Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) successfully completed its 22nd launch, “Love At First Insight,” with Electron last week. The rocket transported two BlackSky Earth observation satellites to orbit, bringing Rocket Lab’s satellite launch total to 107. With a twist: Love at First Insight involved a controlled splashdown of the rocket’s first stage. Rocket Lab stationed a helicopter […]
Denver-based Voyager Space has a new deal in the works. Yesterday, the holding company said it intends to buy a majority stake in Space Micro, a San Diego-based satellite subsystem maker. The wheeling and dealing is becoming routine—Space Micro is Voyager’s sixth acquisition since it spun up in Oct. 2019. How’s that for flight heritage? Space Micro, started in […]
Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) successfully reached orbit Saturday. The small launcher’s LV0007 vehicle lifted off from a Kodiak, AK, spaceport, with a dummy payload for the US Space Force. “The team’s worked so hard on this for so many years,” Astra cofounder CEO Chris Kemp said on NASASpaceflight’s launch livestream. “We’re just getting started, folks,” he tweeted. LV0008, LV0009, […]
Planet Labs is nearly ready to take its talents to the public markets at a $2.8B valuation. Yesterday, Planet’s C-suite held court with investors to sell the vision. A decade of history in ~60 words: Planet set out to image and index all of Earth every day. The company developed a constellation of 200 satellites, created the […]
Axiom Space will conduct around 25 research experiments on its forthcoming ISS mission, the Houston company said Tuesday. Ax-1’s research portfolio includes senescent cell studies, a two-way hologram demo, and experiments in disciplines that run the gamut from astrophysics to neurology. Ax-1, 101: Axiom Mission 1 launches in 94 days, give or take. Beyond the research bounties it will bring […]
This week, Hydrosat closed a $10M seed round led by OTB Ventures. The geospatial imagery and analytics startup is using those funds to finance its first infrared imaging satellite (among other things—more on that later). Hydrosat has their sights set on water stress. After a year of worsening climate catastrophes, the case for high-quality water data is clearer […]
Turion Space has closed a $4.7M seed round of funding. The Irvine, CA-based startup is focused on satellite servicing and space debris removal. Timely raise much? “If we lose the ability to operate in LEO because we let the debris problem get out of control, the crazy growth in space technologies may end up stagnating,” […]
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit of the agency’s Artemis management. Spoiler alert: not great, but not the biggest surprise. The big picture: The Artemis program is over budget and behind schedule. NASA provided updated timelines last week, and now, OIG is moving the goalpost again. Due to numerous technical delays, Covid, and storm damage, OIG predicts that none of the three phases […]
On Monday, Russia struck a Soviet-era spy satellite with a missile. The antisatellite (ASAT) test destroyed a dead, decades-old spacecraft and generated at least 1,500 trackable orbital debris in LEO, along with hundreds of thousands of smaller shards. Washington confirmed the ASAT test and condemned Moscow for reckless space behavior. The US State Department called Russia’s actions “dangerous, […]
The ISS is returning to a normal configuration after two close passes with space debris, and crew initiated “safe haven” protocols. Under these procedures, astronauts treat vehicles as “lifeboats” and prepare for the possibility of an emergency departure. “In order to dodge the ‘space junk’, specialists…have calculated how to correct the orbit of the International Space Station,” […]
SpaceX has updated the Starlink suite with a new user terminal. The dish replaces a larger one sold to beta users. Scaling down: The new terminal is a 19” x 12”, 9.2 lb dish that users can mount to the side of a home (like the older version), their roof, or a pole (new capability). But users won’t get […]
On Wednesday, when reporting Q3 earnings, payment processor Shift4 announced a five-year strategic partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink. The deal came as a surprise, and Shift4’s stock (NYSE:FOUR) surged. But Jared Isaacman, the company’s CEO, is no stranger to SpaceX. Isaacman was financier and commander of the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission, which took place in September. Payload […]
