BroadbandLaunchRockets

Elon Musk Shares All-Hands Deck

On Sunday, Elon Musk shared the deck from an all-hands SpaceX update he gave to employees last week.  SpaceX is averaging one launch a week. In late April, the company notched its fastest booster turnaround time to date (just 21 days). To date, SpaceX has successfully launched 160 times, with 122 landings and 98 reflights.  […]

LaunchStartups

Ursa Major Unveils Arroway

Render of Ursa Major’s Arroway heavy-launch engine. Image: Ursa Major. Ursa Major has unveiled its engine for heavy launch vehicles. The Colorado startup is calling its latest propulsion product Arroway, a nod to Dr. Ellie Arroway, Jodie Foster’s character in Contact. Arroway specs: 200,000-pound thrust, liquid oxygen and methane staged combustion, mostly 3D printed, and […]

LaunchMilitaryTechnology

Stratolaunch Unveils Talon-A

Image: Domenic Moen/Stratolaunch Stratolaunch has debuted its structurally complete Talon-A test vehicle. Stratolaunch will use the vehicle, dubbed TA-0, to test the release system of Roc and “characterize” Talon’s separation dynamics. Roc is a really massive twin-fuselage carrier craft, boasting six Boeing 747 engines and a payload capacity of 500,000+ lbs. At 385 feet (~117m) […]

EOEquitiesMilitary

NRO Awards Biggest-Ever EOCL Imagery Contracts

NRO’s NROL-85 launches. Image: SpaceX/NRO. As if Wednesday wasn’t already filled to the brim with space news, the National Reconaissance Office also had to flex on us and announce its “largest-ever commercial imagery contract.” EOCL, imagery, billions of dollars…let’s break it down: The agency awarded Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contracts to BlackSky ($BSKY), Maxar ($MAXR), […]

LaunchLEOStartups

SpaceX Launches Transporter-5

SpaceX launched Transporter-5 yesterday. That’s non-news for most of you by now, but it’s still worth running through the numbers and firsts of this mission. Transporter-5 had 59 spacecraft on its manifest, ranging from cubesats to hosted payloads to orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs).  (F)light work: Transporter-5’s booster (tail name B1061-8) previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, […]

LaunchLEOStartups

Exolaunch Ready for Biggest SpaceX Rideshare to Date

What’s it like micromanaging a SpaceX rideshare? Well, let’s find out… Exolaunch is providing launch and deployment services for 21 satellites aboard today’s SpaceX Transporter-5 mission, which is set to lift off at roughly half past 2 Eastern. Exolaunch provides launch services, makes separation systems, and has certainly earned frequent flier status with SpaceX. The […]

OSAMStartupsTechnology

Benchmark Expands to Europe, Inks Propulsion Deal with UK’s Space Forge

Burlington, VT-based Benchmark Space Systems has formally expanded across the pond. The propulsion provider has pond-hopped across the Atlantic, not Lake Champlain, just to be clear.   Driving the news…Benchmark has opened a new UK facility to serve the British and European markets. The Vermont startup has also signed a deal with Space Forge, a British […]

Business

Citi, McKinsey Chart Growth of Space Industry

Citi released a report earlier this month titled “Space: The Dawn of a New Age.” The bank’s GPS group sizes up the commercial space market and forecasts that the sector will generate $1 trillion in annual sales by 2040.  Big, if true…the shiny trillion-dollar number would represent a 5% compound annual growth rate from $370B […]

LEOStartupsTechnology

Exclusive: Phase Four Inks Deal to Scale Production

Image: Phase Four El Segundo-based Phase Four today finalized a lease to build a second factory and scale production of its Maxwell engine product line. The new Hawthorne facility will be over 3X larger than Phase Four’s current plant, and capable of cranking out 100 engines a year.  Phase Four’s founding vision was to create […]

BusinessEOEquities

Spire’s Space Services Business Shines in Upcoming Launch

Spire ($SPIR) announced this morning that it will launch five satellites with SpaceX on the forthcoming Transporter-5 rideshare mission from Florida. What’s notable is the degree to which the company is playing up its space services business.  The business unit will have satellites and payloads onboard Transporter-5 for Hancom inSpace, a Korea Aerospace Research Institute […]

Equities

Rocket Lab Q1 Results Underscore Growing Space Systems Business

Rocket Lab ($RKLB) booked $40.7M in Q1 revenue, which represents a 124% annual jump and quarterly growth of 48%. Net loss widened in Q1, growing ~71% YoY to $26.7M. End-to-end space: The rocket company is executing on its strategy of building out a robust non-rocket business. Rocket Lab’s space systems unit generated $34.1M in Q1, […]