White House Requests $27.2B for NASA
The White House is requesting $27.2B for NASA next year, a 7% (or $1.8B) increase from the 2023 enacted level. Highlights from the budget include a significant boost to the Artemis program and funding for the eventual deorbit of the ISS. It’s worth noting the budget represents Biden’s wish list. With a divided Congress, the…
Spain Greenlights National Space Agency
This week, Spain’s Council of Ministers voted to approve a statute green-lightning the country’s new space agency to formally begin operations. The vote is “a determined commitment by the Government of Spain for a sector that is key, that generates opportunities, that generates quality employment, and we endow it with an initial budget of more…
Starfish Space Raises $14M Series A
Starfish Space, a Seattle-based startup developing satellite servicing spacecraft, has raised a $14M Series A round led by Munich Re Ventures. Toyota Ventures also participated in the round, along with existing investors PSL Ventures, NFX, and MaC VC. Servicing for cheap: Starfish has a grand vision of a future economy in Earth orbit where satellites…
Japan’s ispace to IPO in April
Japanese lunar lander startup ispace has filed the paperwork and announced plans to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 12. IPO → lunar landing Eyes on the prize: ispace could be a central player in a cislunar economy that’s expected to generate $100B over the next decade, according to estimates from research…
BlackSky Reports Q4 Results
BlackSky ($BKSY) is paring losses; winning key contracts; and sees a near-term path to (adjusted) profitability. Those were the key takeaways bright and early at 7:30am on Tuesday, when the Herndon, VA satellite operator reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results. For the full year, BlackSky pulled in $65.4M in revenue, up 92% over…
Momentus Reports Q4 and FY22 Results
Momentus ($MNTS) is in a race against its cash burn. That’s the read from the space tug developer’s Q4 results, which portend a runway crunch in the coming year. At the same time, though, Momentus touted key new customer wins and a clean bill of health for its Vigoride-5 space tug. And it also has…
USSF Allocates Launch Pads at the Cape
A handful of new launch companies will soon head down to Cape Canaveral to set up shop at newly dedicated launch pads. USSF announced last night that it has begun to implement its Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS), which is intended to give more launch companies an opportunity to launch from the historic launch site.…
Ursa Major, Vector Launch Strike Engine Deal
Ursa Major has struck a deal to supply Vector Launch with “several” propulsion systems, the company tells Payload. Ursa’s Hadley engines will power the main stage of the Vector-R launch vehicle in future demonstration missions for national security customers. A word on Vector: The seven-year-old startup, which has raised more than $180M, declared bankruptcy in…
H3 Fails on Second Debut Attempt
Last night, JAXA’s H3 rocket debut ended in failure. The Japanese space agency was forced to send termination commands to the launcher a few minutes into the flight, when the engine on the second stage failed to ignite. The road so far: JAXA has been building the H3 rocket, intended as a less expensive successor…
Ukraine Contests Findings of Vega C Independent Inquiry
Ukraine’s space agency has questioned the findings of an independent inquiry formed to investigate the failure of a Vega C launch vehicle last December. The failure resulted in the loss of two Airbus Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites. The independent inquiry’s findings Following a successful first stage separation and second stage ignition, a progressive decrease…
Vega C Failure Revealed
The European Space Agency announced on Friday that an eroded engine nozzle component caused the Vega C rocket failure in December. Yuzhnoye, the Ukrainian nozzle component supplier, will now need to be replaced. The supplier swap will push back the next Vega-C launch attempt to late 2023. A mishap with high stakes: “I would claim…
Who Will Buy ULA? What Payload Readers Say
United Launch Alliance, a joint venture formed in 2006, may soon have a new corporate home. That’s because co-owners Boeing ($BA) and Lockheed Martin ($LMT) are reportedly putting ULA up for sale, according to a blockbuster story last week from Ars Technica’s Eric Berger. Morgan Stanley and Bain were hired to facilitate the transaction, which…
