Blue Origin is planning to build a launch facility outside the US, the company’s CEO Bob Smith told the Financial Times this week. The search has just begun, and a decision on a location is not imminent. The company is also seeking new partnerships and acquisitions across Europe. Euro trip: Despite not yet having achieved […]
The world’s newest potential space agency is running into roadblocks when it comes to notching the right approvals to get going. This morning, South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, called for some pep in the step of lawmakers who have been sitting on the establishment bill for several months now. Korea passed a law to […]
We have arrived at a new era of geospatial intelligence – one defined by greater transparency and more data than ever. Let’s talk about how we got here, and the role Planet has to play. Recently, Planet authored a white paper that explains how and why the commercial space industry has grown so rapidly, and […]
Chang Guang, a Chinese satellite operator, successfully achieved 10 Gbps satellite-to-ground laser communication via a Jilin-1 satellite, the company announced last week. The downlink speed surpassed a previous record of 1 Gbps via radio frequency connectivity. The first laser demonstration downlink included a satellite picture of Doha, Qatar. Beam me down, Scotty: Laser communication’s higher […]
In 2012, there were just over 1,000 active satellites in orbit. There are now 10,000, ~2,700 of which were deployed in the last 12 months. During the early days of the space economy, satellite operators could overlook spacecraft longevity and collision risk. This is no longer the case. As the space economy matures, space sustainability […]
Each year on this day, the UN honors a little-known event called Asteroid Day. On Asteroid Day, we remember the 1908 Tunguska asteroid, which entered the atmosphere over Siberia and leveled more than 2000 sq km of forest. The event is dedicated to raising public awareness of the risk of asteroid impacts and the importance […]
AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) stock plunged nearly 30% this week after the cash-strapped company announced Tuesday it had raised $59.4M in a steep discount public offering. The satellite manufacturer sold 12.5M shares at ~$4.75 a pop, well below the ~$6.50 price tag the shares were trading at before the offering. Space → Mobile: The Odessa, TX-based […]
Ken Campbell, the newly-tapped head of Edgybee’s US arm, told Payload that it was an “easy decision” to come out of retirement to work with Edgybees because he believes the company’s tech will be so helpful to troops. Campbell, who served for 25 years as a Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer, has only been in […]
Advanced Navigation, a lunar navigation startup, won an AUD 5.2M ($3.4M) Australian Space Agency grant to accelerate development of its lunar lander LiDAV sensor tech, the company announced yesterday. The funding supports NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services. “By helping Australian organizations like Advanced Navigation to develop their space heritage, they can break into new markets […]
Canada is experiencing its most severe wildfire season on record, with emissions from the fires at their highest levels since satellite monitoring began in 2003. In a bid to help responders better control the spread of wildfires in the future, OroraTech, a startup founded in 2018 as a Technical University of Munich spin-off, aims to […]
Space computing company Ramon.Space closed a $26M strategic financing round, just on the heels of finalizing a key manufacturing partnership with Foxconn subsidiary, Ingrasys, the company announced this morning. Ingrasys and the UAE Strategic Development Fund provided the bulk of the financing, with some participation from existing investors. Ramon.Space has raised more than $45M so […]
The Biden administration’s “very intentional” effort to make space part of its international engagement has boosted the number of partners interested in collaborating with the US in orbit, the State Department’s Valda Vikmanis-Keller told Payload. Last week, Ecuador and India became the 26th and 27th nations to join the Artemis Accords. Just a few months […]
