Correction: Additional news items
Due to a production error, we omitted the Other News items in today's First Up. We are resending the newsletter to ensure you have all the latest updates. Thank you for your understanding and continued readership. | | Top Stories
Europe needs to do a better job providing capital to space startups, an investor warned. A recent study by the European Space Policy Institute found that while the number of investment deals in space companies in Europe was not far behind the United States, American companies raised several times more money. Bogdan Gogulan, CEO of Luxembourg-based private equity firm NewSpace Capital, said that makes it more difficult for European space startups to scale, forcing them to look outside Europe for growth capital. He called on Europe's largest financial asset managers and pension funds to allocate funding to the space industry. [SpaceNews]
South Korean launch startup Innospace went public Tuesday but its shares failed to lift off. In its first day of trading on the KOSDAQ exchange, shares in Innospace fell 20%. The company sold shares at 43,300 won ($31.18), raising $41.5 million. The company is developing a line of small launch vehicles that use hybrid rocket engines propelled by paraffin and liquid oxygen. Innospace has yet to attempt an orbital launch but had what it called a successful suborbital test flight in March 2023. [SpaceNews]
Orbit Fab has successfully tested a nozzle designed to enable in-space satellite refueling. The company tested its GRIP (Grapple, Reposition, and Interface Payload) nozzle at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, showing its ability to dock with a satellite equipped with the company's refueling port, called RAFTI. GRIP's active docking and fluid transfer mechanism is designed to work in tandem with RAFTI, which replaces traditional fill and drain valves on satellite propulsion systems and provides a simpler approach to satellite refueling than those that require robotic arms. The successful test comes as Orbit Fab positions itself in what appears to be a two-horse race with defense giant Northrop Grumman to capture the emerging military satellite refueling market. [SpaceNews]
Turion Space has won a Space Force contract to develop an autonomous spacecraft docking and maneuvering system. The $1.9 million contract from SpaceWERX, the Space Force's technology arm, will allow Turion to advance technologies for engaging uncooperative space objects and facilitating the deorbit of inactive satellites. A test mission scheduled for as soon as 2026 will fly one of the company's Droid satellites hosting "micro-Droid" satellites equipped with the capturing device. The micro-Droid, partly funded by NASA, will use grapplers to capture debris objects. The company has a long-term goal of removing space debris as a service, but is focused in the near term on space domain awareness applications. [SpaceNews]
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| Other News A problem with ground equipment forced Firefly Aerospace to scrub an Alpha launch overnight. The company halted the countdown for the 12:03 a.m. Eastern launch seconds before scheduled liftoff because of what the company called a "ground support issue." Firefly recycled the countdown to attempt a liftoff 30 minutes later, at the end of the window, but halted the countdown about 10 minutes before the new liftoff time. Firefly says it's working to attempt another launch as soon as tonight. The "Noise of Summer" mission carries eight NASA-sponsored cubesats under a NASA Venture Class Launch Services Demo 2 contract. [Spaceflight Now]
Chinese astronauts are preparing for another spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station. Chinese media reported Tuesday that the spacewalk is scheduled for the "next few days" but was not more specific; such notices usually mean spacewalk will take place within a day or two. The China Manned Space Agency did not disclose which astronauts will perform the spacewalk or their planned tasks. [Xinhua]
A crowdfunded radar imaging satellite is supporting the Ukrainian military in its war against Russia. A crowdfunding effort in the early days of the war raised $20 million originally intended to buy drones, but when those drones were instead gifted to Ukraine, the funds went to buy an Iceye synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite and access to the company's database of SAR imagery. The Ukrainian military says the satellite has been very useful in helping it identify Russian military targets, from tanks to ships, in any weather or lighting conditions. [Politico]
A NASA astronomy spacecraft repurposed into an asteroid search mission is being retired. NASA said Monday that the NEOWISE mission will conclude at the end of the month, with the spacecraft put into hibernation. The spacecraft launched as the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in 2009 and concluded its astronomical survey mission in 2011. NASA reactivated the spacecraft in 2013 as NEOWISE with a new mission to look for near Earth asteroids, using different observing techniques to keep its infrared detectors cool after running out of coolant. NEOWISE has discovered 215 near Earth objects, of which 25 are comets. NASA is ending the mission as the spacecraft's orbit is decaying, with reentry projected late this year or early next year. Its successor, NEO Surveyor, is planned to launch in 2027. [NASA/JPL]
| |  | Where Launches Are Heard, Not Seen
"The best thing to do is to keep your ears open and your eyes on the rocket, I guess, but it's Vandenberg."
– John Galloway, one of the hosts of the webcast of Firefly Aerospace's attempted launch of its Alpha rocket on a very foggy Monday night at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
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