EOEquitiesLaunch

Momentus, Virgin Orbit, BlackSky, and Spire Report Q1 Earnings

Image: Niall David/Momentus Even if most of us may not want to think about financial markets right now, earnings season is in full swing. Let’s run through four results from this week, bucketed into two categories. Space transportation Momentus ($MNTS) reported $0 in Q1 revenue on Monday and a $26M net loss. There’s a lot […]

LaunchStartups

Phantom Sees “No Blockage” Reaching Orbit in 2023

Phantom Space has placed an order for 200+ rocket engines from Ursa Major, the two startups announced this week. Reading the fine print:  Ursa will supply Phantom with 5,000-lb thrust Hadley engines that are already coming off of the production line, and Ripleys, which will have an order of magnitude more thrust.  Phantom will use […]

EOEquitiesLaunchQ&A

Q+A with Satellogic’s Emiliano Kargieman

Satellogic (NASDAQ:SATL) has signed a multiple launch agreement (MLA) with SpaceX covering the deployment of 68 new Earth observation (EO) satellites.  The freshly inked MLA succeeds Satellogic’s current one covering 2022 SpaceX launches. On April 1, SpaceX launched five Satellogic satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit on the Transporter-4 rideshare mission.  Satellogic says the launch deals […]

Launch

Rocket Lab Catches, then Releases, Returning Electron

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) yesterday launched its 26th Electron mission and deployed customers’ 34 satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit. Most notably, the “There and Back Again” mission had a secondary goal of plucking the returning Electron booster from the skies with a helicopter.  The company’s Sikorsky S-92 did end up catching Electron, but offloaded the booster […]

LaunchRockets

SpaceX Notches New Turnaround Record

On Friday, SpaceX flew its 17th mission of the year.  Launching from Cape Canaveral, the Starlink 4-16 mission delivered 53 new broadband satellites to space. The mission’s booster (tail name B1062) was previously flown just three weeks prior on the Ax-1 mission. B1062 has also previously launched two GPS spacecraft, Inspiration4, and another Starlink mission.  […]

LaunchRockets

RFA Wins €11M in DLR Microlauncher Competition

Graphic: Andrew Parsonson German launch startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has won the second and final round of the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) microlauncher competition. The award comes with a €11M ($11.7M) check and a requirement to carry 150 kgs of institutional payloads free of charge aboard the RFA One’s first two flights. “We are […]

BroadbandBusinessLaunch

ISRO to Launch OneWeb Satellites This Year

OneWeb has found another launch provider: NewSpace India, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The two have inked a deal to start launching satellites later this year, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Left in the lurch The LEO broadband constellation developer was launching with Roscosmos…until March. Since […]

AnalysisLaunch

SpaceX rules the ultimate roost in Q1

BryceTech has released its 2022 Q1 report examining rocket launches and satellite deployment. Who’s leading the race? SpaceX tops the charts with 11 rockets launched and 502 spacecraft deployed. China takes silver this quarter, with eight launches and just 38 spacecraft deployed. Although Roscosmos takes bronze for launches with four, Arianespace takes third for the […]

CivilLaunchMilitary

Colorado & Texas Lawmakers Push to Keep Space Assets within State

Two states that are among the biggest movers and shakers in the US space economy are fighting back against federal decision-making, albeit in very different ways.  Colorado  Senators Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) and Reps Doug Lamborn (R) and Jason Crow (D) released a joint statement Monday: “We have said before that the […]

EOLaunch

Sentinel-1B replacement secures a ride

ESA has contracted Arianespace to launch the EU’s Sentinel-1C Earth observation satellite aboard an Avio-built Vega-C rocket. Sentinel-1C is expected to take over the duties from Sentinel-1B, which suffered an anomaly in December. In January, ESA officials said that recovery efforts had failed. By late February, they identified a 28V power-regulated bus as the root […]