Space News | TechCrunch

Rocket Lab’s sunny outlook bodes well for future constellation plans

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 23:33:51 +0000

Rocket Lab surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from the same quarter of last year. This is just one of several shiny accomplishments executives showed off to investors on Thursday — and a good omen for the space company’s medium-term ambitious plans. Executives continued to tease plans for […]

UK satellite startup Blue Skies Space wants to sell astronomy data ‘as a service’

Paul Sawers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 23:00:00 +0000

The satellite is designed to complement data provided by existing astronomical efforts such as that of the famed Hubble Telescope.

Dawn Aerospace’s rocket-propelled aircraft takes flight

Aria Alamalhodaei — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Dawn Aerospace’s rocket-powered aircraft soared to new heights in its latest test campaign, as the company looks to build what could be the highest-performance aircraft to take off from a runway. The series of three flights, which were completed in late July, saw the Mk-II Aurora vehicle achieve a maximum speed of Mach 0.92 and […]

Perceptive Space emerges from stealth with plans to improve space weather predictions

Aria Alamalhodaei — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Rocket launch providers, satellite operators, and even aviation companies rely on accurate predictions about “space weather,” like solar flares and geomagnetic storms, to inform their operations. But this vital information is still supplied mainly by governments using inaccurate, older modeling techniques. Perceptive Space, a Canadian startup that emerged from stealth on Tuesday, is looking to […]

India’s EtherealX puts $5M seed toward fully reusable launch vehicles

Jagmeet Singh — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:30:00 +0000

Indian space-tech startup EtherealX aims to test its fully reusable medium-lift vehicle in 20.

TechCrunch Space: I’m tired of talking about Starliner, too

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Listen, I'm tired of talking about Boeing's Starliner, too, but the spacecraft still isn't home and questions are mounting about NASA's transparency.

Muon Space closes $56M to scale all-in-one satellite platform

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:36:00 +0000

Muon Space closed a new tranche of funding for its space-as-a-service business.

Boeing bleeds another $125M on Starliner program, bringing total losses to $1.6B

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:15:29 +0000

While the company was awarded a massive, $4.2 billion contract to accelerate Starliner development in 2014, it was structured as a “fixed-price” model.

Vast plans microgravity lab on its Haven-1 private space station

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:57:31 +0000

Commercial space station company Vast is building a private microgravity research lab as part of its wider Haven-1 station plans. The module is set to launch no earlier than the second half of 2025, the company said Thursday. The lab includes 10 payload slots that are equivalent to 10 “middeck lockers” on the International Space […]

TechCrunch Space: Catching stars

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:05:00 +0000

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. In case you missed it, Boeing and NASA decided to keep Starliner docked to the International Space Station for the rest of the month. The agency is aiming to complete a key review in the first week of August, at which point they’ll make a decision on when […]

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

Devin Coldewey — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Max Space's expandable habitats promise to be larger, stronger, and more versatile than anything like them ever launched, not to mention cheaper and lighter by far than a solid, machined structure.

SpaceX cleared to resume Falcon 9 launches while FAA investigation remains open

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 13:48:41 +0000

Regulators gave SpaceX the all-clear to return to launch two weeks after the Falcon 9 rocket experienced an anomaly on orbit.

Lodestar’s robotic arm will be an orbital ‘first responder’ for satellites in need

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Satellites are among our most critical infrastructure, providing everything from GPS to disaster coordination, yet their inherent inaccessibility leaves them vulnerable to relatively simple technical issues or attacks. London-based Lodestar is looking to change that with a “first responder” service in space using advanced robotic sentries. Unlike some of its competitors who are also developing […]

Star Catcher wants to build a space power grid to supercharge orbital industry

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 22:58:51 +0000

Our growth as a civilization is tightly coupled to our ability to sufficiently generate ever-increasing amounts of electricity. Could the same be true in space? Star Catcher Industries, a startup just emerging from stealth today, is betting that might be the case. The company is developing a space-based energy grid that could enable more power-intensive […]

Astranis is set to build Omega constellation after $200M Series D

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Astranis has fully funded its next-generation satellite program, called Omega, after closing its $200 million Series D round, the company said Wednesday. “This next satellite is really the milestone into the next frontier for Astranis,” Megan Sapack, Astranis’ avionics lead, said in a video. Astranis develops and operates small broadband communications satellites in geostationary orbit. […]

Rosotics wants to manufacture massive orbital shipyards using 3D printing

Aria Alamalhodaei — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Mesa, Arizona-based Rosotics has kept a low profile. From the startup’s website, one would think they are solely focused on selling large metal 3D printers to aerospace and defense customers. For the past three years, the company’s been quietly architecting plans that involve launching multiple massive spacecraft, each containing dozens of smaller spacecraft, that […]

TechCrunch Space: SpaceX’s big plans to bring the ISS back to Earth

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Before we begin, a quick note: I write this newsletter on Friday and it gets delivered to you on Monday. So if I neglect to mention a world-historical event that happens over the weekend — like, say, the attempted assassination of a former President — that’s why. Now […]

NASA cancels $450M Viper moon mission, dashing ice prospecting dreams

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 14:21:25 +0000

The now-scrapped moon mission would have been the U.S. space agency's first resource-mapping mission off planet Earth.

Bill Weber out as CEO of Firefly Aerospace

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 23:22:03 +0000

Bill Weber is out as chief executive at Firefly Aerospace, following a nearly two-year stint in the role, the maker of launch vehicles, lunar landers and orbital vehicles announced late Wednesday. While the board initiates a search for a new CEO, board member Peter Schumacher will serve as interim CEO, the company said in a statement […]

SpaceX’s vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station is a Dragon on steroids

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 22:53:24 +0000

NASA was looking for proposals that maximized the use of flight heritage because reliability will be key.