Technology
Stories about the tech that’s driving the new space age.
Outpost’s Plan To Put Shipping Containers In Space
The future of manufacturing in space depends on Earth return companies finding a way to return much larger volumes from space—like say, shipping containers.
Sift Raises $17.5M Series A To Fuel its Telemetry Stack
“Look at the bill of materials for a modern machine—50% of its software.”
Don’t Forget To File Your TPS Reports
“These commercial companies—they frequently want to minimize the refurbishment between flights, they want to minimize the inspection time—they really want aircraft-like operation.”
How To Survive a Solar Storm
The geomagnetic storm that painted skies purple and green across vast swaths of the Northern Hemisphere over the weekend also created a dangerous environment for satellites in Earth’s orbit.
Thales Alenia Space Signs $567M ExoMars 2028 Contract
Europe’s Mars rover mission is getting a new lease on life.
Aethero Wants to Bring Edge Compute Into Orbit
The next generation of space capabilities, such as orbital servicing, will require even brainier orbiting robots.
NASA Nixes Solar Power From Space (At Least For Now)
The dream of using solar panels in space to deliver electricity to the Earth below has animated engineers for 80+ years, but even with the falling cost of space access, we’re still far from solving the climate change problem with orbital power plants.
Xage Pulls $17M USSF Contract for Cybersecurity
The Space Force is making strides toward protecting its critical assets in space with the award of a $17M contract to develop a zero-trust system that can keep space assets safe and sound. Xage Security Gov, the federal-focused arm of a startup building a zero-trust cybersecurity platform, announced this morning that it’s clinched the contract…
A Q+A with Sita Sonty, Space Tango CEO
Sita Sonty has only been CEO of Space Tango for a couple weeks, but she already has big plans for the company, including opening a new fundraising round and growing the startup’s global client base. “Details are in the works. It is a private, friends and family round,” she told Payload. “A big part of…
SpiderOak Demonstrates Cybersecurity on the ISS
SpiderOak demoed its OrbitSecure cybersecurity platform aboard the ISS last month, the company announced this morning, setting the stage for a future in which data can be securely shared in space by civil and defense customers. The demo used an AWS Snowcone edge computing platform supplied by Axiom Space, and involved transmitting data back and…
Viasat’s I6 F2 Satellite Malfunctions
A Viasat ($VSAT) communications satellite has malfunctioned, the company announced Thursday, marking the second such failure within the span of a month. This time, the issue is with a new member of the Inmarsat fleet, which Viasat acquired in May. The I6 F2 satellite launched in February as a backup, providing spare L-band and Ka-band…
Pulsar Fusion and the University of Michigan Partner on Electric Propulsion
Partners are teaming up across the pond to work on spacecraft propulsion tech. Pulsar Fusion, a propulsion startup based in England, announced last week it is partnering with the University of Michigan to research electric Hall-effect thruster tech. The UK Space Agency is funding the collaboration. “This is another key US partnership for Pulsar—we continue…
