By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Dawn Aerospace and Katalyst Space raise funding, challenges for Europe's Copernicus Earth observation system, a Chinese launch overnight may have failed and more.
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Top Stories
Dawn Aerospace has raised $25 million to scale up work in in-space mobility and suborbital spaceplanes. The company announced Tuesday it closed a Series B round led by Balerion Space Ventures, with participation from several new and existing investors. The company, with operations in New Zealand and the Netherlands, currently sells satellite thrusters, but is working on an in-space refueling system called Loop. It is also developing Aurora, a suborbital spaceplane that has flown at supersonic speeds. A version capable of going to 100 kilometers altitude is set to fly starting next year. [SpaceNews]
Satellite servicing startup Katalyst Space Technologies has raised $12 million. The company said Tuesday it closed a funding round led by Geodesic Capital with participation from Fortitude Ventures and other investors. The funds will support work on a satellite servicing demonstration mission called Nexus-1 set to launch next year to geostationary orbit. The company is also preparing to launch Link, a mission that will attempt to raise the orbit of NASA's Swift astrophysics satellite in low Earth orbit. [SpaceNews]
Two French companies are joining forces on a LEO collision avoidance service. Space surveillance venture Look Up plans to use Skynopy's ground station network to help automate that service. Skynopy will demonstrate integration of ground sites with ATLAS², a service Europe is co-funding to enable satellites to respond in near real time after Look Up's terrestrial radars detect a collision threat. The partnership focuses on the command-and-control link needed to move satellites after Look Up detects a threat with its SORASYS radars. [SpaceNews]
Switzerland's decision not to contribute to Europe's Copernicus Earth observation system raises questions about that system's free imagery model. The Swiss Federal Council said earlier this month it would not provide funding for Copernicus in the European Union's 2028–2034 funding cycle, citing financial strains as a factor in the decision. Most Copernicus data is freely available to users worldwide, although some services are limited to EU members and other participating countries. Some argue that, for countries outside the EU, the free data is sufficient, giving them little reason to provide funding, especially when there are limited opportunities for outside countries to win contracts to develop satellites for the system. [SpaceNews]
Astrobotic unveiled its next lunar lander mission this week. The company says it has completed its Griffin-1 lander, which will soon be shipped to JPL for environmental testing. The lander is scheduled to launch on a Falcon Heavy in the fourth quarter of this year, delivering Astrolab's FLIP robotic rover and other payloads to the lunar south pole region. This is the company's second lunar lander mission; its first, Peregine, malfunctioned shortly after launch in January 2024 and could not attempt a landing. Astrobotic says it has corrected the propulsion system issues from Peregrine and also welcomed additional support by NASA for Griffin-1, which the agency designated "Moon Base 2" last month. [SpaceNews]
PiLogic, a startup developing artificial intelligence software to identify faults and predict failures in satellites, will work with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) on its technology. PiLogic said it signed a two-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, focused on spacecraft electrical and power systems. Engineers will use an AFRL cubesat experiment launched in 2022 through the Defense Department's Space Test Program as a platform to evaluate PiLogic's software. The company's software is designed to analyze onboard sensor data, detect anomalies, predict potential failure modes and recommend corrective actions as an alternative to traditional monitoring systems. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
China conducted three launches on Tuesday, but one may have been unsuccessful. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 5:45 a.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, placing into orbit the Shijian-31 satellite. Chinese media said the satellite will be used for "space environment detection" but the Shijian series of satellites have been used for technology demonstrations and military applications. In addition, a Long March 12 rocket lifted off from the Wenchang spaceport at 10:44 p.m. Eastern, putting into orbit nine satellites for the Guowang constellation. Finally, a Kuaizhou-11 lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:40 p.m. Eastern, but there have been no updates on the mission since the launch. That has prompted concerns that the launch of the small solid-fueled rocket may have failed. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX launched three satellites for AST SpaceMobile early Wednesday. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:39 a.m. Eastern. The rocket deployed into low Earth orbit AST's BlueBird 8, 9 and 10 satellites, which provide broadband direct-to-device (D2D) services. AST is relying on SpaceX, a competitor in D2D services, to launch its satellites because Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is out of service until at least the end of this year. [Space.com]
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station. The CRS-34 Dragon spacecraft undocked from the station at 12:24 p.m. Eastern Tuesday after a short delay linked to a navigation sensor issue. The spacecraft reentered and splashed down off the California coast at about 8:10 a.m. Eastern this morning. The spacecraft, which spent about a month at the ISS, returned with scientific equipment and station hardware. [NASA]
Canadian launch Startup NordSpace opened a new factory. The 60,000-square-foot facility in the Toronto suburb of Markham, Ontario, will be devoted to production of the company's planned small launch vehicles and space systems. The company says the factory will be able to produce two of its planned Tundra rockets at once, or one larger Tundra+ rocket. NordSpace has yet to attempt an orbital launch but is planning to launch its Taiga sounding rocket later this year. [SpaceQ]
Tuesday marked the end of an era for a historic Vandenberg launch site. The Space Force performed a controlled demolition of several large structures at Space Launch Complex 6, including its Mobile Service Tower and Fixed Umbilical Tower. Some of the facilities dated back to the 1960s and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program that was canceled, as well as plans in the 1980s to launch the Space Shuttle from the site. United Launch Alliance later used the site for the Delta 4. The demolition will allow SpaceX to convert the site for use by Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. [U.S. Space Force]
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Who, Me?
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"You are what you eat, right? We know that there's much more lithium in planetary material than there is in stars. So if a star eats a planet, it's going to take on a bunch of lithium."
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– Brooke Kotten, an astronomer at the University of Michigan, discussing research that found that a star likely consumed one of the planets that had been orbiting it. The press release announcing the discovery was titled, "You just ate that planet, didn't you?"
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Join us for our next conversation on Golden Dome: Much of the Golden Dome system will depend on space-based and ground-based sensors — an evolving network meant to detect launches, follow hypersonic weapons and monitor activity across Earth and orbit. On June 25, join us as leaders from Arcfield, L3Harris and LeoLabs discuss these technologies, what’s necessary to make them operate at a high level and what possibilities could be in the works for the satellites involved. Register now. |
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