We are cutting through the orbital debris for you. In other words, we’re keeping an eye on space news on the web so you don’t have to.
Here is our round-up of the most important, and interesting, space news stories of August (space orders can be found in another post):
Things going wrong
- All’s well that ends well: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the NG-21 Cygnus spacecraft to the ISS on 4 August but shortly afterwards, it experienced some glitches that delayed its arrival at the ISS. Fortunately, NASA’s Robotic Hand managed to successfully captured Cygnus. The spacecraft was carrying 3,857 kg of cargo for the station, including research equipment and supplies for ISS crew.
- The failure of a single valve has been pinpointed as the reason Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander did not make it to the Moon in the Peregrine Mission One flight in January, according to a report by a review board.
- It appears that two Chinese spacecraft, DRO-A and DRO-B, that were initially stranded in low Earth orbit have since managed to successfully reach their intended lunar orbits
- Intuitive Machines is trying to find ways to save NASA’s VIPER lunar rover
Human Spaceflight
- Two Indian astronauts (known as Gaganyatris by ISRO) started training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center this month to prepare for a mission to the ISS. Shubhanshu Shukla has been assigned to the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission while Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair will train as his backup.
- On Earth, British ESA astronaut John McFall carried the Paralympic flag at the opening ceremony.
- US astronaut Peggy Whitson will be joined by astronaut Sławosz Uznański from Poland, pilot Shubhanshu Shukla from India, and mission specialist Tibor Kapu from Hungary for Axiom Mission 4, the fourth private spaceflight to the ISS in October 2024.
- SpaceX Crew-9 will launch in September without NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson to free up space for Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to finally return from the ISS in February 2025. Instead, Nick Hague will serve as commander of Crew-9, with mission specialist Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos.
- Blue Origin carried six people on its latest New Shepard suborbital spaceflight on 29 August. One of the passengers, Karsen Kitchen, became the youngest woman to cross the 100 km Kármán Line (considered the definition of space by some). Kitchen is a 21-year-old student at the University of North Carolina.
Spaceports:
- Amazon will spend US$19.5 million on expanding its satellite processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The hope is that it will significantly expedite satellite deployments, but the clock is already ticking. The company needs to deploy half of its planned 3,200 Project Kuiper broadband constellation by July 2026, to meet a regulatory deadline.
- Space engineering firm NordSpace is putting $5 million towards the build of Canada’s first spaceport. However, where it will be located is yet to be decided.
Space companies and money
Companies/Money:
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved SpaceX’s plans to replace its first-generation Starlink satellites with bigger spacecraft (made to also provide more broadband capacity)
- And despite objections by SpaceX, the FCC also approved Globalstar’s plans to start deploying up to 17 improved direct-to-smartphone connectivity satellites in 2025
- Meanwhile Boeing keeps making the news for all the wrong reasons. The company announced that it has taken an additional US$125 million charger on Starliner, the commercial crew spacecraft delayed at the ISS and returning in September without any crew inside
- Virgin Galactic has been making a case for the economic viability of its future spaceplanes. The company hopes to achieve an annual revenue of US$450 million by flying 750 people a year at an average ticket price of US$600,000 (each spaceplane will carry six passengers). You can judge if their maths adds up.
Mergers & acquisitions
- Lockheed Martin plans to buy Terran Orbital, a smallsat manufacturer – for an expected US$450 million
- US aerospace manufacturer Redwire acquired satellite-builder Hera Systems for an undisclosed price
- Indra, a Spanish defense contactor plans to acquire Deimos, a European small satellite mission specialist
C-suite moves
- Dan Jablonsky, the former CEO of Maxar, jumped across to join Ursa Major, a rocket propulsion startup, as its new chief exec
- Firefly Aerospace announced that Jason Kim will be its new CEO, effective from October
Cutbacks
- Northrop Grumman is about to lay off 550 full-time employees working at its space business facilities in California.
- Rocket developer ABL Space Systems, which lost one of its rockets in a static-fire test last month, has also made cutbacks to its workforce.
- SES is looking to cut costs too. CEO Adel Al-Saleh said the company would look for ways to mitigate the loss of revenue to its video business, after a Brazilian customer went bankrupt.
Fundraising
- Satellite startup Muon Space raised US$56.7 million
- AstroForge, an asteroid mining startup, raised US$40 million in a Series A round led by Nova Threshold
- Interstellar, a Japanese rocket maker, raised US$21 million for rocket and satellite development
- German startup Dcubed raised EUR€4.4 million (US$4.8 million) in a Series A funding round
- Although its keeping its lips sealed about just how much money, Chinese commercial rocket firm Deep Blue Aerospace raised fresh funds from its B3 strategic financing round
