Stories about the companies building a ride to space.
SpaceX launched four astronauts to the ISS aboard its Crew-5 mission with NASA yesterday. The Dragon Endurance spacecraft is expected to dock with the space station today around 5pm ET. This mission had many, many milestones. First up, geopolitics. All signs point to collaboration in space, for now. The crew includes Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, […]
On Tuesday evening, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral with precious cargo: SES-20 and -21. The American launch provider successfully deployed the satellites for SES, their owner and operator, roughly six hours later into a near-geosynchronous orbit. SES bought the two birds from Boeing in 2020. The all-electric satellites […]
Firefly Aerospace successfully reached orbit early in the morning on Saturday, October 1. The Cedar Park, TX company’s Alpha FLT002 mission lifted off from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 2 shortly after midnight Pacific. Stage separation occurred roughly 2.5 minutes after lift off, and Alpha reached orbit shortly before T+8 minutes. Firefly deemed the orbital journey […]
Time just flies by in the space industry, and we’ve already arrived at the end of the third quarter of 2022. It was a busy quarter, full of major partnership announcements, strides in science, and a jam-packed conference season. Here are the highlights from the last three months in commercial, military, and civil space. July […]
Editor’s note: BryceTech’s report was released last month, not this week. We missed the original release and mistakenly thought the report was new when we recently came across it. Payload regrets the error. BryceTech’s latest quarterly launch briefing is out. These reports are the gold standard for rocket data. We read ‘em, reread them, and […]
On Days #2 and #4 of IAC in Paris, German launch startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) signed a pair of launch contracts with Spaceflight Inc. and Indian space situational awareness (SSA) startup Digantara. Spaceflight signed a launch contract that will see RFA take the Seattle company’s Sherpa space tug to orbit. To date, Spaceflight has […]
During Day 1 of IAC in Paris, ArianeGroup execs unveiled the Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration spacecraft concept…SUSIE, for short. The proposal is intended to equip Europe with independent crew and cargo access to LEO. Currently, the continent relies solely on the US for its crew transportation needs, after cutting ties with Russia’s launch […]
Skyroot Aerospace has raised $51M in a Series B round led by GIC, a global investment firm based in Singapore. This is the largest funding round in the Indian private space sector to date. The company raised an $11M Series A in 2021. The launch startup is developing India’s first private launch vehicle and was […]
Scottish launch startup Orbex has announced that it plans to add 50 new staff to its ranks over the next six months. Orbex is developing its 19-meter two-stage Prime vehicle, which can lift 150 kg payloads to orbit. The company unveiled the first full-scale prototype of the vehicle in May, which is currently being used […]
Skyrora has test fired the second stage of its three-stage Skyrora XL rocket. The successful test comes on the heels of the UK-based launch startup opening its new 55,000-square-foot production facility in Cumbernauld, Scotland. Skyrora XL 101: 22.7m tall and 2.2m wide Capable of launching 315kg payloads Third stage can be swapped out for a […]
The space industry hasn’t yet completely resolved the gap in access to launch stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. To get some of its stranded sats back on their mission timelines, ESA has begun preliminary talks with SpaceX, Reuters reports. The story so far: The war in Ukraine has poked holes in Europe’s spaceflight plans […]
Rocket Lab ($RKLB) reported earnings at market close on Thursday. The New Zealand-based launch company recorded a quarterly record revenue of $55.5M, up 392% YoY. Key Rocket Lab Q2 2022 #s Adj. EBITDA = -$8.5M Cash & cash equivalents = $542.5M Backlog = $531.4M Net loss = $37.4M Revenue By Segment Space Systems = $36.4M […]
