2024 Top 5: AI In Orbit
After years of AI changing the way people work on Earth, the tech is finally having its moment in the space industry’s spotlight.
Technology
Stories about the tech that’s driving the new space age.
The Year in Commercial Space Hits and Misses
The best and worst of space technology in 2024.
China’s Materials Bans Could Transform Space Solar
Power demand in orbit is already closing in on 20M watts a year.
Ukrainian Small Launcher Finds Refuge in the US
Promin’s plan is to hire as many as a dozen US engineers in the coming year who will build Promin 1 with guidance from the engineers who remain in Ukraine.
Slingshot Wins $13.3M Contract to Develop TraCSS UI
The Office of Space Commerce tapped Slingshot Aerospace to design the front door of its space situational awareness system, which will be a hub to help industry avoid collisions in orbit.
Anduril wins $99.7M Contract to Modernize SPACECOM
Lattice uses machine learning and AI models to help operators track objects in space, giving SPACECOM a more resilient space surveillance tool.
Inversion Raises $44M Series A To Build Its Arc
Inversion plans to use these funds to scale up its operations to deliver a full-scale reentry vehicle on orbit by 2026.
Texas A&M Breaks Ground on New Space Institute
The Space Institute will include lab and office space, classrooms, an auditorium, as well as two football-field sized landscapes that simulate the lunar and Martian surfaces.
General Galactic Raises $8M Seed For Clean Fuel Tech
General Galactic wants to change the way the world thinks about the green transition, by using pollutants themselves as a renewable fuel source.
Space AI is Having a Moment
After years of AI changing the way people work on Earth, the tech is finally having its moment in the space industry’s spotlight.
Kall Morris Inc. Begins ISS Residency
The system will prove out technology that could eventually grab objects on orbit, allowing KMI to move debris out of congested orbital lanes or relocate satellites that don’t have enough juice to move themselves.
Skyrora Completes Test of Telemetry Relay System
The solution—a telemetry relay system called InRange—uses Viasat’s geostationary satellites as the middleman to receive telemetry data from the rocket and beam it back to Earth.