Tag: commerce

Spire Secures $40 Million In Series B Funding To Secure 100 CubeSat Constellation

Spire Secures $40 Million In Series B Funding To Secure 100 CubeSat Constellation

One of the fastest growing NewSpace companies over the last year is Spire Global Inc., the San Francisco based startup which will soon be deploying a fleet of cubesats in Low Earth Orbit. Designed to offer both maritime Automatic Identification Services as well as more accurate weather forecasts through radio occultation of GPS signals, the […]

Posted in: NewSpace
Mexico Shoots for the Moon with Astrobotic

Mexico Shoots for the Moon with Astrobotic

Mexico is set to become the first Latin American country to send a payload to the Lunar surface, courtesy of Google Lunar XPrize competitor Astrobotic. Although just a beginning, the agreement described in the press release below is an encouraging sign for other companies such as Bigelow Aerospace which are building business plans based on […]

Posted in: Moon
Spire Opens Glasgow Office for Weather Cubesat Venture

Spire Opens Glasgow Office for Weather Cubesat Venture

Spire, the San Francisco based smallsat company which began through the educational cubesat venture Ardusat, announced yesterday that it has been awarded $2.9 million in grants from the Scottish government. The award comes as Spire announced that it is opening a Glasgow, Scotland office to focus on its fleet of GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) cubesats. […]

Posted in: NewSpace, Space Commerce
Moon Express and Changing the Debate Over NASA’s Priorities

Moon Express and Changing the Debate Over NASA’s Priorities

Setting Up Shop / Image Credit Moon Express Florida Today reports that Moon Express has signed a deal with Space Florida for partial use of historic Launch Complex 36 in order to test engines and hardware for what will ultimately become its MX-1 Lunar Lander. From the story: “Moon Express is the first entrepreneurial “new […]

Posted in: Moon, NewSpace
Virgin Galactic Backs Internet Satellite Venture

Virgin Galactic Backs Internet Satellite Venture

LauncherOne Image Credit Virgin Galactic An interesting story is unfolding regarding what appears to be two separate efforts at establishing very large constellations of small, broadband satellites. In an interview with Bloomberg which came out Tuesday, Elon Musk provided a few more details about the office SpaceX is opening in Seattle. Musk stated that office […]

Posted in: NewSpace, SpaceX
From MoonMail to Lunar Mission One, The Moon Is Attracting NewSpace Attention

From MoonMail to Lunar Mission One, The Moon Is Attracting NewSpace Attention

Griffin Lander: Astrobotic Technology Inc. All those artifacts the United States left on the Moon are soon going to have company, perhaps a great deal of it. Just over a year ago, Moon Express held a gala event in Las Vegas to unveil its MX-1 Commercial Lunar Lander, the centerpiece of its effort to compete […]

Posted in: Moon, NewSpace
Chasing SpaceX, Europe Endorses Ariane 6

Chasing SpaceX, Europe Endorses Ariane 6

This is not how you design a rocket : ESA Ministerial Meeting Seeking a defense against the market disruption being wrought by SpaceX and its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters, European space ministers voted yesterday to formally endorse the Ariane 6 project. The move came after Germany dropped its long running call to proceed […]

Reuters Investigation Sheds New Light on Russian Engine Deal

Reuters Investigation Sheds New Light on Russian Engine Deal

Michal Gass, Former President and CEO of United Launch Alliance Following up on questions posed in a letter by U.S. Senator John McCain to the US Air Force chief of acquisitions, Reuters has been looking closer into the United Launch Alliance RD-180 issue, and the mysterious five person company RD-Amross, which serves as the Russian […]

Lunar Mission One Aims to Crowdsource the Moon

Lunar Mission One Aims to Crowdsource the Moon

Image Credit: Lunar Mission One Lunar Mission One, a private effort aimed at drilling at least 20 meters deep into the Moon’s South pole was announced in London today. As with an increasing number of missions, inital funding is being sought through a crowd-sourced KickStarter campaign. In this case key incentives are a digital memory […]

X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

Image Credit USAF Concluding its longest mission to date, the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane returned to Earth on Friday, Here is the full Air Force Press Release: Release Number: 041014 10/17/2014 – VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 (OTV-3), the Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, […]

Posted in: Space Planes
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