 | Top Stories
Satellite manufacturer Apex has raised $95 million to accelerate production of larger buses. The company announced the Series B round Wednesday, led by XYZ Venture Capital, an early investor in Apex, and co-led by CRV, a new investor. The company says the funding will allow it to ramp up production of its Aries satellite bus, the first of which it launched in March, and advance the development of a larger bus, Nova. The company says it is seeing growing interest in Nova, particularly from government agencies and defense primes. [SpaceNews]
The Pentagon wants to buy more than 100 Starshield spacecraft from SpaceX to provide broadband communications. Those satellites would be militarized versions of Starlink satellites that would be owned and controlled by the government. Col. Eric Felt, director of space architecture at the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said at a conference this week that the goal is to acquire more than 100 Starshield satellites by 2029, pending appropriations. He said that while the military is currently using Starlink services, Starshield would provide better cybersecurity. [SpaceNews]
Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has an additional, albeit small, helium leak. NASA confirmed Tuesday that engineers detected a fifth helium leak in the spacecraft's propulsion system hours after the spacecraft docked with the International Space Station last Thursday. Officials had previously said there were four helium leaks, one of which had been detected weeks before launch and the other three after liftoff. The agency said that the spacecraft has more than enough helium to support the spacecraft's undocking and return to Earth. That undocking had been planned for as soon as Friday, but NASA has delayed it to no earlier than June 18 to avoid conflicting with an ISS spacewalk scheduled for Thursday. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab has lined up nearly $50 million in state and federal funding to support expansion of a factory that produces solar cells. The company announced Tuesday it had a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms with the Commerce Department for up to $23.9 million in CHIPS Act funding, along with $25.5 million in financial assistance and incentives from the state of New Mexico. That funding, along with an investment of more than $70 million from Rocket Lab, would be used to expand an Albuquerque factory that produces space-grade solar cells, increasing its production rate by 50%. That factory had belonged to SolAero Technologies, which Rocket Lab acquired in 2022 as part of an effort by Rocket Lab to diversify from launch vehicles into space systems. [SpaceNews]
The new CEO of smallsat manufacturer Konsberg NanoAvionics wants to expand the company's business with government agencies. The company selected Atle Wøllo as CEO on Monday, replacing Žilvinas Kvedaravičius, who had been interim CEO following the departure of co-founder Vytenis Buzas last year. Wøllo, who spent three decades at Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, which acquired NanoAvionics in 2022, said he wants to bring in more government business to the company. About 80% of Konsberg NanoAvionics' business is commercial today, but Wøllo said prime government missions with potentially larger contracts are becoming an increasingly lucrative growth area for the company. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News
Defense contractor Anduril Industries has won a $19 million contract to develop motors for Navy missiles. Under the contract, Anduril will develop a high-performance second-stage motor for the Standard Missile 6, a surface-to-air missile used to intercept aircraft and ballistic missiles. Anduril, a defense contractor known for its use of robotics and artificial intelligence in military drones, has set its sights on becoming a major supplier of solid rocket motors to the Pentagon. [SpaceNews]
A new report claims that Elon Musk had showed an "unusual amount of attention," including affairs, with female SpaceX employees. One employee had an affair with Musk while she was an intern, later returning to the company to be on Musk's executive staff. Another had a month-long relationship with Musk that ended badly. Musk did not comment on the allegations in the article but SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell called them "untruths, mischaracterizations, and revisionist history" that create "a completely misleading narrative." [Wall Street Journal]
Commercial space station developer Vast has signed an agreement with The Exploration Company. Under the agreement, The Exploration Company will provide cargo services to Vast's second commercial space station using its Nyx vehicle in 2028. The Exploration Company won an ESA contract last month to support development of Nyx for commercial cargo services to the ISS and future commercial space stations. [Vast]
NASA has awarded three concept studies for a space weather mission. The agency said Tuesday it selected proposals led by two different researchers at the University of Colorado and a third from Virginia Tech for the Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (DYNAMIC) mission. That mission, recommended by the previous heliospheric decadal survey, would use multiple spacecraft to study the Earth's upper atmosphere and how space weather phenomena there can affect spacecraft. Each team will receive $2 million to conduct a nine-month concept study for DYNAMIC. [NASA]
Ed Stone, former director of JPL and longtime project scientist for the Voyager mission, has died. JPL announced Tuesday that Stone passed away two days earlier at the age of 88. Stone, a Caltech professor, became project scientist for the Voyager mission in 1972 and held that position until his retirement 50 years later. In that role, he managed the science from the two Voyager spacecraft as they traveled through the outer solar system and into interstellar space. He also served as director of JPL from 1991 to 2001. [NASA/JPL]
| |  | Extended Mission
"So, I know they've got a target for y'all to come home, but do you want us to try to delay it a while so you can have some more time?"
"Sen. Nelson, I think you know, talking to astronauts as you do from time to time, every astronaut looks forward to being in space and is not looking forward to coming home for many reasons. Eventually, obviously, it's time to come home — we all know that — but yeah, a little more time would be great."
– NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and astronaut Butch Wilmore during a call Monday to discuss the Starliner test flight to the ISS that Wilmore and Suni Williams are on.
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