Space Times

Space Times

The space industry is as vast and evolving as the environment it occupies, and we are here to help you navigate it! Every week we talk about advances in space technology and business, and we want to share our opinions and insights with you. Paul Mayer and Harrison Lambert met a decade ago working as aerospace engineers at Maxar. Since then, Harrison has spent that time working on space systems for a variety of applications, and Paul has become a venture capitalist helping grow nascent space companies. Now we want to share the next decades with you, discussing all the exciting times in space! spacetimespod.substack.com

  1. Weekly Recap #25

    1 DAY AGO

    Weekly Recap #25

    Main Topics Optical Comms * Rheinmetall withdrew from the acquisition bidding for Mynaric. [source] * ESA has awarded Mynaric with a contract to build a laser communications demonstration system for its High Throughput Optical Network (HydRON) project. [source] * Shanghai-based laser communications startup BlueStar Optical Domain has raised a $72M Series C to localize production and scale to 1,000 units per year. [source] * SSC Space inaugurated their second next-generation optical ground station in Santiago, Chile for high throughput space to ground communications. [source] Defense * OHB, Airbus, and Rheinmetall partnered in a bid for a Bundeswehr military communications constellation worth up to $10B. [source] * B2Space’s stratospheric balloon platforms partnered with Airbus GeoTech for a data acquisition and intelligence HAPS platform. [source] * Anduril announced their acquisition of space-tracking firm ExoAnalytic Solutions in a deal that adds the ground-based telescope network and space surveillance data capabilities to the defense tech company’s expanding space business. [source] Propulsion * Firefly Alpha successfully returned to flight delivering a Lockheed Martin demonstration satellite, and demonstrating Block II upgrades including second stage relighting, and upgraded avionics and thermal management subsystems.. [source] * AVIO has been awarded a $65M contract for the development of a solid rocket motor just days after shareholders approved contentious changes to the company’s bylaws. [source] * Enpulsion raised $26 million for the development and production of their field effect electronic propulsion product. [source] Business Moves * Lux Aeterna closed a $10M oversubscribed seed round led by Konvoy to develop and deploy their reusable spacecraft platform. [source] * Diffraqtion received another investment round as part of their pre-seed raise, valuing the quantum imaging company at over $100M. [source] * Mantis Space came out of stealth with a $10M seed raise to develop their space solar power platform to provide power to other satellites. [source] * York Space Systems acquired Orbion so that they can own the Hall effect thrusters used on their PWSA satellites. [source] * Aspect Energy acquired Kayrros to leverage their satellite generated insight algorithms to improve resource detection. [source] Tech Advances * Perpetual Atomics has signed an MOU with Blue Origin to collaborate on space missions and space applications enabled by radioisotope power technologies. [source] * Astrobotic will build the wheels of the Italian Space Agency’s planned driveable lunar habitat, after they won a contract of undisclosed value from Thales Alenia Space to do so. [source] * NASA has awarded Redwire another $4M under a $25M IDIQ to advance drug development on the ISS using their PIL‑BOX platform. [source] Another Earth raised $4M to boost AI training by generating synthetic satellite data for models to detect environmental and operational risks. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    52 min
  2. Weekly Recap #24 + Loft Orbital Interview

    9 MAR

    Weekly Recap #24 + Loft Orbital Interview

    Main Topics Loft Orbital * Loft Orbital Co-Founder and COO, Alex Greenberg, joins us this week to discuss how they’re executing on AI in space, delivering space sovereignty, and more! [source] Imagery * Little Place Labs announces a new partnership with TakeMe2Space to integrate their Edge AI software suite (ORBITFY) into TakeMe2Space’s in-space inference platform (OrbitLab). [source] * Telespazio Iberica was awarded €20M to develop the Canary Islands constellation, a sovereign set of 8 LEO imaging satellites for environmental monitoring and emergency response. [source] * Airforcelab awarded BlackSky a Phase III SBIR contract worth up to $99M to develop a large optical satellite payload with improvements including a segmented primary mirror, precision laser metrology and mirror positioning, and a large format focal plane array. [source] * Remondo raised $20M to build sub-30cm high resolution Earth observation satellites with a unit cost of source] * HEO partnered with Satlantis to integrate their software into Satlantis’s payloads for non-Earth imaging and space domain awareness applications. [source] * Arcfield’s Orion Space Solutions secured a $24M award to deliver advanced space based imaging sensors for environmental monitoring to a proprietary customer. [source] Space Mobility * French company Infinite Orbits announced that it was purchasing both the Luxembourg-based operations of LMO and UK-based Lunasa Space to bolster RPO capabilities. [source] * Portugal’s ANACOM issued ATMOS the first commercial re-entry licence under national jurisdiction, authorising the controlled return of PHOENIX 2.1 from LEO to the Azores. [source] * Poland-based Liftero won a contract to provide their green chemical propulsion to Indian firm OrbitAID’s for their in-orbit servicing mission. [source] * Orbit Fab and Airbus announced a collaboration on RADICAL, a project supported by ESA ARTES, to incorporate their RAFTI refuelling valve with Airbus geostationary satellites. [source] * Space One’s third Kairos launch fails, this is the third failure of the rocket due to a flight termination, losing 5 satellites onboard. [source] Communications * Viasat and UAE’s Space42 announced a plan to develop a 2,800 satellite direct-to-device communications constellation through their Equatys joint venture. [source] * Open Cosmos outlined their plan for their European sovereign broadband constellation, adding an integration to their Open Constellation imaging satellites to enable real-time data streaming through their optical terminals. [source] * Deutsche Telekom announced their goal to leverage Starlink Mobile V2 to augment their ground network to achieve 100% coverage across Europe by 2028. [source] * Orange partnered with AST SpaceMobile and Satellite Connect Europe on direct-to-device satellite connectivity, starting with demonstrations in Romania supporting SMS, voice, and data. [source] * TELUS and AST SpaceMobile partnered to provide nationwide broadband coverage to Canada supporting SMS, voice, and data. [source] Business Moves * Vast has secured $500M in funding led by Balerion Space Ventures to advance next-generation space station technologies and infrastructure. [source] * Sierra Space closed a $550M Series C led by LuminArx Capital Management, valuing them at $8B and funding them to accelerate production for national security customers. [source] * PLD Space raised €180M led by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to accelerate industrial scale-up and support new commercial contracts for Miura 5 in Japan and the broader Asian market. [source] * HawkEye 360 has completed an additional close of its Series E financing, raising approximately $23 million in new capital to strengthen their balance sheet following the acquisition of Innovative Signal Analysis. [source]. * Austrian electric space propulsion company ENPULSION has secured €22.5M in funding to expand its footprint in the US market. [source] Tech Advances * Monarch Quantum announced their plan to deliver quantum light engines, a next–gen inertial navigation system, for NASA JPL’s Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder mission. [source] * Satlyt and Melagen Labs announced a joint technology demonstration aboard the ISS to validate radiation protection and in-orbit computing infrastructure. [source] * Starpath announces Starlight Air their new line of lightweight (73g/cm2) and cost-effective ($15/W) solar panels. [source] * Redwire announced their new extensible solar panel ELSA, designed for mass production and providing 50% more power per volume than traditional solar arrays. [source] * Mynaric successfully demonstrated the transmission and reception of quantum encryption keys using their commercially available laser communication terminals. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 10m
  3. Weekly Recap #23 + Satshow Interview

    2 MAR

    Weekly Recap #23 + Satshow Interview

    Main Topics Space Times will be at Satshow 2026! * Listen to this week’s podcast to get a discount code for the conference * Hear part of our interview with conference Chairman Jeffrey Hill * Reach out to us if you’re interested in meeting and/or receiving media coverage Comms * Aalyria raised a $100M Series B, led by Battery Ventures and J2 Ventures, valuing Aalyria at $1.3 billion to fund the deployment of their optical communications products. [source] * AST SpaceMobile was awarded a $30M prime contract by the U.S. Space Development Agency to develop a prototype TACSATCOM for future tranches of the PWSA as part of their HALO Europa program. [source] * Starlink Updates: * Kyivstar hits 3M subscribers for its Starlink direct to cell offering in Ukraine, totalling 1.2M SMS messages sent. [source] * Virgin Media O2 launches Starlink direct-to-smartphone service in the UK to provide mobile data to apps including WhatsApp, Messenger, and Google Maps. [source] * The European Investment Bank extended €25M in venture debt financing to Luxembourg-based D2D satellite operator OQ Technology. The company will use the money to develop and launch 20+ satellites in the next two years. [source] * Sceye unveils SceyeCELL, their high-altitude platform for space-to-ground cell relay planned to fly in summer of 2026. [source] * French ground-station-as-a-service startup Skynopy won a €500K award from the French government to integrate a ground antenna, owned and operated by the Kenya Space Agency, into its commercial network. [source] AI * Sophia Space announced the close of a $10M Seed round led by Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners to accelerate development of the company’s next-generation orbital computing systems and proprietary thermal technology. [source] * CesiumAstro acquires Vidrovr to embed AI in their communications systems for real-time multimodal signal analysis. [source] * Seekr and Wyvern partner to launch SeekrGeo, an AI-driven hyperspectral reasoning engine for extracting usable intelligence from raw satellite data. [source] * NordSpace founder backs Wyvern with their new Canada-focused venture arm. [source] * Boeing announced in recent ground tests that they demonstrated a large language model running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware that examines telemetry and reports in natural language on the health of a satellite [source] Propulsion * The Space Force pauses national security launches on ULA’s Vulcan while the failure of the solid booster on the last launch is investigated. [source] * NASA revises plans for future Artemis missions: Artemis III will land lunar rovers instead of astronauts, block upgrades are cancelled, and launch cadence is increased to once per year. [source] * Phantom has just acquired Vector and all of its remaining assets to reduce Phantom’s expected CAPEX requirements for their Daytona rocket. [source] * ISPTech closed a €5.5M Seed round led by Join Capital to expand their manufacturing, complete critical infrastructure tests, and speed up the commercial rollout of their non‑toxic in‑space propulsion. [source] * Rocket Lab’s failure of their propellant tank during testing in January will delay the first launch of their Neutron rocket to at least the fourth quarter of 2026. [source] * X-Bow Systems announced that they’ve successfully tested their full scale 34.5-inch Ballesta strategic class solid rocket motor. [source] Business Moves * Charter Space launched Charter Interplanetary Risk Corporation insurance brokerage to help space companies secure coverage for their missions and underlying businesses. [source] * Rocket Lab acquires Optical Support Inc. to strengthen optical engineering capabilities for the Starlite system and other optical payloads critical to their PWSA contracts. [source] * Seraphim exceeds $100M Target for their latest early stage SpaceTech venture fund. [source] * Intuitive Machines announced a $175M strategic equity investment to invest in comms and data-processing tech. [source] * Vantor announced a follow-on contract with the US Army worth up to $217M to continue work on the service’s One World Terrain program, designed to train and rehearse missions using high-precision, immersive 3D terrain. [source] Tech Advances * LambdaVision Inc., which manufactures artificial retinas in LEO, announced that it has pre-booked manufacturing time onboard Starlab’s commercial space station. [source] * HEO partnered with UNSW Canberra Space to perform Australia’s first rendezvous and proximity operations mission with their Continuum-1 satellite, supported by funding from Defence Trailblazer. [source] * Endurosat announces partnership with AIRMO to launch 12+ methane monitoring satellites in early 2027. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr
  4. Weekly Recap #22

    23 FEB

    Weekly Recap #22

    Main Topics Earth Observation * BlackSky secured a new eight-figure international contract to deliver a Gen-3 sovereign space-based intelligence solution. [source] * Vantor is bringing Google’s Earth AI imagery models into Tensorglobe, making Vantor the industry’s first to deploy these advanced foundation models inside sovereign classified and air-gapped environments. [source] * Aspia Space has selected Stelia, an applied AI platform company, as a strategic technology partner to advance the architecture underpinning its Earth observation-derived data products [source] * Leonardo is self-funding development of an Earth observation constellation consisting of 20 radar and IR imagers. [source] * Japanese SAR provider Synspective Inc. is expanding into Europe with a new entity in Munich. [source] * Boeing is spending $10M to build a new EO/IR manufacturing line to produce Millenium’s backlog of missile tracking satellites. [source] Government * Rheinmetall is weighing a counterbid for Mynaric as the German government delays Rocket Lab acquisition decision. [source] * Starliner investigation identifies flawed NASA decision making. NASA has classified the flawed Starliner crewed test flight in 2024 as its most serious level of mishap, with the agency’s leadership citing shortfalls in how officials oversaw the program. [source] * DIU is sourcing commercially built GEO spy sats to perform non-Earth imaging for defense of space assets. [source] * MDA Space launches 49North to pursue Canadian defence contracts. [source] * Innoflight signed a launch service distribution agreement with UK-based space consultancy and launch brokerage firm Commercial Space Technologies Ltd. to strengthen its presence in the European market. [source] * Kepler Communications has chosen Kongsberg NanoAvionics as the preferred European satellite bus provider for its hosted payload initiatives aboard spacecraft up to 500kg in mass. [source] Rockets * Artemis II is preparing to move back to the vehicle assembly building due to helium leak in the upper stage. [source] * Stratolaunch announced an extended partnership in the Multi Service Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed awarded Sept. 30, 2025, by the Department of War’s Test Resource Management Center through NSWC Crane’s S²MARTS OTA. [source] * Anduril Industries announced that it has received $43.7M in Defense Production Act Title III funding to expand solid rocket motor production in the US. [source] * Sateliot and PLD Space sign a commercial contract for a dedicated mission. Two high-capacity Tritó satellites will launch on the MIURA 5 vehicle in 2027 for their 5G D2D network. [source] Business Moves * SatVu’s closed a £30M funding round, bringing its total equity raised to £60 million to develop their thermal infrared satellites. [source] * SwissTo12 considering IPO next year at $1.3B valuation. [source] * Agile Space Industries raised a $17M Series A to ensure it can fulfill its orders for monoprop and biprop in-space thrusters without increasing its delivery times. [source] * Integrate closed a $17M Series A and landed a $25M space force contract to deploy secure program management software. [source] * Mesh Optical Technologies emerged from stealth and announced their $50M Series A led by Thrive Capital. [source] * Seagate Space raises $1.5M pre-seed to develop sea launch capability. [source] * Terram Astra Pty Ltd has announced a $10M seed capital raise to activate a sovereign, ground-based infrastructure platform aimed at strengthening communications resilience and space safety across the Indo-Pacific. [source] Tech Advances * Starcatcher signs Apolink as a customer to receive power from the space solar power satellite. [source] * Frontier Space partners with Azenta Life Sciences to advance space-based life sciences research infrastructure. [source] * A paper was released about modulating retroreflectors that achieve lower SWAP and complexity optical inter-satellite links for small spacecraft. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr
  5. Weekly Recap #21

    16 FEB

    Weekly Recap #21

    Main Topics Launch * Stoke Space announced an extension of their Series D financing round to $860M, adding $350M to the initial $510M raised in October 2025 bringing their total funds raised to $1.34B. This money is intended to accelerate the deployment of their Nova launch vehicle, and operationalization of the Cape Canaveral Launch Pad 14. [source] * ULA’s Vulcan rocket successfully launched 3 USSF-87 payloads, two military GEO-comm satellites and an RPO GEO satellite. During the launch, however, one of the solid boosters suffered a burn-through like the last launch did which could pause launches again for another investigation. [source] * Arianespace’s Ariane 64 had its inaugural launch for this 4 solid booster variant. 32 Amazon Leo satellites were successfully deployed. [source] * Hypersonica has emerged from stealth, announcing a €23.3M Series A funding round [source] and the successful completion of a hypersonic missile test out of the Andoya space port. [source] * Orbex has officially entered insolvency proceedings after its planned acquisition by The Exploration Company fell through, Skyrora has announced plans to buy some assets. [source] * The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has completed an integrated flight test of its next-generation Mengzhou crew capsule and the Long March 10a reusable rocket. This test successfully demonstrated the in-flight abort capability of Mengzhou, and the landing capability of LM-10a. [source] * Interstellar Glory Space Technology (iSpace) raised a ¥5B ($729M) D++ funding round to deploy its reusable methalox launch vehicle Hyperbola-3. [source] Habitats * Axiom Space raised $350M led by Type One Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority to develop their ISS replacement Axiom Station and Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit moon suits. [source] * Voyager Technologies was awarded a new IDIQ contract for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, with a ceiling of $24.5 million for a four-year period, to provide full-service mission management services to the International Space Station [source] * Vast has been selected by NASA for the sixth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. Launching no earlier than summer 2027, the commercial crew will spend up to 14 days aboard the station. [source] * SpaceX sends Crew-12 to the ISS to replace Crew-11 that was evacuated due to a medical emergency about 6 weeks ago. [source] Comms * Eutelsat has secured roughly €1B in export credit financing from the French government to procure the 340 OneWeb satellites ordered from Airbus last month. [source] * AST Spacemobile successfully deploys Bluebird-6’s 2,400sqft phased array, this batch was launched on an LVM3 rocket in December, with the next batch launching on the next New Glenn launch. [source] * Logos Space Services has secured U.S. regulatory approval to deploy up to 4,178 low Earth orbit broadband satellites. The satellites will be a counter-jamming constellation operating in Ka, Q, and V bands across seven orbital shells. [source] * SDA operationalizes laser mesh network for PWSA mandating interoperability between all terminals and satellite providers. [source] * Apolink and Galaxia team up to improve planned data relay capability by leveraging an RF-optical hybrid communications system. [source] * Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it was awarded a contract by the Japan Ministry of Defense on February 6 to construct the successor to the military communication Kirameki-2 satellite. [source] * Satlabs Space Systems secures $1M to develop inter-satellite link technology to enable real-time Earth observation. [source] Business Moves * Constellr raised a €37M Series A led by Alpine Space Ventures and Lakestar. The investment will accelerate the expansion of their thermal intelligence capabilities and advance the system to defence grade status. [source] * Wardstone raises $5M to develop their space based interceptors that explode their interceptors in front of missiles to shoot them down. [source] * The Compression Company raises $3.4M pre-seed led by Long Journey Ventures to develop their compression algorithm that uses AI to reduce image sizes by more aggressively compressing homogeneous areas like clouds and water. [source] * UKSA awarded contracts to Space Forge, OrbiSky, and BioOrbit worth a combined $1.1M+ to advance in-orbit manufacturing of semiconductors, ZBLAN fiber optics, and cancer therapeutics respectively. [source] * Deep Space Energy closed their €930,000 pre-seed round to develop Americium radioisotope generators for satellites and lunar applications. [source] Tech Advances * SatVu, HEO, and Sierra Nevada were added to NRO commercial solutions which pre-clears them to provide imagery to the agency. [source] * Scientists have developed a new deep learning framework, DeepLaDu, to optimize laser inter-satellite links enabling higher throughput. [source] * Starcloud announced a partnership with Amazon to launch the first AWS Outposts on their second satellite later this year. [source] * Spaceium successfully demonstrated their robotic arm on orbit showing state-of-the-art accuracy of 0.0003deg rotational accuracy, and 1mm accuracy at the tip of the actuator. [source] * Psionic and iMETALX Inc. partnered on space battle management software for the U.S. Space Force and Space Development Agency (SDA) leveraging Psionic’s object classification and tracking software. [source] * Momentus adds NASA’s R5 Spacecraft 10 to Vigoride 7, the cubesat will act as a free-flying imager for Momentus’ Vigoride 7 assessing spacecraft health and performance. [source] * General Galactic announced their water based spacecraft thruster utilizing electrolysis to provide hydrogen and oxygen as fuel for their chemical thruster. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 2m
  6. Weekly Recap #20

    9 FEB

    Weekly Recap #20

    Main Topics Communications * SpaceX is rumored to be developing its own Starlink-branded smartphone to connect with the company’s satellite services. The device is intended to help boost revenue as SpaceX prepares for an IPO. [source] * Spanish telco MasOrange will trial Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell service under a new agreement with SpaceX. MasOrange plans to carry out a technical pilot in the Spanish province of Valladolid. [source] * AT&T and Amazon announced an extensive strategic partnership that leverages Amazon LEO network to augment terrestrial fiber infrastructure across the US. [source] * CesiumAstro closes its $470M services C round to scale operations. This includes $200M in debt from EXIM and JP. Morgan that was reported a few weeks ago, along with $270 million in equity announced this week led by Trousdale Ventures. [source] * Gilat Satellite Networks receives an over $10M order from an undisclosed leading ground gateway antenna provider to support rollout of ground infrastructure for a LEO constellation. [source] * Gilmour Space has partnered with Singapore and US-based Transcelestial to integrate and test laser optical communications on their MMS2 ElaraSat mission later this year. [source] Earth Observation * HEX20 partners with Transcelestial to integrate laser-based inter-satellite communication into their DINK-N Earth observation constellation. [source] * Tomorrow.io raises $175M in equity led by Stonecourt Capital and HarbourVest to accelerate the deployment of their AI weather satellite constellation called DeepSky [source] * Vantor wins a $5.3 million contract under NGA’s Luno B program to detect and deliver automated insights on real-time changes to Earth’s landscape for global mapping and intelligence missions. [source] * Blacksky wins a seven figure multi-year contract with geospatial intelligence fusion company EMDYN to deliver space-based imagery services to international customers including API-enabled automated tip-and-cue tasking and fusing of signals and other intelligence sources. [source] Launch * SpaceX pausedFalcon 9 launches for four days after an issue with the rocket’s upper stage encountered at the end of a successful Starlink deployment mission on Feb 2. [source] * Artemis II encountered a hydrogen link, the issue has been fixed, but the launch is now delayed to early March. [source] * FAA approves Starship launches from LC-39A, pushing all future Dragon flights to SLC-40; SpaceX has begun construction on LC-39A to accommodate the larger rocket. [source] Business Moves * SpaceX merges with xAI to form the most valuable private company at ~$1.2B. The combined AI/space capability prepares them for launching orbital data centers, and a planned IPO. [source] * SpaceX has acquired Hexagon Purus ASA‘s high-pressure composite storage cylinder subsidiary for $15 million. [source] * York Space asked to dismiss its protest of Apex’s $46M SBIR contract, filed about a year ago, one day before going public. Judge Loren Smith accepted the motion, formally dismissing the case on Jan. 30 “with prejudice,” meaning it can’t be brought back to court [source] * Morpheus Space has secured a new strategic investment of $15 million to expand their team and boost industrial production at their Reloaded Facility in Dresden, Germany, enabling fast and reliable delivery of their field effect electric propulsion systems at full constellation scale. [source] Tech Advances * Viridian Space signed a five-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the US Air Force to co-develop Viridian’s air-breathing electric propulsion tech, and to work together on studies leveraging VLEO. [source] * Satellite servicing startup Starfish Space taps Quindar for mission operations software for their first three Otter missions.[source] * Voyager Technologies and Max Space announced a strategic partnership to advance expandable space exploration technology, serving as the cornerstone of future lunar and deep-space exploration efforts for habitation and storage. [source] * The Finnish satellite manufacturer ReOrbit announced a partnership with Google Cloud yesterday to build a network of satellites to securely transport and process data on orbit—a network the partnership is calling the “Space Cloud.” [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    51 min
  7. Samara Aerospace Interview + Weekly Recap #19

    2 FEB

    Samara Aerospace Interview + Weekly Recap #19

    Main Topics Communications * Northwood, a next-generation phased array ground station provider, has raised $100M in Series B funding led by Washington Harbour Partners LP and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, this was announced alongside the closing of a $49 million Space Force deal. [source] * Eutelsat said a planned sale of its passive ground infrastructure to a private equity firm announced in August 2024 will not proceed, eliminating roughly $658 million in expected proceeds. [source] * Apolink has partnered with ground segment provider RBC Signals to resell the startup’s proposed in-orbit relay services, aiming to fill connectivity gaps when satellites are out of view of terrestrial command-and-control links. [source] * Airbus announced an agreement with Skynopy to leverage the startup’s software-defined ground station tech, which aims to decrease latency on Airbus’ Pléiades Neo high-resolution (30cm) Earth observation constellation. [source] * SpaceX submitted a revision to their BEAD (broadband equity, access, and deployment) filing to relax service requirements to low income households, making it easier for them to receive their $733m grant. NTIA has prompted states not to sign the petition. [source] * Globalstar is planning on launching a new constellation, doubling its current fleet to 54 satellites, including 6 in-orbit spares, and operating in the same 1,414-kilometer orbit by 2026. Globalstar is vague about what services its new C-3 constellation will offer, but will likely be a high power S-band D2D service primarily funded by Apple’s $1.1B investment, and built by MDA Space and Rocket Lab. [source] * Hanwha is exploring a South Korean defense constellation with MDA Space and Telesat, using the Aurora platform to make a lightspeed compatible LEO broadband network. [source] * Astranis is partnering with the MB Group to deliver a small GEO satellite to Oman, part of a $200M investment in sovereign connectivity and Oman’s Vision 2040 program. [source] * Luxembourg-based EmTroniX and France’s Anywaves have agreed to merge into a single industrial group spanning Europe and the United States, aiming to offer integrated radio frequency and payload subsystem technologies to commercial, institutional and defence space customers. [source] * Tokyo-based satellite company ArkEdge Space Inc. has signed letters of intent with three international organizations to develop a PNT satellite network in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The agreements with TrustPoint Inc., the Royal Institute of Navigation in the United Kingdom and FrontierSI aim to strengthen satellite-based PNT capabilities for civil, commercial and security applications. [source] * Terran Orbital to deliver Nebula bus for Mitsubishi Electric LEO demo mission. The Mitsubishi Electric LEO demo mission will feature Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Optical Terminal payloads, provided by a Japanese team composed of members from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Mitsubishi Electric, and other Japanese partners. [source] Space Mobility * Blue Origin is halting New Shepherd launches for their space tourism business for at least 2 years to focus on lunar missions. They’ve completed 38 launches with 98 humans flown to space, and numerous science experiments. [source] * Rocket Lab has announced that during qualification testing of Neutron’s stage 1 tank, they encountered a rupture during a hydrostatic pressure trial. [source] * Atlas Cup announces the first satellite racing league to stage competitions between high mobility spacecraft on-orbit. [source] * Exotrail, a French company specializing in multi-orbit satellite mobility and focused on LEO service vehicles, together with Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of the Japan-based on-orbit servicing company, announced Jan. 28 a partnership aimed at testing deorbiting capabilities in low Earth orbit. [source] * UARX Space, a European leader in satellite deployment and in-space transportation systems, announced the signing of a contract with ATMOS Space Cargo, a European space logistics company developing reusable return systems. [source] * Epic Aerospace Chimera-1 made contact with Earth at 53,000,000 km away, this is the furthest communication for a commercial satellite, and they’re still working to return the OTV. [source] * UK defence space start up SHIELD SPACE has secured £2 million in new funding for the first launch of their satellite to provide protection capabilities and on-orbit resilience. The round was led by Mercia Ventures, with participation from Twin Path Ventures, ROI VENTURES and P3A. [source] Imagery * Starlink has turned the star trackers on 8,000 of their spacecraft into space situational awareness cameras, and is releasing Stargaze as a free satellite tracking service to all operators. [source] * HEO, an Australian non-Earth imaging (NEI) startup, announced the purchase of Satellogic’s NewSat-34. [source] * S2a systems detected a fragmentation event of a Luch/Olymp spacecraft in GEO graveyard orbit raising concerns about the safety of GEO disposal. [source] * L3Harris Technologies has received a contract from LIG Nex1 to provide the next-generation imaging payload for the Korea Meteorological Administration’s (KMA) geostationary weather satellite, which will be a new 18-channel meteorological imager with two channels for improved water vapor measurement and enhanced resolution. [source] * A Brazilian government agency will launch INPE’s Amazonia-1B earth observation satellite on a Vega C rocket, working with launch broker SpaceLaunch rather than contracting directly with Avio. [source] * Reflex Aerospace will develop and manufacture the satellite platforms for LiveEO`s newly announced stereo-imaging Earth observation constellation Twinspector to create 3D maps of power poles and trees. [source] * Leonardo DRS announced that it was awarded a subcontract to provide Infrared Mission Payloads in support of the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer Tranche 3. [source] * Kratos expands hypersonic infrastructure as VisionWave is unveiled as a new space-based Counter-UAS architecture targeting a portion of a $1.5B MACH TB2.0 contract. [source] Business Moves * York Space Systems went public at a $4.75B valuation. York netted $629M on the go public deal and plans to deploy that capital primarily to increase its production capacity. While at 300 satellites / year today, the target is closer to 1000 / year. York is also open to M&A opportunities to secure their supply chain should such opportunities present themselves. [source] * A shell company chaired by venture capitalist Raphael Roettgen began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Jan. 28 after raising $200 million to pursue a merger with a space-related business. Space Asset Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that offers a fast-track to the public markets for firms seeking capital, priced its initial public offering at $10 per unit. [source] * IonQ’s agreed to acquire SkyWater Technology for $1.8B in cash and stock. The acquisition is meant to accelerate IonQ’s roadmap—cutting design-to-first-sample time for its 256-qubit chip from nine months to two months, and targeting the first 200,000-qubit chip from the fab in 2028, which the company says could enable ~8,000 logical qubits and pull forward a 2 million-qubit timeline by up to a year. [source] * NordSpace, a Canadian launch vehicle manufacturer, received a $335k grant for additive manufacturing development. [source] Tech Advances * SpaceX has filed with the FCC to launch up to 1 million orbital data centers for AI into sun-synchronous low-earth orbit. [source] * Varda W-5 has returned to Earth successfully demonstrating autonomy, hypersonic flight and their new C-PICA heat shield for the Prometheus program; W-6 through W-9 planned for the rest of the year. [source] * NASA has selected Axiom Space for its fifth private astronaut mission to the ISS, they will be sending four astronauts for 14 days in 2027, and will be collaborating with Voyager. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 25m

  8. 26 JAN

    Weekly Recap #18

    Major News Space Sovereignty * Loft Orbital wins €50M SAR contract from French space agency CNES to be prime contractor for DESIR SAR satellite with Thales and Tekever to deploy in early 2029. This project is part of France’s Defense Procurement Agency’s efforts to secure sovereign national radar imaging. [source] * Marble Imaging entered a strategic partnership with French aerospace and technology company Safran Space to use their high-performance optical payloads, Seeing230, in Marble’s upcoming satellite constellation for daily collection of high resolution multispectral imaging. [source] * First two Open Cosmos satellites planned to launch on Rocket Lab Electron on January 22 following their Ka-band spectrum licensing last week that Lichtenstein transferred from Rivada Space. [source] * SpaceRISE consortium consisting of almost every European prime, but primarily SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat, initiates procurement for IRIS2 satellite and launch services to deploy sovereign military communication constellation. [source] * ESA member states have pledged €73 million towards further development of Swissto12’s HummingSat, a smallsat for GEO communications. The funding will accelerate the deployment and readiness of the platform to meet a growing demand for commercial and sovereign communications. [source] Space Infrastructure * Blue Origin announces Terawave, a hybrid LEO/MEO communications constellation consisting of 5,408 optically interconnected satellites enabling ultra-high-throughput (projected 6Tbps) links between global hubs and distributed user connections on the ground; planned for launch in Q4 2027. [source] * Italian space logistics specialist D-Orbit has raised $128 million in the first closing of a Series D investment round to enable strategic acquisitions, accelerate the build-out of D-Orbit’s orbital logistics infrastructure, expand in-orbit transportation services, scale industrial capacity for ION missions and advance new operational capabilities. [source] * United States Space Force awards $52.5M contract to Starfish Space to deorbit satellites in the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture constellation when the sats reach their expiration date. [source] * Atomic-6 signs a new development agreement with Starpath to continue joint work on a deployable composite boom for vertical deployable solar array system for the moon. [source] * NASA and the Department of Energy have partnered to develop nuclear reactors for the moon and prepare to release request-for-proposals from commercial industry. [source] * Voyager Technologies announced a new contract with Space LiinTech to manifest a new payload to the International Space Station, advancing microgravity-enabled drug discovery. [source] * SpaceWorks and Astral Materials have successfully completed Payload Build Round 1 and move on to Build Round 2 to develop in-space manufacturing for semiconductors. [source] Launch * Astra ships 110 hall thrusters reaching $45M 2025 revenue, breakeven EBITDA, and 100% Satellite Engine Mission Reliability. [source] * Gilmour Space Technologies raises 217M at a billion+ valuation making the rocket company the first Australian Space Unicorn. [source] * Rocket Lab experiences a testing setback for Electron prompting schedule adjustments. The company stressed that the issue was identified during ground testing rather than flight, allowing corrective action before launch. [source] * German startup ISAR Aerospace delayed its second Spectrum rocket launch attempt after identifying a pressurization valve issue. Engineers emphasized the delay was precautionary, and the company stated the issue does not indicate a systemic design flaw. [source] * Scottish rocket builder Orbex files for bankruptcy and has signed a letter of intent to sell to European space logistics startup The Exploration Company. [source] * Blue Origin planned the next launch of New Glenn to reuse the booster from their second launch and deploy the second tranche of AST SpaceMobile’s Bluebird communications constellation. [source] Business Moves * Samara Aerospace closed their $10M seed round, led by Balerion Space Ventures, to deploy their solar panel stabilization technology for an ultra-stable satellite platform. [source] * Washington Harbour acquired Radome Services, which was rebranded as Outpost Mission Services, to anchor a roll-up strategy in their space ground station servicing business. [source] * TakeMe2Space raises $5M, led by Chiratae Ventures, to scale in-orbit AI inference compute for orbital data centers. [source] * Tomorrow.io has announced DeepSky AI enabled weather monitoring constellation [source] Tech Advances * Warpspace has completed the Series C financing round through a third-party allotment of new shares, led by the Space Frontier Fund II, to accelerate efforts toward the market launch of its multi-protocol optical modem “HOCSAI” and its Digital Twin System “DTS.” [source] * Teledyne’s Speedster HyViSI focal plane arrays launched aboard NASA’s BlackCAT CubeSat Mission to demonstrate new Si-PIN hybrid CMOS architecture for improved X-ray imaging. [source] * NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite data is now public following its launch late last year. 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The space industry is as vast and evolving as the environment it occupies, and we are here to help you navigate it! Every week we talk about advances in space technology and business, and we want to share our opinions and insights with you. Paul Mayer and Harrison Lambert met a decade ago working as aerospace engineers at Maxar. Since then, Harrison has spent that time working on space systems for a variety of applications, and Paul has become a venture capitalist helping grow nascent space companies. Now we want to share the next decades with you, discussing all the exciting times in space! spacetimespod.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Space Times
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
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    © Harrison Lambert
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