The Journal of Space Commerce Podcast

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This podcast focuses on issues related to the commercial space industry, and the impacts for people on Earth www.exterrajsc.com

  1. 6d ago

    NASA Outlines Changes for the Artemis Program

    NASA said Friday that the designs and flight plans for two commercial crewed Moon landers have changed. The goal is a 2028 landing. “Regardless of who goes first, both providers are planning for lunar landing missions in 2028.” Jeremy Parsons, NASA The changes affect landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX. NASA gave details in a news release and at a news conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Artemis III will stay in low Earth orbit next year. Four astronauts will practice docking Orion with test versions of both landers. NASA officials said Artemis IV is the mission planned to land astronauts. Neither company is assigned to that mission. NASA said it will decide later, based on lander readiness. Jeremy Parsons, NASA’s Artemis program manager, said the agency will wait. “The uncrewed demonstrations for us are gonna provide critical operations to reduce risk for our initial surface mission. It’s gonna allow us to learn how do we start and restop cryogenic engines on the moon rather than hypergolic. We’re gonna understand kind of the conditions of the regolith at the South Pole, plume conditions and surface interaction, thermal performance of the landers, and really is gonna be a critical stepping stone to the eventual lunar landing. If all goes according to plan, we’ll also have a lunar terrain vehicle on the lunar surface by the time the first Artemis astronauts arrive near the South Pole, giving us additional options as the moon base begins to take shape. NASA and we intend to wait as long as possible to make a decision about which provider is ultimately going to provide the first American astronauts back to the moon in 2028,” Parsons said. “And so this is, again, really trying to go along with them in the development cycle, and we have dedicated teams working hand in hand with both providers, marching along the way, doing everything we can to accelerate. Regardless of who goes first, both providers are planning for lunar landing missions in 2028. Both landers will reach lunar orbit differently than first planned. The Starship lander will wait for Orion in Earth orbit. The two will dock there. Starship will then fire its engines to push the combined stack to low lunar orbit. NASA said it is modifying Orion for that push. Blue Origin will skip propellant transfer. It will use three transfer stages to carry its Blue Moon Mark 2 lander to an elliptical polar orbit. Both companies must fly an uncrewed demonstration mission before NASA’s crewed landings. SpaceX still plans to refuel Starship in orbit. At the news conference, a reporter asked about a figure of 22 refueling flights, cited at a panel the day before. Parsons said NASA is not tracking that high. “So we were definitely not tracking as high as 22 unless your transfer efficiency and performance wasn’t the same, so I would say Elon’s answer of six to eight is probably more, again, what SpaceX is planning to,” Parsons said. “What I will tell you is our propellant transfer demo is really gonna be probably the best method we have to really figure out exactly how many we’re gonna need.” Parsons said six to eight flights is closer to what SpaceX is planning. He said early, conservative estimates put propellant loss in transfer between 5% and 10%. NASA officials said Artemis III is running 90 days behind schedule. The mission is planned for summer 2027. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said work ahead includes a tanking test of the rocket at the end of this year. Parsons said the delay traces to the supply chain. “So right now it’s supply chain for the lunar builds that are really kind of driving it. And so kind of what you’ve seen in terms of the broader industrial supply base right now is you have a number of components that, you know, may get outclassed for certain DOW builds, you know, that are kind of higher rated.” Parsons said avionics was the key item. He said Blue Origin is returning its New Glenn rocket to flight after an incident in May. Blue Origin is aiming to restart pad operations in November, Parsons said. The baseline Artemis III mission lasts 14 days and can extend to 17. Blue Origin’s test lander launches first on New Glenn. Orion follows on SLS and docks with the lander. The crew will enter it. Starship launches from Florida later. Orion will dock with it for about two hours. The crew will not enter Starship. NASA is also adding a stretch Centaur upper stage as an option for SLS, alongside the existing upper stage. Parsons said the stretch Centaur carries about 50% more propellant than the standard Centaur. NASA switched to it from the Exploration Upper Stage. “When we switched from the EUS to the centaur, we did so very deliberately. We simply did not have confidence that EUS could meet our timelines or the cost and schedule growth that we were seeing was acceptable,” Parsons said. “The centaur is a vehicle that is in production, that NASA and ULA know well and one that is capable of achieving our missions.” NASA and Axiom Space are also developing a second suit configuration for early missions. Parsons said it cuts suit mass from a little over 500 pounds to about 250 pounds. Parsons said NASA expects to choose between the two SLS upper stages around next summer, near the time of Artemis III. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

    NASA Outlines Changes for the Artemis Program

  2. Oct 15

    Empowering the Next Generation of Space Entrepreneurs

    By all accounts Earth orbit will be a major driver of the world’s economy in the coming decades. Companies are developing processes for manufacturing and medical research in microgravity, as well as infrastructure for communications, satellite life extension and national defense. It is a very exciting time to be in the business of space. “We see this platform as something which is very complementary with a future commercial infrastructure. And obviously, as investors invest and scale these opportunities, this is very valuable channel for them as well.”Sven Eenmaa, ISS National Labs The ISS National Laboratory Orbital Edge Accelerator was created to identify and support companies with great ideas, but which need funding to get those ideas off the drawing board and into space. On this edition of The Journal of Space Commerce Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Sven Eenmaa, ISS National Lab Chief Economist about the program, its scope and funding, and how interested companies can get involved. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

    Empowering the Next Generation of Space Entrepreneurs

  3. Oct 4

    Starship achieves orbit, and an Update on Starliner

    A SpaceX Starship reached orbit on Test Flight 14, marking a significant milestone towards NASAs goal of building an ongoing human presence on the moon. Starship lifted off as its launch window opened at 7:48 am local time at Starbase Texas. The super heavy booster performed mostly nominally, though one of the 33 Raptor engines did shut down prematurely. Still, the mission continued with a clean stage separation and booster return to Earth, splashing down in the Gulf of America about 8 minutes after launch. The booster simulated the manuver that will be needed for a capture back at Starbase, but it did not attempt that land recovery on this mission. There were more tense moments when one of the two Raptor Vac engines on Ship failed during the initial ascent. But the SpaceX team determined that since the sea level engines were all that were needed for orbital insertion and de-orbit burn, the mission could continue. Through the Starlink relay, SpaceX was able to provide spectacular images of Earth and the spacecraft in orbit while a batch of 28 operational Starlink V3 satellites were deployed. Ship did not complete the planned six orbits of the Earth. The de-orbit burn was initiated after just one full orbit, with splashdown occurring in the northern Pacific Ocean. The mission was cut short after mission controllers determined that all objectives had been accomplished and they had collected all pertinent data. With this orbital milestone achieved, SpaceX and NASA can start looking ahead to testing the in-orbit docking and refueling capability that will be necessary for the return to the lunar surface. Executive Order 14369 signed by President Trump last December directed NASA to land humans back on the Moon by 2028, with a permanent human presence established by 2030. -0- NASA and Boeing held a news conference Monday to provide an update on the Starliner program. Boeing was awarded a commercial crew contract to provide transportation to and from the International Space Station in 2014. Three test flights were completed, one manned, that took Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS ... but ongoing issues with multiple systems forced NASA to bring the Starliner spacecraft back to Earth without its crew. Wilmore and Williams spend nearly nine months aboard the station, and eventually returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. In June, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a report that said Starliner would be at least a decade behind schedule. In the meantime, the agency has shifted several crew rotation flights over to SpaceX, which is currently the sole U.S. provider of transportation services to the station. During the news conference, NASA Administrator Jared Issacman said Starliner is still critical for assuring reliable continued access to ISS. “So given our extensive history with Starliner and the taxpayer investment already made, we believe it represents the fastest path to preserving reliable crewed access to low Earth orbit. But from the beginning, commercial crew was built around competition, and NASA continues to see real value in having two crew transportation providers,” Issacman said. “Our forecasted demand is approximately 1 crewed mission to low Earth orbit every six months, and competition can help drive down costs, strengthen resilience, and support the broader commercial ecosystem.” Isaacman noted SpaceX plans to retire Falcon 9 and Dragon as it transitions to Starship, which reached orbit the same day as the briefing. He said NASA wants a second ride. John Mulholland, Boeing’s Starliner Program Manager, said the uncrewed flight is on track for the December–January timeframe, lined up with the station’s schedule. “NASA and Boeing, as I mentioned, are confident in the Starliner for the uncrewed mission. The safety findings from CFT have been addressed. We’ve worked corrective action plans for the eight Starliner 1 PIT recommendations, and out of the 21 CFT in-flight anomalies, 19 are closed,” Mulholland said. “The remaining actions are expected to close in October. Some of the mitigations require in-flight demonstration, which we’ll achieve during Starliner 1.” But NASA Astronaut Woody Hoburg, who has been named as the crewed Starliner mission commander, was blunt about the bigger problem NASA’s investigation found. “So what keeps me up at night? It’s not the hardware, it’s the underlying pattern. The PIT, the program investigation team, they zoomed out and looked at root causes, so the organizational causes, and they identified 3. And I want to highlight one of those today,” Hoburg said. “It was inadequate systems engineering and integration, creating gaps in hardware qualification. In the case of the helium leaks and the crew module RCS failures, the unqualified environment was actually on the ground, not in space. And we now know that the hardware damage occurred before liftoff.” Isaacman said that NASA would like nothing more than to see additional crewed and cargo transportation providers, a thriving commercial LEO destination, and a robust overall orbital economy. That would lead one to believe that the planned retirement of Crew Dragon could open the door for other companies to develop human-rated spacecraft. -0- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded Spire Global a $33.2 million task order for commercial satellite weather data. Spire, based in Virginia, will deliver radio occultation data from Dec. 1, 2026, to Dec. 1, 2028. Radio occultation uses global navigation satellite system signals to measure the atmosphere. Spire says its near-real-time data gives vertical profiles of pressure, humidity and temperature around the globe. The order includes what the company calls Temporal Resolution Enhancements. Spire says they provide a broader range of time sampling. The data will feed NOAA’s operational forecast models and support weather forecasting, space weather work and research with partner agencies and universities, according to the company. The order also carries unfunded surge options. Spire says if NOAA exercises all of them, the order could be worth about $66 million over two years. NOAA’s award notice confirms the options but doesn’t put a dollar value on them. The award falls under NOAA’s Space-Based Environmental Monitoring contract, a multiple-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity vehicle. Spire says it has a five-year base period and a five-year option. It sits under NOAA’s ProTech 2-point-0 program, which has a shared $8 billion ceiling. The new order follows a $3.7 million NOAA contract for the same type of data. That one runs from Sept. 18 through Dec. 1, the day the new order begins. Spire says it was also selected under the same contract to provide reflectometry, hyperspectral microwave sounding and thermospheric neutral density data. The company says it’s eligible for future task orders in those categories over the five-year contract period. The FCC voted Wednesday to open more than 1,000 megahertz of spectrum to satellite broadband in the 12-point-7 and 42 gigahertz bands. The order is a binding rule, and it’s the latest step in the commission’s spectrum abundance proceeding. Chairman Brendan Carr has said the goal is to keep competitive, high-speed internet from next-generation satellites flowing to consumers. The commission also asked for more. A further notice attached to the order seeks comment on another 1,450 megahertz in the Ku- and Ka-bands, plus 138-point-25 gigahertz in the D-band. Those numbers are proposals, not final allocations. A second further notice adds bands to what the FCC calls its “Weird Space Stuff” docket. The commission opened that proceeding in March. It covers spectrum for missions that don’t provide connectivity to the public: in-orbit servicing, refueling, in-space manufacturing and operations around the moon. Those missions fall outside the FCC’s traditional service categories. “This clarification means that our nat… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 29

    Ex Terra Extra: NASA, Boeing Provide Starliner Update

    NASA still wants a second ride to the International Space Station. The obvious choice is Boeing’s Starliner, on which the taxpayers have already spent a lot of money. But the issues with the spacecraft are well documented. On Monday, shortly after SpaceX’s Starship was reached orbit for the first time, NASA and Boeing officials held a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center to outline where the Starliner program stands, what is being done to correct the issues, and introduce the commander of the next crewed mission. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

    Ex Terra Extra: NASA, Boeing Provide Starliner Update

  5. Sep 27

    NASAs OIG Audits GRACE-C Mission, and Breaking the Germainium Stranglehold on Solar Cells

    A NASA OIG audit released Wednesday found the GRACE-C gravity mission on track to launch within its $658 million baseline. But the project has already used most of its cost reserves. GRACE-C stands for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, manages the mission in partnership with the German Aerospace Center, known as DLR. The mission’s twin satellites will track changes in Earth’s gravity field to measure ice sheets, groundwater and sea levels. NASA’s Office of Inspector General found the project had spent 61.2 percent of its project-managed cost reserves as of May. After known risks were covered, only $13.6 million remained unallocated. That’s about 7 percent of remaining development costs, which is below JPL guidelines. In February, a JPL review group estimated the project could need $637.3 million to finish. That’s $9.3 million over its $628 million management agreement. The inspector general said its own calculations closely matched that estimate. In June, the group cut the projected overrun to $300,000. The inspector general said it didn’t independently verify that figure. The report cites two outside cost drivers. The first is overhead. JPL has gone through reorganizations and workforce reductions since 2024, mainly because of funding uncertainty around the Mars Sample Return mission. The resulting rate adjustments added about $4.6 million to GRACE-C’s cost, and the project expects another $13.3 million. The second is currency exposure. JPL’s firm-fixed-price contract with Airbus Defence and Space in Germany for the two satellites is priced at 150.5 million euros, or about $172.5 million. Smaller euro contracts cover laser work from Tesat-Spacecom in Germany and accelerometers from ONERA in France. NASA budgeted for an exchange rate of up to $1.10 per euro. The rate reached $1.14 in July, adding an estimated $8 million. About $60.6 million in contract payments are still due in euros. The project has kept all 163 days of its schedule margin. The inspector general said managers chose to spend reserves to protect that schedule. That includes $35.3 million to keep JPL’s share of the laser ranging interferometer on track. Two DLR-supplied subsystems are each running about four weeks late. NASA agreed with the first of the inspector general’s two recommendations, which calls for routine review of the project’s risk posture. It partially agreed with the second, which covers how requirements in partner agreements are written. That work has a target completion date of Jan. 29, 2027. Launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is planned before July 2029. -0- Exolaunch has signed a contract with SpaceX to serve as payload integrator for a Starfall mission. The mission is targeted to launch on a Starship rocket in 2029. Starfall is a SpaceX spacecraft built for microgravity research, in-space manufacturing and return to Earth. Exolaunch already integrates and deploys satellites on SpaceX rideshare launches. This contract moves the company into a different line of business: helping customers fly experiments in orbit and bring them home. Exolaunch says it’ll offer the service to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, materials developers, government agencies and research institutions. Expected payloads include life-science experiments, advanced materials research, in-space manufacturing and technology demonstrations. While that all sounds good, no financial terms were disclosed, and no paying customers or specific payloads have been named. The 2029 date is a target, more than three years out. The contract also comes while Exolaunch is the subject of a pending acquisition by EQT Private Equity. The Starfall deal follows two other recently announced Exolaunch missions, Exo-1 and Exo-2. Both are set to fly on SpaceX Falcon 9 missions. It’s worth noting that the deal places an established rideshare integrator between SpaceX and the microgravity research market. That’s the same role Exolaunch already plays for satellite operators. Exolaunch says it’s now engaging customers and strategic partners for the 2029 mission. -0- The Air Force Research Laboratory has agreed to transfer decades-old rocket propulsion hardware and engineering data to Blue Origin. The deal is a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA. It was announced through AFRL’s Rocket and Space Propulsion Division at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and it expands an existing partnership between the lab and the company. The agreement covers hardware and engineering records from two AFRL programs. One is the Hydrocarbon Boost program. The other is the Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator. Those programs pioneered oxygen-rich and full-flow staged combustion technology decades ago. Blue Origin says it’ll study the hardware and data to inform its own commercial engine development. A senior Blue Origin engines executive said the material will help ground the company’s engineering models in government research. The data transfer is separate from an existing arrangement to test Blue Origin’s BE-7 lunar lander engine at Edwards Air Force Base. The BE-7 is a dual-expander cycle engine. Blue Origin says it delivers high efficiency and deep throttling, which suits it for carrying large payloads to the Moon. The head of AFRL’s propulsion division said the transfer is meant to keep the value of past government science and technology investments working for national capability. Rocket Lab has started producing a spacecraft solar cell that doesn’t use germanium, a critical mineral that’s been under supply and cost pressure across the space industry. The product is called Inverted Metamorphic Apex, or IMM Apex. It’s the newest version of a solar cell line Rocket Lab has built for more than a decade. An earlier version powered NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. Here’s why it matters for the supply chain. Rocket Lab says conventional multi-junction space solar cells have been built on germanium substrates for about 30 years. The company says that dependency leaves manufacturers exposed to shortages and price swings in the critical minerals market. Rocket Lab says IMM Apex reaches 31.5 percent conversion efficiency at beginning of life. It also weighs 40 percent less than earlier versions, which gives it a higher power-to-weight ratio. The company says the new cell is a mechanical and electrical replacement for existing germanium-based cells. That means satellite builders wouldn’t need to redesign their systems to switch. On capacity, Rocket Lab says changes to its manufacturing process and targeted capital investment now let it produce cells in volumes above 100 kilowatts. The product pairs a germanium-free design with a drop-in fit, which gives spacecraft builders a potential alternative to a single-mineral dependency. IMM Apex is available now. Rocket Lab says it plans more updates to the technology to support future missions. -0- Impulse Space has raised another $308 million, extending its Series D round to a combined $808 million. The Redondo Beach, California, company builds spacecraft that move satellites and other payloads between orbits after launch. The extension builds on a $500 million Series D that closed in June. Existing investors took part, including 137 Ventures, BANNER VC, DFJ Growth, Linse Capital, Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners. Impulse didn’t disclose an updated valuation. It also didn’t say how the new money will be split among hiring, manufacturing and other costs, beyond supporting product development and team growth. The company’s president said Impulse has more than doubled its headcount over the past year. The raise follows two government contract actions this year. The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command selected Impulse’s Helios spacecraft for the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program. Impulse says that makes it the first upper-stage developer awarded a prime position in the program. Sp… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

  6. Sep 13

    A New U.K. Space Strategy, and a Billion Dollar Raise for Stoke Space

    The British government has unveiled a new national space strategy. It consolidates $10.6 billion in defense, security and industrial growth spending through 2030, and that’s the first time all of that spending has been folded into a single framework. The plan, which replaces the UKs 2021 space strategy, comes from the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The new document names four priority areas: satellite communications, in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, space domain awareness, and assured access to space. Connectivity programs get the largest share of the money, at $3.8 billion. That includes the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit initiative and the SKYNET defense communications system. Space control and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability gets $1.19 billion. Smaller allocations round out the plan. The European Space Agency’s Vigil mission gets $202 million; in-orbit servicing and manufacturing technology gets $54 million; and the SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland gets $41 million. The government also announced regulatory changes, including a variable liability limits system for orbital operators. Operators running some in-orbit servicing and lunar missions before 2030 will get a liability waiver. The trade groups UK space and the Space Academic Network welcomed the strategy. But both said they’re still waiting on implementation details that haven’t been published yet. The government puts the UK’s current space sector value at $25.2 billion. It says that supports more than 55,000 jobs. -0- The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit has awarded a new contract to satellite communications company ALL.SPACE. The goal is to scale up production of U.S. satellite hardware. The deal falls under DIU’s Adaptive Space Manufacturing and Integration at Scale ... or “10ⁿ” project. That project was created to fix bottlenecks in the space supply chain. The old supply chain was built for low-volume, custom components with long lead times. That model is straining under rising demand from bigger constellations and more launch capacity. Under the agreement, ALL.SPACE will apply its Hydra multi-orbit communications terminal. The company will serve as what it calls a “Disruptive Innovator” on the project. It plans to use rapid integration and automated testing to speed up production. The stated goal is ambitious. DIU wants the Department of War to reach hundreds of production units a month, and thousands per year. But those are targets, and not confirmed output. ALL.SPACE Chief Operating Officer Rod McCurdy said the award reflects a broader shift. He said defense capabilities are increasingly being fielded through commercial technology, not traditional acquisition timelines. The company says it will now move through a design-build-test-and-validate cycle, a process meant to raise the manufacturing readiness level of the Hydra hardware. -0- Stoke Space Technologies has closed the first part of a $1 billion funding round. That brings the company’s total capital raised to $2.3 billion. And it hasn’t even flown its first orbital rocket yet. Point72 Ventures and Spark Capital co-led the round. Stoke is developing the Nova family of reusable launch vehicles. The first one, Nova Pathfinder, is targeted to debut in early 2027. It will fly with seven of the company’s Zenith engines. A larger vehicle called Nova Block 2 is also in development. It’s designed to carry 15 metric tons to low Earth orbit. Its first flight is targeted for 2029. Stoke CEO Andy Lapsa said full reusability is the only way to reach the industry’s cost floor at scale. Investors Chris Morales of Point72 and Clay Fisher of Spark both pointed to that reusability strategy as the reason behind their firms’ investment. The new funding will also expand infrastructure. Stoke’s test site in Moses Lake, Washington, is growing from 75 acres to 550 acres. The company is also building a new payload processing facility and offshore recovery platform at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Stoke says it’s planning multiple Pathfinder missions in 2027 and 2028. Development on Nova Block 2 continues in parallel. Astral Materials has booked up to 100 flights aboard Dawn Aerospace’s Aurora spaceplane. The flights will happen over the next two years with a goal of testing hardware for microgravity manufacturing. The campaign starts at the Infinity One Oklahoma Spaceport. Astral is a materials company based in Mountain View, California. It plans to use Aurora’s roughly four-hour turnaround to repeatedly test furnace hardware. That hardware is designed to grow semiconductor crystals in microgravity. Here’s why that matters. Reduced convection and sedimentation in microgravity can produce crystals with fewer defects. Those crystals could be used in photonics, quantum computing and high-power electronics. Aurora reaches speeds up to Mach 3.7. It flies to altitudes of 62 miles. Each flight produces up to 127 seconds of microgravity, according to Dawn Aerospace. The company says a single vehicle can support up to 100 flights a year. Dawn Aerospace CEO Stefan Powell and Astral CEO Jessica Frick both framed the deal the same way. They say it lets engineers iterate on manufacturing hardware faster than ever before. Astral Chief Technology Officer Jiya Janowitz said the company can test, recover and adjust hardware within the same day. The announcement didn’t specify contract value or a full spaceport timeline beyond the initial Oklahoma campaign. -0- A privately built rocket has delivered satellites to orbit from continental Europe for the first time. And it happened on only the vehicle’s second test flight. Isar Aerospace’s two-stage Spectrum rocket lifted off from the company’s launch complex at Andøya (AHN-doh-ya) Space in Norway. The “Onward and Upward” mission deployed payloads chosen through the Microlauncher Competition, a program run by the German Space Agency at DLR, and funded through the European Space Agency’s Boost! initiative. Isar says it’s still confirming the satellites’ status with customers. The flight hit its major milestones. Spectrum passed through maximum dynamic pressure, or “MaxQ” and completed main engine cutoff and stage separation. It crossed the Kármán line and reached orbital velocity, then the spacecraft separated successfully after a circularization burn. Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler said launch capacity remains the biggest bottleneck for the global space industry. He said the company’s next focus is scaling up production. Isar says Spectrum vehicles three through seven are already in production. It’s building a second launch complex in Nova Scotia, Canada. And it’s finishing a production facility near Munich, designed to eventually build up to 40 vehicles a year. Spectrum is rated to carry up to 2,200 pounds to low Earth orbit. -0- Isar Aerospace has a new customer lined up for its Spectrum rocket. Astroscale Japan has signed on to launch its ADRAS-J2 debris removal spacecraft aboard the vehicle. The mission is targeted for a 2027-to-2028 liftoff from Andøya. The mission is part of JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration project. ADRAS-J2 is designed to approach and capture a non-cooperative rocket upper stage. That target is roughly 36 feet long, 13 feet in diameter, and weighs about 6,600 pounds. It was never built to be grabbed by anything. This is the second launch agreement between Isar Aerospace and the Astroscale group. The first was for the ELSA-M In-Orbit Demonstration mission with Astroscale UK. That deal was signed in March of this year. Isar Chief Commercial Officer Stella Guillen (GEE-len) said the mission’s precision and timing requirements fit Spectrum’s design. Astroscale founder and CEO Nobu Okada said ADRAS-J2 aims to remove the first piece of legacy space debris that’s been in orbit for decades. That debris was never designed for removal. Worth a Second Look * Europe Signs Contract to Build Its First Lunar Rover * Earth Observation, Verification Firms Partner On … This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

  7. Aug 23

    Planning for Microgravity Experiments, and a Cargo Hangar in Space

    Eight early-stage companies have been selected for the second year of a national accelerator program that pairs access to the International Space Station with private investment capital. The International Space Station National Laboratory named the group as the 2026 cohort of its Orbital Edge Accelerator. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, runs the program under agreement with NASA. Selected companies will receive $500,000 to $750,000 in private capital along with access to low Earth orbit for research and development. The cohort splits into two tracks. The Sentinel Track includes four companies working on dual-use space technologies: Aspect Aerospace, Mithril Space, Polaris Semiconductor and Vaxon Space. The Disrupt Track includes four companies focused on in-space manufacturing and space biology: Astrileux, Aura Life Science, Micro-gRx and Tensr. Investment partners backing this year’s cohort include Cook Inlet Region, E2MC, Stellar Ventures, Context Ventures, Draper Associates and Draper University. The companies are also eligible for a Boeing-funded prize offering up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding. CASIS Chief Executive Officer Ray Lugo says startups that have completed spaceflight projects through the ISS National Lab have raised nearly $3 billion in venture capital and non-NASA grant funding since the program began. The eight companies will travel to events in Anchorage, Houston, Washington and Boston before a Demo Day in San Francisco in December, where each will present its planned spaceflight project. -0- A venture capital firm has taken an undisclosed stake in Starlab Space, a company developing one of the commercial space station concepts competing to succeed the International Space Station. Starlab Space and Global Venture Management announced the investment Wednesday. Neither company disclosed the size of the stake, the form the investment took or what percentage of the venture Global Venture Management now holds. Starlab is a joint venture led by Voyager Technologies. Airbus, Mitsubishi Corp., MDA Space, Palantir Technologies and Space Applications Services round out the venture, with Hilton, Journey, Northrop Grumman and Ohio State University listed as strategic partners. Global Venture Management, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, describes itself as a venture capital and private equity firm that gives accredited investors access to pre-IPO companies. Voyager President Matt Kuta says the country needs a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit once the space station retires, and calls Starlab the program built to meet that need. Wednesday’s announcement follows a similar strategic investment Starlab disclosed in May from 1789 Capital. -0- NASA has selected Gravitics for a six-month study of a hangar system designed to return cargo from low Earth orbit on a more regular schedule. The Seattle-based orbital infrastructure company will use the Small Business Innovation Research Phase I award to evaluate the Multiple-Downmass Hangar, a platform designed to hold several return vehicles at once so customers don’t have to wait on a dedicated flight. NASA announced its 2026 SBIR Phase I selections Aug. 6. The agency did not specify a dollar figure for the award, and the deal is subject to contract negotiation through NASA’s Shared Services Center. Gravitics Chief Executive Officer Colin Doughan says the company remains focused on cargo logistics for low Earth orbit, and calls the return capability a natural extension of its existing cargo-delivery work. Material return has been a persistent constraint for companies conducting research or manufacturing on orbit. Gravitics is currently executing a STRATFI contract with the U.S. Space Force and says it’s developing its first commercial cargo-delivery partnerships to low Earth orbit destinations. The next step is contract negotiation between Gravitics and NASA’s Shared Services Center. An artificial intelligence system detected and canceled satellite signal interference up to 10 times more effectively than conventional methods in early testing, according to results announced by Gilat Satellite Networks. Gilat, based in Petach Tikva, Israel, says the patent-pending system runs AI-based signal processing on standard edge neural processing hardware. Gilat tested the system against interference and jamming patterns that were neither fixed nor predictable — the kind of signal that’s harder for older mitigation tools to track. The results are preliminary and come from Gilat’s own testing rather than an independent evaluation. The company says the target signal showed only negligible quality loss after the interference was canceled, but the system still needs to be demonstrated on dedicated AI accelerator hardware before it could be built into operational satellite terminals. Gilat Chief Research and Development Officer Aharon Mullokandov says the technology opens opportunities in an environment where spectrum has become a critical resource for both defense and commercial users. Gilat plans to move the system onto dedicated AI accelerator hardware next, a step the company says would allow a lower-power version suitable for terminals already fielded in commercial and defense satellite networks. The company gave no timetable for reaching commercial terminals. -0- The global market for GPS tracking devices is projected to grow from an estimated $4.58 billion this year to $15.3 billion by 2035, according to a new report from Market Research Future, a New York-based market research firm. The report projects a compound annual growth rate of 12.8% over the decade, driven by two forces: expanding fleet telematics mandates across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and the growth of last-mile logistics tied to e-commerce fulfillment. Global logistics spending is expected to exceed $2.1 trillion annually by 2030, the report states, adding pressure on fleet operators to adopt connected tracking systems. On the hardware side, the report points to multi-constellation satellite receivers — combining the U.S. GPS system with Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou constellations — as a factor pushing sub-meter positioning accuracy in both urban and rural settings. Regionally, North America holds about 36% of the global market, the report states, followed by Europe at about 28%. Asia-Pacific is forecast to be the fastest-growing major region, while the Middle East and Africa is projected to post the highest regional growth rate, at about 9.1% annually through 2035. -0- The Defense Innovation Unit and the Space Development Agency have awarded Firefly Aerospace a contract for a preliminary design review of a spacecraft mission to deorbit satellites nearing the end of their working life. The mission would use Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft. Completing the design review doesn’t guarantee Firefly the full mission; the Cedar Park, Texas-based company says it will be eligible to compete for the next phase, covering launch and spacecraft operations, only after the review wraps up. Firefly Chief Executive Officer Jason Kim says the design aligns with a White House order to prioritize orbital debris mitigation, and describes the system as capable of deorbiting satellites of different sizes and configurations. Under the mission design, Elytra would launch into low Earth orbit, maneuver to the target satellite, carry out rendezvous and proximity operations, survey the object, then perform the deorbit service. Firefly says the system is designed to work in low, medium and geostationary Earth orbit. The award is separate from an existing Defense Innovation Unit contract under which Firefly is building an Elytra spacecraft for a space domain awareness mission, targeted no earlier than 2027; the company says the core flight structures for that vehicle are complete and it has entered integration and testing. Firefly has not disclosed the value of the design review contract. You Might have Missed: Startup Taps Satellite M… This is a public episode. 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  8. Aug 16

    A Leadership Change at the Top of the FCC’s Space Bureau. And Repurposing Gateway Hardware for the Lunar Surface

    Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr says Space Bureau Chief Jay Schwarz will leave his post later this month, with Deputy Bureau Chief Jennifer Gilsenan taking over as acting chief during the transition. Schwarz led the bureau, which handles licensing and policy for satellite and space-based communications, through a period of expanded processing targets and a rewrite of the agency’s space rules. On July 22, the commission voted to adopt a Report and Order replacing the decades-old Part 25 licensing framework with a new Part 100. Carr credited Schwarz and Space Bureau staff with cutting the agency’s licensing backlog by 43% in Schwarz’s first year and by another 15% so far this year. The commission’s announcement did not specify Schwarz’s exact departure date or his next role. Gilsenan will lead the bureau on an acting basis until a permanent successor is named. -0- A new market forecast projects satellites that refuel, repair or extend the working life of other spacecraft will generate roughly $3 billion in cumulative revenue over the next 10 years. The forecast comes from Novaspace, a Paris-based space industry research and consulting firm, in a report titled “In-Orbit Services Markets.” The firm says early demand is coming largely from government and defense agencies working to make satellite refueling a standing military capability. Satellite refueling is expected to be the largest segment of that market, representing a projected $1.2 billion opportunity over the decade. Life-extension services delivered through docking hardware attached to a client satellite — a method the report calls “backpacking” — are projected to generate an estimated $860 million over the same period. Novaspace says the sector remains at varying levels of maturity, ranging from early concepts to limited commercial operations, and that the model is based on more than 10 years of projected mission activity and dollar value. -0- Redwire subsidiary Space Microgravity Development has signed a contract to fly up to 32 pharmaceutical research payloads aboard SpaceX’s new Starfall spacecraft in 2028. The company, known as SpaceMD, says the mission would be the largest dedicated commercial microgravity research flight ever conducted. Under the agreement, SpaceMD’s payloads would fly a next-generation version of its Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory, or PIL-BOX, sized to fill the entire Starfall vehicle. The announcement did not disclose the contract’s value or which drug candidates would fly. SpaceMD has flown 54 PIL-BOX units to the International Space Station since November 2023, with 12 more scheduled to launch between September and December of this year. The company says it has crystallized 45 unique compounds through that program, including insulin and molecules targeting cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. The announcement comes as the federal government’s mission-authorization framework for novel commercial space activities remains under development. Officials from the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce addressed the deal in a recent panel discussion, saying that framework is advancing with input from industry and other federal agencies. Taylor Jordan, Director of the Office of Space Commerce, said that commercial space activities will soon be moving beyond Earth observation and communications. “Soon you will see on the Federal Register a call for applications to begin the process of authorizing all these new novel technologies,” Jordan said. Gabriel Swiney, acting deputy director of the Office of Space Commerce, tied the announcement to a broader administration goal of drawing $50 billion in additional investment into the commercial space sector, calling the deal significant beyond the two companies involved. “Obviously this is an enormous deal, not just for Redwire and for SpaceX and all involved, but for the entire space community because what it takes is to prove that this is possible,” Swiney said. “Prove that it is possible to use space and the capabilities that space can bring to do things that we’ve never done before in space. That’s what will unlock the rest of space for all the other companies and ultimately those American people and the benefits.That’s what will unlock the rest of space for all the other companies and ultimately those American people and the benefits.” A new set of atmospheric-sensing satellites from PlanetiQ has finished manufacturing and testing, clearing a milestone toward a launch planned later this year. The Golden, Colorado-based company builds and operates a commercial satellite constellation using GNSS radio occultation (Ah-cull-TAY-shen) , or GNSS-RO, technology to measure atmospheric conditions for weather forecasting and space weather monitoring. The new spacecraft are the next generation of PlanetiQ’s GNOMES satellites and carry the company’s Pyxis sensors, which PlanetiQ says can track signals from all four major GNSS constellations — GPS, BeiDou (bay-DOUGH), GLONASS and Galileo — using a 75-degree limb-sounding field of view. PlanetiQ says its data is used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the UK Met Office, along with the U.S. Air Force, Space Force and Navy. The satellites are expected to ship for launch integration in the coming weeks. PlanetiQ did not specify a launch date, vehicle or site. -0- The Canadian Space Agency intends to redirect existing Canadarm3 investment to support the next phase of lunar exploration under NASA’s Artemis program. Canadarm3, developed under contract with MDA Space, was originally conceived as Canada’s robotic contribution to Gateway, the lunar-orbiting station NASA announced in March it would pause in its current form as the agency shifts its Artemis architecture toward a surface-based moon base. Still, the underlying Canadarm3 technology will be kept in place, focusing the agency’s work with MDA toward lunar surface operations, including cargo transport, infrastructure deployment, scientific exploration, site inspection and astronaut assistance. Canada’s minister of industry, Mélanie Joly, tied the move to broader economic goals, framing the investment as a way to build domestic companies, talent and capabilities. MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley welcomed the shift, citing the company’s four-decade history in space robotics following the Artemis II mission around the moon. The agency’s release did not specify new funding, a signed contract amendment or a timeline for lunar deployment, describing the change only as an intention to adapt work already underway. Continued access to low Earth orbit, the agency said, remains part of Canada’s broader industrial base strategy. -0- Northrop Grumman is developing three demonstration missions designed to test whether spacecraft systems can survive the two-week lunar night and support a sustained human outpost near the moon’s South Pole. The missions, designated LID-1, LID-2 and LID-3, are intended to help NASA mature the power and data systems needed for a future Moon Base under the Artemis program. According to the company, the missions will repurpose hardware and technologies developed for the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO, a module Northrop Grumman built for Gateway. The company said HALO’s existing power, data and mechanical systems can now be applied to the new surface-focused demonstrations. The demonstrations are designed to show that surface hardware can stay powered, protected and connected through the lunar night and periods of shadow — data NASA would use to plan future Artemis surface campaigns. Northrop Grumman’s announcement did not include launch dates, mission costs, or the contract or funding vehicle under which the work is being performed. -0- You might also like: European Commission, Satellite Operators Finalize Deal to Expand IRIS² Network UK’s Copernicus Return Still Trails Program’s Annual Cost, Report Finds Telesat Adds 69 Satellites … This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.exterrajsc.com/subscribe

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