LEO
Stories about operations in low-Earth orbit.
Exclusive: TRL11 Raises $3M for Space Video
TRL11, a startup aiming to bring advanced video production and monitoring capabilities to the space domain, has raised a $3M pre-seed to scale up its team and production. Boost.VC led the round, which also included participation from Wonder VC, Anorak, Geek Ventures, Space Cadets, and several angel investors, including Launcher founder Max Haot. TRL11 101:…
Ax-2 Takes Off
The second-ever commercial astronaut mission to the ISS has embarked on its journey. Mission recap: Right on schedule at 5:37pm ET yesterday, the Axiom Mission 2 (aka Ax-2) crew of four successfully lifted off from KSC in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9. The crew included: AlQarni and Barnawi will be the…
Exclusive: Albedo Forms a Strategic Advisory Board
Albedo, a startup developing a VLEO constellation to collect high-resolution optical imagery from space, has formed a strategic advisory board of former senior intelligence and defense officials to aid the company in its bid to boost government business. The formation of this board “allows us to…strategize well and efficiently around engaging on the national security…
Vast Aims to Launch World’s First Commercial Space Station by 2025
Vast, a space habitation technology company, is planning to launch the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, into LEO by August 2025, the company announced Wednesday. Haven-1 will initially function as an independent crewed space station before connecting with a larger Vast space station currently in development. The station, which can accommodate up to four…
SpaceX Launches Transporter-7
Happy belated Transporter launch day to all who celebrate. At 2:48am Saturday, SpaceX launched the Transporter-7 mission on a Falcon 9, carrying 51 customer payloads to new homes in orbit. These rideshare missions are big days for small satellite companies that rely on the comparatively low cost to send their birds to orbit. On this…
Slingshot Doubles Sensing Capabilities
Slingshot Aerospace announced this morning that it will add 80 new sensors by the end of the year, doubling its tracking capabilities and getting closer to its goal of building the most comprehensive space tracking network on the planet. The story so far: CEO Melanie Stricklan founded Slingshot in 2017 to tackle the growing need…
SDA Tranche 0 Launch Delayed
The Space Development Agency is all about moving fast, but getting its first batch of satellites off the ground aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 will have to wait a little longer after Thursday’s launch was unexpectedly scrubbed three seconds before liftoff. SDA announced Friday morning that the expected launch attempt at 10:29 am ET Friday…
Starlink V2 Minis Experience Issues
Starlink’s V2 satellites are having some issues. On Tuesday, Elon tweeted an explanation for observations that some of the V2 Minis launched last month have changed the altitude and eccentricity of their orbits: The new technologies: The Starlink V2 Minis are essentially trial runs for technology that will fly on the much larger final V2…
Samsung Introduces Satellite Chip
On Thursday, South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung shared some color on its own space plans. The tech conglomerate introduced a satellite-to-smartphone communications chip for future phones, rather than unveil any flashy features now. Above, we deliberately used the modifier “tech conglomerate”—twice—to describe Samsung. While best known for phones, Samsung is also the world’s second largest…
Terran Orbital Wins $2.4B Rivada Contract
Live long and prosper… Another day, another three-comma space contract. Terran Orbital said Wednesday that it won a $2.4B contract to design, build, and deploy a 300-bird constellation for Rivada Space Networks. The Rivada constellation will consist of 288 LEO satellites and 12 spares. They’ll be linked by lasers, packing on-board data routers, and tasked…
European Startups Hungry for Space Tug Market Share
Today in Europe, there are no fewer than 13 companies developing or operating orbital transfer vehicles, known in short as OTVs or more colloquially as space tugs. Around the world, we assess that there are likely north of 100 companies that are keen to grab a slice of the space tug market. With healthy competition…
FCC Approves Kuiper Debris Mitigation Plan
Another megaconstellation has cleared a key step toward LEO deployment. On Wednesday, the FCC approved Kuiper’s orbital debris mitigation plan, a significant regulatory hurdle that has been keeping Amazon’s broadband constellation out of the sky. The story so far: Amazon has taken a long, winding road with Kuiper. In 2020, the FCC approved the constellation,…
Orbital Sidekick Raises $10M, Preps for Launch of Hyperspectral Constellation
This week, Orbital Sidekick announced a $10M raise from a group of strategic and existing investors. Energy Innovation Capital led the round, with energy firms Williams and ONEOK participating. The University of Minnesota’s endowment fund, 11.2 Capital, Syndicate 708, and In-Q-Tel also joined the round. Six-year-old, SF-based Orbital Sidekick is preparing to launch a six-bird…
