Thales Alenia Space Signs $567M ExoMars 2028 Contract
Europe’s Mars rover mission is getting a new lease on life.
Technology
Stories about the tech that’s driving the new space age.
Benchmark Sends Metal Plasma Propulsion to Orbit
The company already has 50 orders for the thruster.
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 […]
NASA Funds 11 Next-Gen Space Projects
NASA awarded 11 companies a combined $150M to support a next-gen lunar base camp and broader space exploration tech, the agency announced yesterday. The grants, which were awarded under NASA’s Tipping Point program, fund an array of sci-fi-like projects including lunar nuclear fuel, in-situ resource utilization, LiDAR navigation, inflatable heat shielding, and lunar power transmission. […]
World’s First Constellation for Wildfire Monitoring
Canada is experiencing its most severe wildfire season on record, with emissions from the fires at their highest levels since satellite monitoring began in 2003. In a bid to help responders better control the spread of wildfires in the future, OroraTech, a startup founded in 2018 as a Technical University of Munich spin-off, aims to […]
NASA Axes its X-57 Maxwell Electric Aircraft
NASA is pulling the plug on its experimental all-electric X-57 Maxwell aircraft before it ever hit the air, the agency announced on Friday. Officials cited safety concerns as the reason for the cancellation, but the decision comes at a time of overall belt-tightening at NASA, with budget pressures coming down the pike. Electric plane: The […]