Innospace, a South Korean rocket startup, has reached an agreement with Brazil to launch the first suborbital test flight of HANBIT TLV in Q4 of this year. Hi, HANBIT: The 15-ton thrust, single-stage hybrid rocket that will be flown from Brazil is but one step in a longer journey. HANBIT TLV is designed to validate […]
Franco-German startup The Exploration Company has successfully completed a system requirement review of its Nyx spacecraft. TLDR: The Exploration Company was founded in 2021 with the aim of supplying long-duration in-orbit hosting services to customers, at a fraction of the cost of the ISS. The company is developing a modular spacecraft capable of extended stays […]
Yesterday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson delivered testimony, no holds barred, to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Nelson was on the hill to discuss the US space agency’s budget request for FY2023. ICYMI: NASA has requested $26B from Congress for the upcoming year, a $2B increase over FY22 enacted levels. The new budget includes the highest planetary […]
Satellogic (NASDAQ:SATL) has signed a multiple launch agreement (MLA) with SpaceX covering the deployment of 68 new Earth observation (EO) satellites. The freshly inked MLA succeeds Satellogic’s current one covering 2022 SpaceX launches. On April 1, SpaceX launched five Satellogic satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit on the Transporter-4 rideshare mission. Satellogic says the launch deals […]
A sudden rush of capital is flowing into a sector that, until recently, seemed stagnant: independent propulsion providers. Last week, Firehawk Aerospace, Adranos, and X-Bow Systems, each horizontally integrated propulsion systems developers, announced Series A rounds totaling at least $47M. Firehawk Aerospace Last week, Firehawk announced that it had received a Series A investment from […]
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) yesterday launched its 26th Electron mission and deployed customers’ 34 satellites to a sun-synchronous orbit. Most notably, the “There and Back Again” mission had a secondary goal of plucking the returning Electron booster from the skies with a helicopter. The company’s Sikorsky S-92 did end up catching Electron, but offloaded the booster […]
Two weeks ago, VP Kamala Harris announced that the US would impose a ban on its own destructive, direct-ascent ASAT (ant-satellite) testing. The move is meant to set an example for other spacefaring nations to maintain a safe orbital environment. The US will also likely use its new posture as an example in upcoming UN […]
On Friday, SpaceX flew its 17th mission of the year. Launching from Cape Canaveral, the Starlink 4-16 mission delivered 53 new broadband satellites to space. The mission’s booster (tail name B1062) was previously flown just three weeks prior on the Ax-1 mission. B1062 has also previously launched two GPS spacecraft, Inspiration4, and another Starlink mission. […]
Isotropic Systems has doubled in size over the last year, just recently signing its 130th hire, and expects to 2X again in the coming year, the British startup told Payload. The Reading, UK-based company has created—and successfully field-tested—a potentially revolutionary technology: multi-beam, multi-link, and all-orbit satellite terminals. Origin story In 2013, Isotropic CEO and founder […]
It’s official: NASA and German space agency DLR have agreed to end operations on the expensive airplane-mounted infrared observatory this year. NASA has been trying to cut the line item from its budget for a few years now, but for the past two years, Congress has restored the observatory’s funding in the agency’s federal budget. […]
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech During its 26th fight, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter snapped incredible images of the parachute and backshell that helped the chopper and the Perseverance rover to land on the Red Planet’s surface a little over a year ago. This was no coincidence: NASA and JPL intentionally directed the helicopter over to the landing site, […]
Image: Boeing Space Yesterday, Boeing (NYSE:BA) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) reported Q1 earnings, while Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE:NOC) results crossed the wire this morning. Space highlights below. $BA Total revenue was $13.9B, down 8.1% YoY. Boeing Defense, Space, & Security (DSS) revenue was $5.4B (-23.7% YoY) DSS recorded a net loss of $929M vs. $405M last […]
