The in-space collaboration between the US and Russia may be coming to an end. Yesterday, newly installed Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov announced Moscow’s intention to walk away from the ISS partnership in 2024 and commence construction on its own space station. In recent memory… Russia’s hostile invasion of Ukraine almost immediately sent the already-strained ISS […]
On today’s episode of Pathfinder, we’re joined by Tim Ellis, the CEO and cofounder of Relativity Space. Tim was in his late twenties when he started Relativity with cofounder Jordan Noone six and a half years ago. Fast forward to today: Relativity’s 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket is at the pad in Cape Canaveral and an orbital […]
Yesterday, Eutelsat confirmed Bloomberg reporting that it is officially in talks to merge with OneWeb. Refresher: OneWeb is building a LEO broadband megaconstellation to rival the likes of Starlink and Kuiper. The UK company has launched 428 satellites (~66% of its planned constellation). France’s Eutelsat, founded in 1977, operates a fleet of 36 GEO satellites […]
Last week, Relativity Space and Impulse Space announced a partnership to launch the first private mission to Mars. To much fanfare, the two startups say they’ll try to launch a Red Planet lander as early as 2024. Under the agreement, Relativity will launch Impulse’s Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander on the 3D-printed Terran R […]
China’s space station is almost finished. Over the weekend, the China Manned Space Agency launched the Wentian laboratory module to its in-progress Tiangong station atop a Long March 5B. Wentian successfully docked with the station earlier this morning after a 13-hour journey. Wentian: The lab module is the largest spacecraft that China has ever sent […]
Until recently, the driving philosophy in exoplanet research was that liquid water needed fairly specific conditions to exist and that water on planets that orbited too far from a star would necessarily be frozen. Now, a decade-old theory with a new batch of research behind it is challenging that idea among planetary scientists. A study […]
Isar Aerospace is the first privately-funded operator to gain access to the Guiana Space Centre (GSC) in French Guiana. French space agency CNES announced the news on Thursday. GSC has been in operation since 1968 and has supported hundreds of missions. CNES responded to several requests from industry to open the site to privately-funded operators […]
While government-operated orbital outposts may not have the amenities of future private stations, in-space internet, it would appear, will be table stakes. Driving the news: NASA’s Lunar Gateway module, set to begin launching in a few years, will serve as a comms hub, a research lab, short-term living quarters for astronauts, and a holding bay […]
UK-based horizontal launch startup Astraius has selected Northrop Grumman and Exquadrum to supply three rocket motors for its vehicle. Northrop will supply the first and second-stage rocket motors. California-based Exquadrum will supply the upper-stage rocket motor. Buy vs. build: “From Day 1, we decided the best way to reduce risk, lower cost, and quickly deliver […]
The wait is almost over. Yesterday NASA finally announced a target launch date for the debut flight of SLS, aka Artemis I. The agency’s giant moon rocket is set to roll out to the pad on Aug. 18 and could launch on either Aug. 29, Sep. 2, or Sep. 5. The story so far: It’s […]
It’s not hyperbole, nor is it a gimmicky marketing one-off. Europe is going to the Moon with the intent of being both an explorer and enabler of the new lunar economy. As part of NASA’s Artemis program, the European Space Agency is contributing both the service module for the Orion spacecraft and a key element […]
As NASA prepares to send humans back to the moon through its long-awaited Artemis program, it’s taking big steps to encourage commercial lander development. First order of business: CLPS. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program is funding 14 separate lander concepts from Astrobotic, Deep Space Systems, Draper Labs, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, […]
