour operator RocketTrip. The uncrewed mission will be the first Russian lunar trip in 45+ years. […]
Galvanick, an industrial cybersecurity startup, raised a $10M seed round to expand its team and continue developing its debut product. The seed investors include MaC Venture Capital, Founders Fund, Village Global, Countdown Capital, Hanover Technology Investment Management, Shrug Capital, and 8090 Industries. Protect the machines: Galvanick was founded in 2021 and is led by Josh […]
Sierra Space turned on its Dream Chaser spaceplane for the first time Wednesday, checking off a major milestone before its first flight to the ISS, which is expected at the end of the year. Dream Chaser 101 The autonomous spaceplane is designed to launch vertically atop a heavy-lift rocket, but land horizontally on a runway. […]
A NASA panel poured cold water on UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) hype in their first public meeting yesterday, saying better data was needed for conclusive answers. “There is a very limited number of high-quality observations and data curation of UAP,” said Daniel Evans, who works within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. UAP craze: NASA organized a […]
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law last week to reduce the liability for commercial spaceflight companies in a bid to lure even more launch providers to the Space Coast. The law grants launch businesses sweeping immunity from flight-related injury or death liability, on the condition that the crew members sign a waiver. […]
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a scathing report yesterday on the cost overruns in the engine and booster contracts under the Artemis SLS program. The report revealed $23.8B of total SLS expenses since 2012, resulting in a dizzying $4.2B cost per launch. Over the Moon: SLS is an expendable heavy-lift rocket designed to […]
Fleet raked in $33M in a Series C round yesterday to build out its satellite-enabled mineral exploration solution. Blackbird led the funding round, which valued the startup at $229M. Down Undah: Headquartered in South Australia, Fleet is hyper-focused on serving one of the region’s largest economies, resource mining. The company leverages its seven-nanosatellite LEO constellation […]
Fortuna Investments is opening a Miami office with the goal of investing in 12 early-stage space startups over the next few years. “I think it’s an incredible time to get involved and allocate capital,” Fortuna founder and CEO Justus Parmar told Payload. “We have a lot of powder dry and are looking for opportunities.” Fortuna […]
Blue Origin will provide the second lunar lander for the Artemis program, NASA announced on Friday, giving Jeff Bezos’ company a major victory after losing out to SpaceX on the first lander award in 2021. “An additional, different lander will help ensure that we have the hardware necessary for a series of landings,” said NASA […]
China has set out a roadmap to compete with the Artemis program in a race to the Moon, grabbing the attention of NASA and lawmakers. As NASA pursues increased funding to ensure the US lands first, questions remain regarding China’s ability to finance the endeavor. “China’s funding is a bit of a black box,” said […]
