The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee approved three bills on Tuesday morning designed to increase astronaut safety, tap the private sector for scientific data, and maintain US leadership for the next generation of deep space exploration.
“Demand has increased more than production capacity has,” CEO Ian Cinnamon told Payload. “This allows us to vertically integrate faster, and buy more parts ahead of time and stock inventory.”
Axiom chief revenue officer Tejpaul Bhatia will be the space station company’s new CEO, the company announced Friday afternoon.
Katalyst acquired Atomos in a bid to grow its in-space servicing business, the companies announced today.
Alpine Space Ventures and a16z led the round, which also included participation from Also Capital, Founders Fund, and Stepstone.
The Trump administration has ordered the Pentagon to speed up its defense acquisition process. That will require trained staff to quickly get new commercial tech under contract, according to Col. Richard Kniseley, the senior materiel leader of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office.
“Will we actually land on an asteroid and get these beautiful samples? Probably f—— not,” Gialich told Payload. “But do we hope to change the name of the game for access to deep space, and show people that the price point we’re doing this at is doable? I hope.”
“It’s not supposed to be even touched until 2027. Now they’re saying that’s probably too long. So let’s talk about—is now the time, based on what’s happening in the world,” Col. Jonathan Whitaker told Payload on the sidelines of Space Symposium.
They focus on tech ranging from high-res imaging, mission planning, non-Earth imaging, and carrying and dispensing small sats in orbit (not unlike how an aircraft carrier operates at sea).
While the station may look more luxurious than the industrial ISS it’s gunning to replace, CEO Max Haot was clear that the touches of comfort weren’t designed with billionaire vacationers in mind.
“In the aerospace industry, costs get passed along into the marketspace…Is the market going to bear that cost increase? Right now, it’s a lot of philosophical kinds of uncertainty,” said Ed Dodd, VP of business development at Cofactr, a procurement and logistics management startup.
Firefly will conduct a responsive space mission for DoD as early as 2027, which will include capabilities such as conducting space domain operations in LEO.
