Northrop Grumman Invests $50M in Firefly’s Eclipse
Eclipse is the product of scaled-up tech from Firefly’s smaller launch vehicle—Alpha—and shared systems from Northrop’s flight proven Antares program.
Eclipse is the product of scaled-up tech from Firefly’s smaller launch vehicle—Alpha—and shared systems from Northrop’s flight proven Antares program.
“We’re trying to prove that we can quickly respond to an on-orbit failure of a vehicle.”
A “mix of old NASA thinking, new NASA thinking, and SLS shortcomings.”
The contract—part of NASA’s NextSTEP-2 Appendix R set of studies—tasks Sierra Space with examining how it would upgrade its LEO space station technology to withstand the lunar environment, given the Moon’s sharp regolith and extra gravity.
“With this deal, Rocket Lab will officially enter the payload market as a disruptive prime contractor to US national security.”
Inside CEO Theresa Condor’s plans for a revitalized satellite company.
For the third flight in a row, SpaceX’s Starship upper stage exploded yesterday after losing control during its ninth test flight.
“From cell phone towers in space for consumer technology [to] unique sensing missions, or as an interceptor platform for Golden Dome, Comet is the clear choice to accelerate the most ambitious space missions,” Apex CEO Ian Cinnamon said in a statement.
Decades ago, the UN was already thinking about the risks and liability concerns raised by debris falling out of orbit. Now, as falling space debris becomes a more common occurrence, the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs is reminding nations that it has a process for dealing with it.
Advocates for dark and quiet skies are outgunned.
Bulgarian space startup EnduroSat has raised €43M ($48.8M) to ramp up production of a new, bigger ESPA-class sat.
“The United States is leading the world in space technology, and we can’t give that up.”