PolarisQ&A

Rep. Eric Sorensen on Space Travel, Safety and Shuttle Ties

A space leader on Capitol Hill is looking at how to eliminate gaps between the agencies that oversee human spaceflight over concerns about maintaining the highest safety standards. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL), the ranking member of the House space subcommittee, pointed out the multitude of groups that have a hand in regulating spaceflight, from the […]

Q&AStartupsTechnology

A Q+A with Sita Sonty, Space Tango CEO

Sita Sonty has only been CEO of Space Tango for a couple weeks, but she already has big plans for the company, including opening a new fundraising round and growing the startup’s global client base.  “Details are in the works. It is a private, friends and family round,” she told Payload. “A big part of […]

BusinessCivilMoonQ&A

Q&A with ispace US CEO Ronald Garan

The countdown has started on ispace’s NASA-backed date with the Moon in June 2025, and the US team has locked itself in a room this week to game out the details.  The company began a four-day exercise on Monday akin to a military-style wargame that will help the company zero in on when the spacecraft […]

Q&A

A Q&A with Artemis II Astronaut Christina Hammond Koch

On Monday, NASA announced the four Artemis II astronauts who will travel around the Moon aboard the Orion capsule next year.  NASA selected Christina Hammock Koch, who holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman at 328 days, as a mission specialist for the flight. She is the only professional engineer on the […]

LaunchPathfinderQ&ARockets

Ursa Major, Vector Launch Strike Engine Deal

Ursa Major has struck a deal to supply Vector Launch with “several” propulsion systems, the company tells Payload. Ursa’s Hadley engines will power the main stage of the Vector-R launch vehicle in future demonstration missions for national security customers.  A word on Vector: The seven-year-old startup, which has raised more than $180M, declared bankruptcy in […]

EOLEOQ&AStartupsTechnology

Exclusive: Quub Emerges from Stealth Mode, Announces Two Air Force Contracts

Today, satellite startup Quub emerged from stealth mode with two Air Force contracts in tow.  Pronounced like “cube,” the Lancaster, PA-based startup bills itself as a “data company,” placing an emphasis on the value of its eventual downstream analytics products. But don’t get it twisted—Quub is taking a verticalized approach to Earth observation (EO) and […]

CislunarMoonParallaxQ&A

Lessons from Artemis: A Q&A with Former NASA Astronaut Jim Reilly

NASA’s triumphant return to the Moon has begun.  Right now, Artemis I is coming to an end, as the Orion capsule hurtles back from lunar orbit for a planned splashdown this weekend. Over the next few years, NASA is planning to lay the groundwork to prepare for long-haul trips to Mars. There’s a lot of […]

CivilQ&A

A Q&A with Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson

Figuring out how the US remains a leader in low Earth orbit after the ISS plummets into the ocean should be a top priority for Congress in 2023, according to outgoing Science, Space and Technology Committee chair Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX.) There are no follow-on plans for a government-run space station in low Earth […]

Q&AStartups

Why Apex Believes the Satellite Bus Sector Is Ripe for Innovation

Apex recently announced itself to the world with a $7.5M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup seeks to manufacture 100-kilogram class satellite buses that can support ~100 kg of payload. Its first product is called Aries.  Last month, Payload caught up with Apex Cofounder and CEO Ian Cinnamon. He previously founded Synapse, a […]

LaunchQ&AStartups

Firefly Prepares for Production Ramp; Names Permanent COO

Firefly made history when it became one of only a handful of privately funded players to reach orbit a month ago.  Now, the self-described “end-to-end space transportation company” is staffing up to scale production and ensure that October’s successful Alpha launch isn’t a one off.  “What we have to do now…is take Alpha to full-rate […]

Q&ASatcom

A Q+A with Sateliot, AWS’s Latest Space Partner

There are going to be a lot of cell towers in space. Last week, Sateliot said it was working with Amazon to build a cloud-native narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) 5G connectivity service using its planned LEO constellation on AWS. Now, we’ll run that last sentence through Payload’s jargon translator:  The San Diego/Barcelona-based startup hopes to be […]