Last week, Vyoma won the Startup Space pitch competition at Satellite 2022. Dr. Luisa Buinhas, a cofounder of Vyoma and space systems engineer, delivered the winning pitch. Payload wasn’t able to catch up with her on-site, but we did speak with Dr. Stefan Frey, an astrodynamics specialist and fellow Vyoma cofounder. Incubated within the ESA, the European […]
In a victory for NGOs and activists who have been pushing for more environmental accountability in space, the UN has adopted a provision that will ban the use of mercury as a satellite propellant. The UN provision: On Saturday, the UN added satellite propulsion to a long list of banned use cases for mercury under […]
Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ:VORB) lost $157M in 2021 on $7.4M in revenue, the company said yesterday. $VORB finished the day up 8.4%. KPIs at a glance: Adj. EBITDA: -$140M (vs. -$158M in 2020) Cash on hand: $194M Backlog: $575M, 26% of which is covered by binding agreements, and good for a 500% YoY increase. Context: This […]
Less than a month after the budget for FY22 was finally approved, President Biden has released his budget request for FY23. NASA funding: The budget proposes $26B for NASA in 2023, $2B (~8%) increase over FY22 enacted levels. Here’s how that breaks down, taking the broad view: $7.5B for Deep Space Exploration Systems $4.3B for […]
Hyperspectral imaging startup Pixxel has raised a $25M Series A led by Radical Ventures. Also joining the round were Seraphim, Lightspeed Partners, Blume Ventures, Sparta LLC, and Relativity cofounder Jordan Noone. Payload caught up with Pixxel CEO and cofounder Awais Ahmed over email to hear more about the company’s product roadmap, development principles, and target […]
A screenshot of NK Pro’s before-and-after analysis of Feb. 12 and March 17 Planet satellite imagery overhead a site near Pyongyang. Image via NK Pro. North Korea claimed to launch Hwasong-17 on Thursday. Analysts have described the ICBM in question as a “monster missile.” In Pyongyang’s telling… …the mega-ICBM, first unveiled at a military parade […]
Arianespace’s Vega C rocket’s upper stage uses engines built by Ukrainian space contractor Yuzhmash, Stéphane Israël, Arianespace CEO, said on a panel at Satellite last week. The company has three engines in storage, ESA officials said March 17. That’s not much of a strategic stockpile, especially as doubts linger that the Europeans will be able […]
US intelligence officials have attributed the hack of a satellite broadband service to the GRU, Russia’s largest military spy agency, the Washington Post reported Thursday. While its spooks may have reached a determination, the US government has not publicly attributed to Russian military hackers. “We are concerned about the apparent use of cyber operations to […]
NASA dreams of a future network in which superfast, globally distributed quantum computers transmit data back and forth from space nearly instantaneously, without any packet loss. Enter SEAQUE. The Space Entanglement and Annealing QUantum Experiment (SEAQUE), developed by JPL along with a team of researchers from across the world, is the next step in making […]
NASA announced yesterday that it plans to issue a call for concepts for another human lunar lander, aiming to give its original awardee, SpaceX, some competition on the Moon. New lander concept NASA plans to release a draft solicitation soon and award a second Human Landing System (HLS) contract in the new year. The new […]
ICYMI: SpaceX is hiking up prices for launch, satellite internet, and end user terminals, the company told customers Tuesday (H/T CNBC). The increases are certain to have cascading ripple effects across the space industry, while also affecting the ~250,000 consumers/businesses that use Starlink. The fine text Starlink: The broadband-via-megaconstellation service bumped up the cost of […]
Matthew Desch is the CEO of Iridium (NASDAQ:IRDM), a $5.1B satellite operator based in McLean, VA. Payload recently caught up with Desch across town at Satellite 2022. Over the course of an hour, we chatted about (shocker) satellites, constellation strategy, corporate reinvention, Iridium’s moat, “commodity broadband,” Ukraine, dual-use tech, SPACs, and more. There are three […]
