ESA Proposes Creating Lunar Time Zone
What time is it on the Moon? The answer, it turns out, is a little complicated. As several countries across the globe collectively spanning just about every time zone prepare for the impending cislunar economy and get ready to send humans to the lunar surface, it may be time to put some standard processes—like an…
Virgin Galactic Prepares for Return-to-Flight, Releases Q4 and FY 2022 Results
Virgin Galactic ($SPCE) released its Q4 and FY 2022 results Tuesday after the bell. The numbers show significant losses compared to 2021, but roughly in line with expectations. Virgin Galactic’s Q4, by the numbers: Virgin Galactic lost roughly half a billion dollars in 2022, up from 2021’s net loss of $353M. As of market close…
Rocket Lab Projects Busy 12 Months
Rocket Lab ($RKLB) fired off a number of key business updates on Tuesday’s earnings call. To start, the company reported robust Q4 revenue of $51.8M, an 88% YoY increase. The business outlook Rocket Lab’s backlog increased from $241M in Q4 ‘21 to $504M at the end of 2022. Strong order volume is driven largely by…
Japan and China Select New Astronaut Candidates
Japan’s astronaut corps Across the Pacific, two cadres of spacefaring hopefuls are getting the chance to train for extended stays off Earth. This week, China and Japan both announced plans to train new astronauts to support their respective human spaceflight programs. Two candidates have joined Japan’s astronaut corps. Yesterday, JAXA announced the new recruits—the first…
SpaceX Increases Rideshare Prices
For the second time in less than a year, SpaceX has adjusted pricing on rideshare launches and Starlink. Rideshare: The price tag of a Falcon 9 Transporter launch increased by 18%, from $5,500 per kg to $6,500 per kg. The hike comes after a 10% increase the previous year. Starlink: In an email to customers,…
Astroscale Brings In $76M
Astroscale, a Japanese startup designing orbital debris removal and on-orbit servicing technology, announced Sunday that it has closed a $76M Series G round to accelerate its growth and development. The round, especially notable given the current state of private markets, brings Astroscale’s total funding to date to $376M. The company raised the Series G entirely…
Predicting SpaceX’s 2023 Revenue
Ed. note: This analysis was authored by Mo Islam, Payload’s cofounder and a former Wall Street analyst. This is an educated best guess, not based on access to any SpaceX internal data or proprietary info! We’re attempting the impossible yet again: predicting SpaceX’s revenue. Before we get into Act 2—aka 2023—we’re revising our 2022 projections,…
Sovereign Constellations Make Progress
For the past few years, news of Western private constellation buildouts has become commonplace. At various stages of maturity, these constellations are intended to provide broadband across the globe. Now, though, more nations are drawing up their own plans to bring that broadband capability within the hands of their own governments. IRIS2 The EU’s sovereign…
Samsung Introduces Satellite Chip
On Thursday, South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung shared some color on its own space plans. The tech conglomerate introduced a satellite-to-smartphone communications chip for future phones, rather than unveil any flashy features now. Above, we deliberately used the modifier “tech conglomerate”—twice—to describe Samsung. While best known for phones, Samsung is also the world’s second largest…
Dish, EchoStar Report Q4 Earnings
Dish Reports Q4 2022 Earnings: Yesterday, Dish ($DISH) reported that Q4 net income increased to $936M, a substantial rise from $552M in the prior year. The revenue story was not as bright: Dish generated $4.04B in Q4 sales, down 9% from the prior year. The culprit for revenue declines is a lower subscription base across…
Terran Orbital Wins $2.4B Rivada Contract
Live long and prosper… Another day, another three-comma space contract. Terran Orbital said Wednesday that it won a $2.4B contract to design, build, and deploy a 300-bird constellation for Rivada Space Networks. The Rivada constellation will consist of 288 LEO satellites and 12 spares. They’ll be linked by lasers, packing on-board data routers, and tasked…
Vast Acquires Launcher to Speed Space Station Development
The race to build commercial space stations is heating up. Yesterday, Vast, a startup that emerged from stealth last September with plans to build stations with artificial gravity, announced that it has acquired space tug company Launcher for an undisclosed amount. TechCrunch first reported the news. Vast’s vision: Jed McCaleb, who made his name and…
