| Rocket Lab says its acquisition of a payload developer is part of the company's efforts to become a defense prime contractor. Rocket Lab announced this week it signed an agreement to acquire Geost, which makes optical and infrared imaging payloads for satellites, for $275 million. In an interview, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said the acquisition is part of a strategy to become a "disruptive, nontraditional prime," a full-spectrum defense contractor capable of building and deploying entire satellite systems for military customers. Beck said Rocket Lab is pitching agility, vertical integration and manufacturing speed as its competitive edge, and hinted that the company is considering additional acquisitions, possibly in satellite propulsion. [SpaceNews]
Northrop Grumman is investing $50 million in Firefly Aerospace to support development of a launch vehicle with a new name. The companies announced the investment, which Firefly said is added to a $175 million Series D round the company closed last November. The funding is earmarked for work on a vehicle previously called MLV and now renamed Eclipse, capable of placing more than 16 metric tons into orbit. Firefly said it is particularly interested in pursuing national security missions for Eclipse as part of the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program. The first Eclipse launch is scheduled for no earlier than next year. Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said at an investment conference this week that the company saw launch as a growth opportunity, contrasting it with diminished opportunities at NASA given budget cuts. [SpaceNews]
Maxar Intelligence has appointed longtime technology executive Todd Surdey to lead its commercial operations. Surdey takes on the role of senior vice president and general manager of Maxar's enterprise business segment, which supplies geospatial data and analytics to sectors including consumer mapping, energy, automotive and telecommunications. Surdey has worked for a variety of technology companies but is a newcomer to the geospatial intelligence field. The appointment reflects broader industry trends as satellite imagery companies seek to monetize their data assets through software-based solutions rather than relying solely on raw imagery sales. [SpaceNews]
A new report says China's efforts to dominate in artificial intelligence extend to space. The report, released Thursday by the Special Competitive Studies Project and the intelligence firm Strider Technologies, describes a sweeping, state-led initiative to build out the physical backbone of AI dominance: massive data centers across the country, with plans that now stretch beyond Earth's atmosphere. Beijing is exploring the use of satellites equipped to function like data centers, capable of storing, processing and analyzing information in space. Earlier this month, the Chinese startup ADA Space and Zhejiang Lab launched the first 12 satellites of a planned supercomputing network of 2,800, with the goal of moving AI processing into space. [SpaceNews]
Another Chinese launch startup is taking a page from SpaceX's playbook. Astronstone announced Thursday that it raised more than 100 million yuan ($14 million) in early-stage funding for its AS-1 (Astronstone-1) stainless steel, methane-liquid oxygen reusable launch vehicle. The company says it is "fully aligning its technical approach with Elon Musk's SpaceX," including SpaceX's approach for Starship of using mechanical arms, or "chopsticks," to catch the vehicle back at the launch site. AS-1 is smaller in scale than Starship, designed to place 10,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit when reused and 15,700 kilograms when the vehicle is expended. Astronstone says in the coming months it will focus on carrying out a second-stage rocket assembly test, a static fire test and a full-scale chopstick prototype ground test. [SpaceNews]
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