Space Times

Space Times
  • 5.0 (4)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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 Update #32

    5D AGO

    Weekly Update #32

    Main Topics Comms * York Space announced the purchase of ALL.SPACE for ~$355M in a scope style acquisition to expand York Space’s ground and mobile terminal technology capabilities while making ALL.SPACE a subsidiary that will continue operations. [source] * Celestial Acquisition Co acquired Nokia’s Modul8 space cellular division after Nokia broke the Modul8 team out to a separate business entity earlier this year in an undisclosed acquisition price that involved $40M in debt financing from Scotia Bank. [source] * The USSF awarded $11.2M to BAE to demo Golden Dome satellite comms with radios for Link-182 capability deployment, providing resilient communication solutions for the proliferated satellite architecture. [source] * Viasat F3 satellite successfully launched, deployed solar arrays, and commissioned earlier this week and is now set to begin its ascent to final Geostationary orbit to deliver 1Tbps of throughput to the APAC region. [source] Imaging * DARPA announced they’ve selected Quantum Space and Revolution Space as well as Benchmark for execution of the LASSO program. [source] * The Government of Canada terminated Spire Global Canada’s $72 million WildFireSat contract for convenience, indicating a mismatch in needs rather than an inability to execute on the contract. [source] * Planet and Carbon Mapper announced a partnership to use Tanager for methane tracking starting with the hyperspectral camera’s first flight in 2028. [source] Defense * True Anomaly raised a $650M Series D round of funding bringing total capital raised for True Anomaly to over $1B at a valuation of over $2.2B. [source] * The USSF issued $3M contracts to Assurance Technology, Raptor Dynamix, and Innovative Signal Analysis to develop radar counter-surveillance for GEO satellites. [source] * Spaceflux raised £9M led by Blackfinch Ventures to develop and commercialize their ground optics product offerings for space situational awareness. [source] Business Moves * Seraphim Space announced their intent to raise $454M after demonstrating 411% returns over the last 3 years with the goal of helping the 85% of their portfolio that are EBITDA positive to achieve exit, grow their accelerator infrastructure, and enter growth-stage deals. [source] * Chinese reusable rocket launch company Cosmoleap raised $73M led by Qianhai Ark and Puhua Capital to deliver on their debut launch in 2027. [source] * SpaceX’s CAS500-2 launched 45 satellites including 6 Earth Daily/Loft satellites, a plethora of satellites from HEO and Planet Labs, and True Anomaly’s Jackal. [source] * Roscosmos debuted the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle which is a refurbishment of the existing Zenit launch vehicle. [source] Tech Advances * Meta signed a 1GW supply contract with Overview Energy to provide power gathered in space to a terrestrial data center. [source] * DPhi’s Clustergate-2 successfully ran LiquidAI’s LLM on orbit after successfully launching and deploying on Vigoride 7 earlier last month. [source] * BioOrbit closed a $13.2M seed round marking the largest seed round in history for orbital pharmaceuticals. [source] * Extreme Environment Shielding Materials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology published research about radiation shielding material boasting massive shielding efficiency at a groundbreaking mass and volume profile. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr
  2. Weekly Recap #31

    APR 27

    Weekly Recap #31

    Main Topics Defense * USSF selected Anduril, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, GITAI, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quindar, Raytheon, Sci-Tec, SpaceX, True Anomaly, and Turion Space for over 20 golden dome Space Based Interceptor contracts totalling $3.2B. [source] * USSF awarded $1.4M and $500K to Leidos and Maplarge respectively for battle planning software through the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) Kronos program. [source] * The Pentagon released a budget request for $2.3B for Maven AI battlefield software from Palantir including a total of $58.5B tied to AI. [source] * The Pentagon officially ended Raytheon’s OCX program after years of delays and underperformance on deliveries. [source] * The Pentagon invested $1B in L3Harris Missile unit to boost key component production and prep L3Harris Missile Group for a stock market debut later this year. [source] Communications * The FCC granted AST Spacemobile a cellular license to sell Supplemental Space Coverage through the 700-800 MHz frequency range partnering with cellular service providers to unlock Direct-to-Device data capability. [source] * The FCC declined a request to enable and allow Mobile Space Spectrum sharing citing a desire to maintain strong incentives for innovation among the industry. [source] * Oneweb announced an order of 1300 more antennas / 400 more antenna systems from MDA to service their 340 satellite constellation built on Airbus platforms. [source] * Oneweb announced future versions of their satellite would add hosted payloads to their product offerings. [source] * Danish GomSpace and Ukrainian STETMAN formed the UASAT joint venture focused on developing sovereign dual-use satellite capabilities for Ukraine. [source] * The Polish Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with Thales and Airbus to develop a military GEO communications satellite with RADMOR. [source] Interplanetary * The US Space Force created the Cislunar Coordination Office led by Jaime Stearns to develop and maintain the logistics and coordination efforts necessary to support and protect lunar projects and installations. [source] * Benchmark selected by DARPA for NASA’s LASSO (Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter) program feasibility study to search for and map lunar in situ resources. [source] * SpaceX awarded $175.7M to launch ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars in 2028 to search for evidence of past or present life. [source] * Rocket Lab announced a new High-Performance Star Tracker (ST-HP) for operation in increased-radiation environments such as GEO and Cislunar missions. [source] Business Moves * SpaceX announced a $10B, partnership with Cursor AI that can expand to a full purchase later this year for $60B. [source] * China announced an $8.4B line of credit offered to startup Orbital Chenguang to build 16 sun-synchronous orbital data centers. [source] * Atmos Space Cargo raised a €25.7M series A led by Banlord and Expansion to build out their 3 vehicle Phoenix-2 fleet, develop their Phoenix-3 vehicle, and stand up ATMOS Works. [source] * Northrop Grumman disclosed that challenges with their Solid Rocket Boosters had cost them $71M in Q1. [source] * Spacebackend raised a €1.8M pre-seed round to bring hardware integration, testing, and verification all under a single software platform. [source] Tech Advances * Univity received $32M to develop and deploy a pair of 5G VLEO satellites for lower latency, higher-resolution product offerings. [source] * Nordspace received $250k CA in funding to develop VLEO spacecraft for ultra-high resolution SDA and D2D capability. [source] * Astroscale announced the ISSA-J1 mission to rendezvous with two defunct satellites in separate orbits, demonstrating their extensive capabilities for orbital inspection and review. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 2m
  3. Weekly Recap #30

    APR 20

    Weekly Recap #30

    Main Topics Infrastructure * Orbit Fab announced their Raven and Nest fuel transportation and orbital fuel depot vehicles respectively, boasting a combined fueling capacity of roughly 200 kg. [source] * Dawn Aerospace announced their Loop Network consisting of a Space Utility Vehicle (SUV) and Orbital Propulsion Depot (OPD) offering to refuel satellites that have their 600 gram docking port installed. [source] * Terraspark raised €5.4M for space-to-earth solar power generation and transmission led by Daphni, Better Ventures, and the Hans(Wo)man Group. [source] * Vast and Cedars-Sinai partnered for a drug discovery and development project in Vast-Haven-1’s ExoBiosphere module in 2027. [source] * Rhea Space raised ~$6M for a deep space optical PNT solution using star tracker and geographic marker data to provide a fully ‘offline’ positioning, navigation, and timing product. [source] * Boeing and Millenium partnered to develop a new ‘mid-class’ micro-geo bus platform in the 2-4 kW power range titled ‘Resolute’. [source] * AST Spacemobile launched the Bluebird 7 aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn-3 mission and announced the decommission of the satellite in the same day after New Glenn-3 failed to deliver Bluebird 7 to the required orbit, leaving it stranded roughly 400 km below its target altitude at 150 km. [source] * Seagate Space and Oceaneering announced a partnership to build and deliver the Gateway sea launch platform to customers and clients with launch capacity available as early as 2027. [source] * Rocket Lab announced the Gauss electric thruster: a Hall Effect thruster designed from the ground up for high-volume manufacturing and a target unit production of 200 Gauss annually. [source] Defense * Northstar Space, the Canadian space-to-space situational awareness company announced their intention to enter the public market via SPAC. [source] * Citra Space raised a $15M Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners to further their object classification software playing in the SDA and RPO spaces. [source] * Turion Space raised a $75M Series B round led by Washington Harbour Partners to further scale their development and deployment of DROID spacecraft off the back of their Andromeda award for space-based SDA. [source] * MDA Space announced a new bus class that puts their Skymaker robotics arm on their existing Aurora bus for SDA and RPO capabilities titled: Midnight. [source] * Starfighters and Blackstar announced a new partnership for hypersonics testing. [source] * Kymeta won a three year contract with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to use mobile communication terminals. [source] * It was announced that the Space Defense Agency, Space Systems Command, and the Space Rapid Capabilities Office would all undergo a restructuring effort to bring them formally into the DoD in an effort to streamline procurement by allocating funding by program rather than department. [source] Orbital Data Centers * Aethero announced the intent to fly their 16,000 Terraflop radiation-hardened Blackwell computer on EnduroSat’s 3.2 kW Titan satellite. [source] * TakeMe2Space announced their latest raise targeting $55M of capital to develop 50kW buses for the Orbital Data Center market. [source] * Kepler announced an agreement to fly Sophia Space compute TILEs beginning in Q4 2026. [source] * Kepler awarded $30.1M to lead HydRON consortium using their on-orbit intersatellite link to test technologies. [source] * Archangel Lightworks raised a $13.5M+ Series A to further their space to ground mobile optical laser communication terminals. [source] * Taara announced an expansion to video distribution and intention to enter the ODC market leveraging their laser-communication network technology. [source] * Atomic-6 announced the development and release of their ODC.space marketplace - a new site that specs out three levels of ODC with standard and transparent pricing. [source] * Lonestar announced Starvault - a productized offering of their partnership with Sidus Space. [source] Business Moves * Amazon acquired Globalstar for $11.57B to incorporate D2D capabilities into Amazon LEO’s product offerings, and partner with Apple directly to service compatible Apple products in the future. [source] * Rocket Lab officially acquired Mynaric after almost 18 months of delay and deliberation for ~$153M in combined cash and stock with roughly 42M shares included in the deal. [source] * IonQ was awarded a contract through DARPA’s Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum program (HARQ) to develop architectures for networked quantum computers to conduct inter-qubit communication. [source] * Gomspace won a 5.5M Euro contract from Unseenlabs to deliver a follow-on shipment of Microsatellites by the end of 2027 as a continuation of their prior contract signed in December of 2024. [source] * PlanetIQ received a $15M USAF STRATFI to enhance satellite-based weather data over the next 4 years including the capture, aggregation, analysis, and processing of said data. [source] * Hawkeye 360 won a NASA contract for a LEO RF interference study leveraging their RFIQ data product to monitor and observe Spectrum usage to establish and promote responsible, safe, space-based communication practices. [source] * X-energy announced their intent to go public targeting a $7.5B valuation IPO to raise $814M by selling 42 million shares. [source] * Global X Management launched their own ETF ‘ORBX’, a passive fund with a 0.5% management ratio that focuses purely on companies who earn over 50% of their revenues from the space industry. [source] * Congress has reauthorized the SBIR program with a few strings attached intended to provide more diligence on the potential national security implications of the applicants as well as to reduce the prominence of SBIR mills. [source] Tech Advances * Opterus won a $10.2M NASA contract to develop a carbon-based solar sail that can capture laser energy from the ground. [source] * Vast unveiled their astronaut flight suit for intra-vehicle activity. [source] * SBQuantum unveiled a $4M seed to develop a diamond quantum magnetometer which first launched with Spire earlier this year. [source] * The Canadian Strategic Missions Corporation was awarded $400K in the Aqualunar Challenge to create drinkable water from lunar deposits. [source] * The Cold Atom Lab received an updated module last week to improve its ability to chill an atom cloud to 1/10 billionth of a degree above absolute zero to observe atomic wave functions. [source] * NASA announced their desire to seek a TDRSS replacement for sub-GEO spacecraft to be demoed by mid-2028. [source] * NASA announced a partnership with the Office of Personnel Management to use Tech Force to acquire talent for NASA through the NASA Force for technical experts on 1-2 year contracts. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 29m
  4. Weekly Recap #29 + Azora Space Interview

    APR 13

    Weekly Recap #29 + Azora Space Interview

    Main Topics Human Spaceflight * NASA’s Artemis II returned home! After a successful 10 day journey around the Moon, the Integrity capsule carrying four astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen safely splashed down in the pacific. [source] * Azora Space used their 7cm aperture mobile optical communications terminal to receive a signal from Orion’s laser communication system O2O, setting a commercial distance record of 240,000 miles. [source] * Virgin Galactic announced their return to flight with their new Delta spacecraft following the retirement of Unity two years ago. Ticket prices are now raised from $600K to $750K. [source] Spacecraft * 4iG signed a contract with Northrop Grumman for HUGEO, Hungary’s first GEO communications satellite, and an MOU with Apex to jointly develop 8 EO & SAR satellites. [source] * Apex announced two new high power spacecraft buses that are variants of their Comet bus; Comet Mini will be a 20kW bus, and Comet XL a 100kW bus. [source] * Vantor unveiled two new satellites: Vantage and Pulse. Both are expansions of the platform used for WorldView Legion, with Vantage providing 20cm resolution imaging and Pulse providing 40cm resolution. [Source] * Albedo announced a new VLEO bus Vicinity, providing a platform that can operate at 300km altitude available in 2027. [source] * Spacety raised $190M for Chinese satellite manufacturing and servicing product offerings, and announced plans for an IPO. [source] * Endurosat and Shield Space announced their partnership to develop Broadsword, a demonstration mission for project NEXUS that uses a mothership-style spacecraft to host multiple interception and RPO vehicles for rapid on-orbit deployment. [source] Defense * The US Department of Defense awarded $1.8B in IDIQs for their Andromeda space domain awareness program to 14 companies amongst 32 competitors. [source] * Lockheed Martin won a $105M contract from the USSF to develop a GPS operational control system under the Architecture Evolution Plan. [source] * Capella was awarded a $48.9M contract under Space Development Agency’s HALO Europa Track 1 program to demonstrate advanced tactical space communications in low Earth orbit. [source] Business Moves * Xoople came out of stealth with a $130M Series B led by Nazca Capital to map the Earth for AI, and announced their partnership with USSF and L3 Harris to develop optical payloads. [source] * Starfish Space closed a $100M+ Series B led by Point72 Ventures to scale their Otter manufacturing capabilities and execute on contracts with NASA, USSF, SES, and others. [source] * PLD Space received a €30M debt investment from the European Investment Bank to help deliver their inaugural MUIRA-5 launch vehicle later this year. [source] * Portal Space Systems raised a $50M Series A led by Geodesic Capital and Mach33 to continue development and manufacturing of their highly mobile solar thermal propelled spacecraft. [source] * Hawkeye360 filed for their IPO to fund debt repayments and future acquisitions. [source] Tech Advances * IEEE published a paper on their prototype of over-the-air computation which utilizes radio frequency interference to perform calculations that reduce the need for node computation for operations such as AI and sensor fusion. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 21m
  5. Weekly Recap #28 + Paladin Space Interview

    APR 6

    Weekly Recap #28 + Paladin Space Interview

    Main Topics On-Orbit * LeoLabs detected a Starlink destructive anomaly creating tens of debris at 560km altitude. [source] * Amazon is in discussions to buy Globalstar for $9B to acquire their 48 satellites, 24 ground stations, L & S band spectrum rights, and partnership with Apple. [source] * Delta Airlines selected Amazon LEO to provide in-flight connectivity for 500 planes in 2028. [source] * SpaceX filed a request with the FCC to add two additional radio frequency bands — 13.75 to 14.0GHz and 14.5 to 14.8GHz — across its satellite internet hardware lineup. [source] * Raytheon gained $45.3M to their OCX contract with the USAF to further their development of a GPS ground-system despite delays in its delivery. [source] * Wyvern secured $3M under Canadian Regional Development Investment to develop defense maritime ISR capabilities.[source] Launch * Artemis II launched a 10 day mission taking humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972! [source] * SpaceX TR-16 launched 119 payloads, including the first Gravitas spacecraft from K2 Space, a return to flight for Momentus Vigoride-7, and the sixth flight for Varda testing new heat shield technology. [source] * CAS Space Kinetica 2 successfully made it to orbit in its debut launch and deployed the Qingzhou cargo capsule. [source] * Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 rocket suffered a failure during the transition from first to second stage. [source] * ESA launched their first Celeste satellite to serve as a LEO PNT augmentation to their Galileo GPS capability. [source] * ULA’s Atlas 5 launched 29 Amazon Leo satellites, an increase over the 27 satellites per launch they’ve carried previously. [source] Advanced Systems * Phantom Space bought Thermal Management Technologies to acquire their capabilities for the development of their Phantom Cloud project for Orbital Data Centers. [source] * Redwire awarded a contract to deliver Hammerhead spacecraft for Europe’s QKDSat consortium to deploy quantum key distribution capability. [source] * Aspect Aerospace raised $2.4M to develop their VLEO swarm architecture that deploys hundreds of sensors to monitor regions on Earth on demand. [source] * Gravitics received a STRATFI from SpaceWERX worth up to $60M to deploy their Viper OTX into LEO and high energy orbit for rapid deployment of space assets for USSF. [source] * Dispatch emerged from stealth with $500K to develop their unmanned manufacturing hubs on orbit and complimentary re-entry vehicles. [source] * Icarus Robotics contracted Voyager for mission management of their free-flying robot onboard the ISS. [source] Business Moves * SpaceX filed for IPO to raise $75B at a $1.75T valuation. [source] * Rocket Lab got German approval for their Mynaric acquisition that’s been in limbo for almost a year now. [source] * Vantor won their third National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency contract for non-Earth imaging of space assets. [source] * NASA selected SFL to develop 8 solar weather satellites for the Helioswarm mission to track solar weather and wind. [source] * Kepler granted $7M from Canadian Federal Economic Development Agency to accelerate development following the successful deployment of the first tranche of 10 satellites earlier this year. [source] * Antaris raised a $28M Series A led by Westwave Capital to develop their digital twin technology for satellite mission management. [source] * Advanced Navigation raised a $110M Series C led by Airtree Ventures to develop their resilient PNT solution for GPS denied environments. [source] Tech Advances NASA Artemis II’s O2O system is demonstrating lunar to Earth optical communications enabling the live video calls we’re all enjoying during this mission! [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 15m
  6. Weekly Recap #27

    MAR 30

    Weekly Recap #27

    Main Topics Spacecraft * Katalyst selected Arianespace to fly its RPO GEO spacecraft NEXUS-1 in 2027 to service a defense satellite and potentially commercial customers. [source] * Symphony Space debuted their Adagio platform, a persistent on-orbit modular multi-mission payload platform. [source] * Starfish Space announced a new partner for their Otter Pup 2 RPO target after the original RPO target pulled out of the contract in late 2025. [source] * ORiS announced their involvement as the payload provider for the Araqys-D3 mission to test orbital-based power generation and laser-based power transmission. [source] * Moog selected Redwire to provide the solar arrays for their Meteor spacecraft with a $12.8M ELSA-M contract. [source] * Endurosat and MetaSensing partnered to fly Metasensing’s SAR payload on Endursat’s FRAME bus to provide a European sovereign SAR satellite. [source] * There are rumors that Rocket Lab will be the bus provider for Equatys’ 2,800 satellite D2D constellation for the Middle East. [source] Money Money Money * Rocket Lab entered an equity distribution agreement that allows it to offer and sell up to $1,000,000,000 of common stock. [source] * Starcloud raised a $170M Series A at a $1.1B valuation led by Benchmark Capital to fund the design of Starcloud-3 and establish Starcloud’s initial manufacturing facility. [source] * Aetherflux announced they’re raising a $250-350M Series B at a $2B valuation led by Index Venture Fund to develop Orbital Data Centers while continuing to develop space solar power. [source] * Xona raised a $170M Series C led by Mohari Ventures to accelerate the deployment of their Pulsar platform for next generation PNT, and scale their manufacturing. [source] * NASA awarded Intuitive Machines $180.4M under CLPS’ fifth award to develop and launch the Intuitive Machines 5th mission using Nova-D lander to host a variety of scientific instruments on the Moon. [source] * Arinna raised a $4m seed round to develop ultrathin solar cells based on new material transition metal dichalcogenides to provide 32% more efficient cells with longer lifetimes and quicker manufacturing cycle times. [source] * Arkadia space received €14.5M and the European innovation council stamp of approval to develop green, hydrogen peroxide chemical propulsion solutions for space. [source] * Bellatrix Aerospace raised $20M in a pre-series B round led by Cactus Partners to scale production of in-space propulsion for India to meet the growing constellation demands of propulsion solutions. [source] * Airmo raised a €5M seed round to launch shortwave infrared and micro-LIDAR payloads for methane monitoring onboard EnduroSat’s bus. [source] * Space Cargo Unlimited received €12.5M from the European Innovation Council Accelerator to develop their BentoBox for in-orbit manufacturing. [source] * Pave Space raised a $40M seed led by Visionaries Club and Creandum to build heavy kickstages with the LYOBA and IBEX vehicles scheduled for heavy lift and high-mobility respectively, and the GRAZE mission scheduled this year to test their avionics stack. [source] * Cislunar Industries closed an oversubscribed seed round of $2.6M led by Colorado ONE Fund to develop high voltage power supplies with power ratings of up to 10kW. [source] * Airbase exited stealth with $5M from Founders You Should Know, Squadra Ventures, and Andreeson Horowitz to execute on their federal contract for the automation and maintenance of spectrum coordination and using AI to process fragmented data. [source] * Constellation Space closed a $5.5M seed round to develop an operating system to manage satellite constellations. [source] * China’s Astronstone raised $29M for reusable medium-lift rocket with grabber stand launch structure ahead of their inaugural launch in 2027. [source] Communications * Swissto12 signed a contract to build an optical relay between GEO and LEO using their HummingSat platform for Space Compass. [source] * Hawkeye 360 signed a $75M contract with the EU Ministry of Defense electronic warfare program to provide subscriptions for Hawkeye’s Air Defense and GPS Interference monitoring services. [source] * SeS chose K2 Space for 28 satellites for their meoSphere MEO constellation planning to go up and start operating in 2030 while being expanded upon thereafter.[source] * Open Cosmos announced the addition of IoT connectivity to their Connected Cosmos constellation of optically interconnected imaging satellites. [source] * Contrivian announced their new Constellation product line that allows users to seamlessly access optimal communication constellations including Starlink and Amazon Leo satellite sources from a single terminal while seamlessly optimizing the connection between the different network providers. [source] * Kymeta announced their new Kestrel u5 mobile ground terminal that can communicate with both LEO and GEO assets at multiple wavelengths and frequencies from a single metamaterial based terminal. [source] * Kongsberg unveiled their sovereign LEO comms architecture using SpinLaunch’s Meridian satellite, with first tests onboard Transporter-18. [source] * Gomspace joined the LUNA consortium to build a low-loss multiband antenna with high gain and mechanical beam steering over the course of the three-year project. [source] Business Moves * SpaceX and Blue Origin are fighting over FCC spectrum contracts, satellite reservations, and more as the litigation and complaints escalate from formal complaints with minimal consequences to the potential loss and revocation of an already awarded spectrum license. [source] Tech Advances * NASA halted work on the Lunar Gateway program to focus instead on establishing and maintaining Lunar bases. [source] * Canadian startup SBQuantum announced plans to send a quantum diamond magnetometer to LEO aboard a Spire Global satellite to measure Earth’s magnetic field and provide improved magnetometer guidance.. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 32m
  7. Weekly Recap #26

    MAR 23

    Weekly Recap #26

    Main Topics Orbital Data Centers * Nvidia announced their new Vera Rubin chipset, upgrades to Thor and Orin chips to optimize inference per watt, and partnerships with Aetherflux, Axiom Space, Kepler Communications, Planet Labs, Sophia Space and Starcloud. [source] * Starcloud filed to launch 88,000 satellites for their orbital data centers. [source] * Blue Origin filed Project Sunrise to launch 51,600 orbital data centers. [source] Earth Applications * Lynk Global has filed with the FCC for an experimental license to begin technical validation of a multi-orbit relay architecture. [source] * Officina Stellare has signed a €1.84M contract with the Barcelona-based Institute of Photonic Sciences to design and build an optical ground station for future laser and quantum-encrypted space-to-Earth communications. [source] * Raytheon’s contract to build protected satcom terminals contract was raised by $2B. [source] * ESA awarded OHB Sweden a contract to build 20 small satellites for the EUMETSAT Polar System – Sterna. AAC Omnisys will provide the mission’s microwave radiometers. [source] * Defence Investment Agency awarded MDA Space a $32M contract to build and operate three ground-based optical observatories for the Surveillance of Space 2 project. [source] * GomSpace announced its selection as a key industrial partner in a €15.7M research contract awarded by the European Defence Agency under the VLEO-DEF consortium, which aims to develop Europe’s first dedicated military satellite concept for Very Low Earth Orbit. [source] * Satellogic unveiled their Merlin constellation for daily monitoring at 1 meter resolution. [source] Rockets * Under the Launch the North program, Reaction Dynamics was awarded an initial $8.3M tranche under Phase 1 of the Responsive Light-Lift stream, supporting the company’s development roadmap for a maiden orbital launch in 2028. [source] * Rocket Lab won a $190M contract for 20 new HASTE launches for the Department of War to accelerate hypersonics testing. [source] * USSF awarded $446.8M to Kratos for MEO missile tracking ground segment. [source] * ISAR won a contract to launch Astroscale’s ELSA-M. [source] * The launch of GPS-III SV-10 was shifted from ULA to Space-X due to the ongoing Vulcan investigation. [source] * Rocket Lab launched the eighth Strix satellite for Synspective. [source] Business Moves * MDA Space listed on the NYSE after making a total of 9,836,065 Common Shares available at US$30.50 raising $300M in its IPO. [source] * ReOrbit sold two Silta small GEO satellites to Space Leasing International for €150M. [source]. * York Space announced the finalization of a $187M contract for a 20+ commercial constellation based on their M-class bus. [source] * Satellite manufacturer Apex won a contract from NEC to provide a spacecraft bus for a technology demonstration mission. [source] Tech Advances * Portal Space Systems partners with Paladin Space to provide debris-removal-as-a-service. [source] * Frontier Space was awarded funding from the UK Space Agency for project BRIDGE to develop biopharma with The Exploration Company. [source] * Transastra announced their plan to bring an asteroid to Earth for mining research. [source] Get full access to Space Times Substack at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 8m
  8. Weekly Recap #25

    MAR 16

    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
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Space Times
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    34
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Harrison Lambert
  • Show Website
    Space Times