Investment in the space economy is bouncing back from the sagging markets of last year, led by a couple of mega deals centered around investors’ growing appetite for commercial space stations.
First Rocket Lab, now Galactic Energy. The Chinese rocket startup suffered a launch failure yesterday after its Ceres-1 vehicle lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The midair failure destroyed a Chang Guang Jilin-1 Gaofen-04 B satellite. The failure comes days after Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket met a similar fate after launching a comparable-sized vehicle […]
Relativity Space signed a seven-year lease on a test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to prepare for its 3D-printed Terran R rocket. The company will pay $2.76M for the initial lease on the Apollo-era A-2 stand, and has the option to take out another 10 years if needed. Relativity already has 10-year […]
Wyvern, a two-year-old hyperspectral startup, is signing on to secure observation time on a Loft Orbital mission slated for next year to expand the capacity of its Dragonette constellation. Seeing colors Compared to optical sensors, which can collect data across three or four spectral bands—roughly red, blue, and green—hyperspectral sensors divide light into much narrower […]
SpaceX is dramatically outpacing the rest of the world in launch cadence and capacity. In its Q2 2023 launch trends briefing, BryceTech quantified just how much the launcher is breaking away from the competition. SpaceX vs. the world: On each of the launch metrics tracked by BryceTech—that is, number of launches, number of satellites launched, […]
China has set out a roadmap to compete with the Artemis program in a race to the Moon, grabbing the attention of NASA and lawmakers. As NASA pursues increased funding to ensure the US lands first, questions remain regarding China’s ability to finance the endeavor. “China’s funding is a bit of a black box,” said […]
You might think more dairy than deep space when you think about Wisconsin, but the Badger State is the most space-obsessed in the nation, according to a study released Thursday. Science news publication Alt Futures tracked nationwide space-related Google searches, including “NASA DART,” “International Space Station,” and “Mars rover,” between April 1, 2022 and March […]
In the ultimate example of competitors coming together, Europe’s largest satellite companies announced yesterday that they are joining forces to bid on the EU’s IRIS2 program contracts. Airbus, SES, Eutelsat, Hispasat, and Thales said the partnership will “leverage the expertise and capabilities in the field of secure satellite communications solutions,” according to a joint press […]
Lockheed Martin is establishing Crescent Space Services, a lunar infrastructure subsidiary focused on communication between the Earth and Moon, the contractor announced Tuesday. “We’ve seen the Artemis program and how it has been able to really get the attention of the world,” Crescent CEO Joe Landon told Payload. “We sat down and said how can […]
Last week, Terran Orbital ($LLAP) announced that Lockheed Martin ($LMT) had invested $100M into the business, upping the prime’s stake from 9.4% to 33.5%. Yesterday, Terran released its Q3 results, giving us a closer look into how the business is doing. The business outlook Last quarter, Terran Orbital brought in $27.8M in revenue, higher than […]
We have a rare Wednesday release of the Pathfinder podcast, but we promise the wait was worth it. Joining us today is Kelly Larson, who’s the CEO of Aquarian Space. The Boulder, Colorado startup is building “internet for the solar system.” Or, to get a bit more technical, Aquarian is developing a communications network for […]
