Turion is announcing a slew of wins in its efforts to design, build, and deploy its on-orbit mobility and debris removal infrastructure. The Irvine, CA-based space sustainability startup has notched six recent contracts from NASA, the Space Force, and the Air Force, each supporting a different area of its product stack. “We’re trying to grow […]
India’s space industry got an energizing shock from its lunar landing two weeks ago, and so far, the flurry of investment activity isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Manastu Space, an Indian collision avoidance and green propulsion startup, announced Tuesday that it closed a $3M pre-Series A led by Capital 2B, BIG Capital, and […]
Wyvern, a two-year-old hyperspectral startup, is signing on to secure observation time on a Loft Orbital mission slated for next year to expand the capacity of its Dragonette constellation. Seeing colors Compared to optical sensors, which can collect data across three or four spectral bands—roughly red, blue, and green—hyperspectral sensors divide light into much narrower […]
The DoD wants rockets on deck to launch at a moment’s notice. Firefly is rising to the challenge. The startup announced yesterday that it is officially on standby to launch the VICTUS NOX tactically responsive mission for US Space Systems Command (SSC). The Texas-based launcher and Millennium Space Systems, the payload provider for the mission, […]
Otter Pup is back, baby. The spacecraft from Starfish Space tumbled through space for about six weeks after an emergency deployment from Launcher’s Orbiter craft in June. Yesterday, the Seattle-based startup announced that the craft is finally stabilized. “Less than two months after being deployed with rotation rates 100 times greater than normal operating conditions, […]
SpiderOak demoed its OrbitSecure cybersecurity platform aboard the ISS last month, the company announced this morning, setting the stage for a future in which data can be securely shared in space by civil and defense customers. The demo used an AWS Snowcone edge computing platform supplied by Axiom Space, and involved transmitting data back and […]
A Viasat ($VSAT) communications satellite has malfunctioned, the company announced Thursday, marking the second such failure within the span of a month. This time, the issue is with a new member of the Inmarsat fleet, which Viasat acquired in May. The I6 F2 satellite launched in February as a backup, providing spare L-band and Ka-band […]
China and South Africa have agreed to partner on space initiatives for the first time. During a meeting of BRICS nation leaders—a group consisting of Brazil, India, China, and South Africa—Chinese President Xi Jinping signed two agreements with South Africa to collaborate on space-related projects. According to Chinese state media agency Xinhua News, one of […]
Hypergiant Industries, a software company building an AI-powered decision-making product, announced this morning that it has been acquired by PE firm Trive Capital. Hypergiant 101: The Austin, TX-based company is built around using AI to solve data accessibility and usability issues for defense, space, and critical infrastructure. Its main offering is an AI-powered geospatial data […]
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is going full steam ahead on its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Yesterday, the agency announced that it has awarded the first two contracts to build and operate spacecraft for the second tranche of the network. The two contracts are worth a combined $1.5B and secure 72 satellites. The birds […]
The FAA is working on new rules aimed at ensuring the safety of commercial crew flights. In a notice of proposed rulemaking issued Friday, the FAA suggested a few new regulations to be officially incorporated into the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA), mainly focusing on definitions and safety training for government astronauts. A […]
SpaceX is dramatically outpacing the rest of the world in launch cadence and capacity. In its Q2 2023 launch trends briefing, BryceTech quantified just how much the launcher is breaking away from the competition. SpaceX vs. the world: On each of the launch metrics tracked by BryceTech—that is, number of launches, number of satellites launched, […]
