Insights and analysis from Payload Research
Last week, we covered ABL, Relativity, and Stoke funding, three launch startups that have yet to reach orbit. This week, we are focusing on a business that has hit its orbital proof point, Firefly Aerospace.
The next few years are make or break for launch startups—either achieve orbit and scale or go the way of Astra and Virgin Orbit.
The first three months of 2024 was another busy year for the space industry, underscored by continued growth in SpaceX’s launch cadence and a solid VC funding environment. Below are the four charts defining the quarter.
NASA’s SBIR funding—particularly its Phase I & II tracks—has become a vital source of non-dilutive capital for early-stage space startups. At the same time, it has gained a reputation for coming up short in delivering on its larger Phase III programmatic contracts, leaving companies to navigate the “valley of death.”
We have entered the Starship era.
NASA is on pace to exceed $100B of Artemis funding by FY26, according to nominal dollar data from OIG, NASA budgets, and Payload analysis. The program—which has penciled in its first crewed lunar landing by 2026—is one of the most expensive in NASA history. The enormous costs largely accrue to development of the mission’s vehicle. […]
Blue Origin aims to land its Blue Moon Mark 1 cargo vehicle on the Moon next year, setting an aggressive timeline as the company charts a new course of decisive action and big swings after not reaching orbit in its first two decades of operations.
ULA is up for sale, and all signs point to Blue Origin as the buyer.
The ultimate goal—along with science—is to foster a sustainable commercial lunar market where NASA can add to demand rather than monopolize its own closed-loop economy.
Society’s demand for space-based data has fueled growth in the space industry, with 10,000+ satellites in orbit. On top of all that hardware grows an even faster network of interconnected data, software, and mesh networks, working in concert with other connected devices to converse and compute. The data exchange in space presents a near-infinite number […]
We’re once again dusting off the crystal ball and predicting SpaceX’s 2024 revenue.
