Start Your Engines: The Lunar Rover Race Has Begun
Payload spoke with several companies building next-gen lunar rovers—including Astrolab, ispace, Intuitive Machines, and Lunar Outpost—about the biggest challenges and opportunities in this sector.
Technology
Stories about the tech that’s driving the new space age.
Radian Plans Re-entry Vehicle For Hypersonic Tests
Radian Aerospace said it will build a hypersonic reentry vehicle to generate cash, and support the development of its sled-launched single-stage-to-orbit rocketplane.
Frontier Flies its Lab-in-a-Box on ATMOS’ Reentry Mission
Frontier Space’s first mission is designed to test key components of its lab-in-a-box bioreactor, which will give future space travelers the ability to grow things like food and medicine in space.
Phantom Space and Ubotica Team Up to Bring AI to Orbit
The volume of data being gathered in space is growing exponentially, and the capacity to ship that data back to Earth is increasingly constrained. That’s why more companies want to analyze their data on orbit. Phantom Space is no different.
Boeing Hits Key Milestone On Path To Quantum First in Orbit
HRL Labs has built a space-hardened quantum payload and demonstrated it on the ground—a key milestone in Boeing’s push to demonstrate the first quantum entanglement swap in space. The device, which is going through final environmental testing, will serve as a “ground twin” for the final payload, which is expected to reach orbit on the […]
The Golden Dome Might Fly Sooner Than You Think
Leaders from L3Harris argued that the company has already demonstrated many technologies that will be central to the Golden Dome architecture.
Portal Space Systems Raises Staggering $17.5M Seed
Portal plans to use the seed round to scale production and accelerate Supernova’s development in time for a mid-2026 maiden launch date.
Aetherflux Raises $50M Series A
Index Ventures and Interlagos led the round, which also included participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and actor Jared Leto, among others.
Momentus and Solstar Team Up on Orbital WiFi Demo
The local WiFi connection offered by Deke aims to keep payloads aboard the Momentus spacecraft in contact with operators on the ground 24/7.
CTO Unveils First Regenerative 5G mmWave Telecom Payload
Constellation Technologies and Operations (CTO), a Paris-based startup attempting to build a constellation of VLEO telecom satellites, announced its first tech demo flight aboard a D-Orbit ION sat launching in June.
ATMOS Space Cargo is Go for Reentry
The Phoenix reentry vehicle will complete two Earth orbits before blasting through the atmosphere and landing in the Indian ocean—without any parachute.
Kayhan Space Beefs Up its Space Traffic Coordination Tool
The company hopes the new tool will make it easier for satellite operators to run their missions and coordinate collision avoidance maneuvers with their neighbors.