Military

USAFRL Awards SpaceX $102M Rocket Cargo Contract

Earlier this month, the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) awarded SpaceX a $102M, five-year contract for its rocket cargo transportation program. The contract, first reported by Aviation Week, is a part of AFRL’s rocket cargo project, which seeks to tap into advertised commercial launch capabilities as a leased service.  No Rocket Cargo funding is going toward […]

VC/PE

Radian Raises $27.5M Seed; Emerges from Stealth

Tired: rockets Wired: fully reusable single-stage-to orbit, horizontal-takeoff-and-landing spaceplane That, in a not-so-concise nutshell, is the driving force behind Renton, WA-based Radian Aerospace. After six years, the startup finally emerged from stealth Wednesday to announce its spaceplane ambitions and a $27.5M seed round.  One part rocket science and another part going where no company has gone before, Radian […]

Military

NATO Publishes Space Policy

Space is “increasingly contested, congested, and competitive,” NATO writes in its newly released overarching space policy (emphasis ours). Those three C’s in space require allies to be ready to “operate in a disrupted, denied, and degraded environment.” Monday represents NATO’s first public articulation of its space policy. NATO first declared space an operational domain and created a classified policy in late […]

VC/PE

Space Tech Investing: A 2021 Snapshot

PitchBook and NVCA have released their Q4 ’21 Venture Monitor. If there’s one thing that’s evident, it’s that VCs had plenty to be happy about last year:  Deal value for US startups nearly doubled year-over-year to $330B.  Public listings, SPACs, and M&A activity drove over $680B in exit value (nearly 3x the previous record).  VC fundraising […]

Equities

Goldman Initiates Coverage of Planet

Goldman Sachs has initiated coverage of Planet (NYSE:PL) with a buy rating and $11 price target, implying an upside 80+%. $PL traded up ~10.5% on Wednesday.   Earth observation (EO) company Planet went public (via SPAC, obviously) in early December, in a deal valuing the company at $2.8B. The company’s stock has fallen by ~50% since […]

Launch

Above the Clouds Pushed Back a Day

Yesterday, newly public Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ:VORB) held a pre-flight press briefing for its upcoming Above the Clouds mission. Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket and Cosmic Girl will take off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California, and follow a flight path approximated in the graphic above.  Manifest: Four Pentagon R&D satellites, a NASA-sponsored university payload, two nanosatellites for Polish […]

Science

Sentinel-1B Has a Power Problem

A flagship European satellite has a power issue. Sentinel-1B (S-1B), an Earth observation satellite, hasn’t been generating data since Dec. 23, when ESA noticed an issue with the Sentinel and switched off its powerful radar platform. According to an alert published Monday, ESA was unable to restore the power needed for radar operations in recent days.  Sentinel 101: ESA […]

Debris

Paying for Space Cleanup, Part Two

Ed. note: Read Part One of this story here. Last week, the US Space Force (USSF) detailed how it would tap the private sector with orbital debris removal services. Beyond relatively small funding awards, how might governments more holistically address the problem of space junk? Here’s a few ideas.  1) Accept responsibility. “When it comes to liabilities and […]

Debris

Paying for Space Cleanup, Part One

The Space Force (USSF) is hoping to gin up demand for debris removal by eventually buying services directly from the private sector.  “We need your help,” USSF Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson said in a recent video addressed to the private sector (H/T SpaceNews). The vision here = “Aggressively explore [debris removal] […]

Launch

Arianespace Takes a Victory Lap

On Thursday, the French rocket firm recapped a robust year of launch.  At a glance: Revenues grew 30% annually to  €1.25B (~$1.4B), powered by 15 successful launches (+5 YoY). Arianespace’s three different vehicles—Ariane, Soyuz, and Vega—transported 305 satellites to orbit from three different launchpads.  And what better way to close out 2021 than by launching Webb? Thanks to the […]

Civil

Report: Governments Spend Record $92B on Space in 2021

Despite the pandemic and an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, 2021 was a banner year for government space spending. Total investment topped $92B, according to Euroconsult’s latest Government Space Programs report. That’s an 8% annual jump over 2020, though with today’s inflation, who knows what the real increase really was… Civil vs. military breakdown: Civilian space programs received a cumulative $53B in […]

Analysis

Earth’s Busiest Spaceports in 2021

Where did the 133 successful orbital launches of 2021 start their journey? Visualize the busiest launchpads via Spaceports of the World, a data repository compiled by the Aerospace Security Project at CSIS, a DC-based think tank.  The top three spaceports by orbital launch (H/T Thomas G. Roberts):  Cape Canaveral / Kennedy Space Center, with 31 launches (+1 YoY) […]