Iridium Is Fighting Starlink and Trump’s Tariffs
Despite beating market expectations with first quarter revenue growth of 5% year-on-year, Iridium’s stock fell nearly 7% in the face of competition and trade wars.
Tim Fernholz
NRO Launches First Payload Under New NatSec Contract
The NROL-145 launch is the first under the Space Force’s Phase 3 Lane 1 rubric—a launch contracting mechanism that will spend $5.6B on relatively simple launches with fewer requirements, which might suit new entrants to the national security launch game.
We Have Some Space Questions About The Golden Dome
President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a new, satellite-based missile defense architecture around the continental US has defense contractors salivating, but questions about the cost, capabilities, and requirement for such a system remain unanswered.
Boeing Hits Key Milestone On Path To Quantum First in Orbit
HRL Labs has built a space-hardened quantum payload and demonstrated it on the ground—a key milestone in Boeing’s push to demonstrate the first quantum entanglement swap in space. The device, which is going through final environmental testing, will serve as a “ground twin” for the final payload, which is expected to reach orbit on the […]
Trump Team Plans To Push TraCSS Out of Government
The White House wants the long-awaited Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) to be handed over to a non-profit or private company, backtracking on a mandate in the first Trump administration to move it into the Office of Space Commerce.
Leaked NASA Budget Spotlights Isaacman’s Challenge
President Donald Trump reportedly wants to cut NASA’s budget by $5B, or 20%. The Planetary Society said the cuts would “plunge NASA into a dark age.”
Space Companies Kept Ukraine In The Fight (For Now)
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the smaller, less resourced Ukrainian military was able to fight back in part thanks to innovative commercial tech, according to top execs.
Talking IM-2 With Tim Crain
Payload talked to IM CTO Tim Crain about the Athena lander, the onboard technology, and, yes, those pesky laser range-finders.
The Hottest Trend in Space Is A Defense Pivot
“If I had a nickel for every space company that pivoted to national security, well, I wouldn’t need to raise another round,” one spacetech founder mulling that exact strategy told Payload this week.
SpaceX Loses Starship on Seventh Test Flight
This was the first flight of a new version of Starship.
He Helped Create the Space Force. Now He Wants to Arm It.
“If the world was going to end in an hour, I’d spend 55 minutes on the problem and five minutes on the solution.”