Virgin Galactic Launches Final Test Flight Ahead of Commercial Service
Virgin Galactic took to the skies yesterday, launching the final VSS Unity test flight before beginning commercial service. The Unity 25 mission tested the ship’s technical function as well as the astronauts’ experience. This was the company’s first spaceflight in nearly two years after a pause for an FAA investigation and fifth in total. The…
NASA Inspector General Highly Critical of SLS Spending
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a scathing report yesterday on the cost overruns in the engine and booster contracts under the Artemis SLS program. The report revealed $23.8B of total SLS expenses since 2012, resulting in a dizzying $4.2B cost per launch. Over the Moon: SLS is an expendable heavy-lift rocket designed to…
Fleet Raises $33M to Expand its Mineral Exploration Tech
Fleet raked in $33M in a Series C round yesterday to build out its satellite-enabled mineral exploration solution. Blackbird led the funding round, which valued the startup at $229M. Down Undah: Headquartered in South Australia, Fleet is hyper-focused on serving one of the region’s largest economies, resource mining. The company leverages its seven-nanosatellite LEO constellation…
South Korea’s Nuri Rocket Lifts Off with Commercial Payload
South Korea’s Nuri rocket, also called KSLV-II, successfully completed its third launch today, marking the first time a Korean launch vehicle carried commercial payloads to space. Three’s company: Lifting off from Korea’s Naro Space Center, the Nuri launcher deployed eight satellites into orbit, including three from domestic companies: Lumir, Justek, and Kairo Space. Those satellites…
Astranis Notches MicroGEO Success
Astranis, an SF-based GEO broadband startup, has successfully deployed its first satellite in orbit to begin providing capacity over Alaska. “Our MicroGEO satellites will help get millions of people connected to the internet through our commercial customers, and importantly they are a new tool in the toolbox for the U.S. Department of Defense as it…
VC Firm Fortuna Expands into Space Investing
Fortuna Investments is opening a Miami office with the goal of investing in 12 early-stage space startups over the next few years. “I think it’s an incredible time to get involved and allocate capital,” Fortuna founder and CEO Justus Parmar told Payload. “We have a lot of powder dry and are looking for opportunities.” Fortuna…
Ursa Major Receives AFRL Contract for Draper and Arroway Engines
Ursa Major received a contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on Tuesday to test a prototype of its new Draper engine for hypersonics and to continue developing its Arroway engines. AFRL awarded these funds aiming to decrease US dependence on foreign propulsion systems for space launch, a key goal of its rocket propulsion…
Artemis 2 Crew Finds Inspiration in DC’s Chaos
The Artemis 2 crew found inspiration in their visit to DC last week, despite the backdrop of partisan debt limit debates and Republican-backed efforts to slash nearly a quarter of NASA’s budget. When I asked Victor Glover how the crew’s meetings with lawmakers had gone amid these financial concerns, he was overwhelmingly optimistic about the…
Exclusive: TRL11 Raises $3M for Space Video
TRL11, a startup aiming to bring advanced video production and monitoring capabilities to the space domain, has raised a $3M pre-seed to scale up its team and production. Boost.VC led the round, which also included participation from Wonder VC, Anorak, Geek Ventures, Space Cadets, and several angel investors, including Launcher founder Max Haot. TRL11 101:…
Ax-2 Takes Off
The second-ever commercial astronaut mission to the ISS has embarked on its journey. Mission recap: Right on schedule at 5:37pm ET yesterday, the Axiom Mission 2 (aka Ax-2) crew of four successfully lifted off from KSC in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9. The crew included: AlQarni and Barnawi will be the…
NASA Taps Blue Origin for Second Lunar Lander
Blue Origin will provide the second lunar lander for the Artemis program, NASA announced on Friday, giving Jeff Bezos’ company a major victory after losing out to SpaceX on the first lander award in 2021. “An additional, different lander will help ensure that we have the hardware necessary for a series of landings,” said NASA…
G7 Deems Space Debris an ‘Urgent’ Problem
The growing amount of space debris in orbit is an “urgent issue” that must be addressed by international organizations, according to the G7 nations meeting in Japan this weekend. “We strongly encourage further research and development of orbital debris mitigation and remediation technologies,” officials wrote in the communiqué from the G7 Science and Technology Ministers’…
