| By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: orbital data center startups raise big rounds, Artemis 2 on track for a Wednesday launch, ESA crafts post-Gateway plans, and more.
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| | | | | | Top Stories
Orbital data center startup Starcloud has raised $170 million. The company announced the Series A round Monday, giving the company a $1.1 billion valuation. Starcloud says it is the fastest company in the history of accelerator Y Combinator to reach "unicorn" status, or a private company valued at more than $1 billion. Starcloud plans to use the funding to scale production of Starcloud-3, a three-ton spacecraft that marks a significant increase from the 60-kilogram Starcloud-1 that launched in November and the 450-kilogram Starcloud-2 slated to fly later this year. Those satellites would launch about 50 at a time on SpaceX Starship vehicles. Starcloud is positioning itself as an orbital data center infrastructure provider. Customers would be able to install their own computing hardware and services, similar to leasing capacity in terrestrial data centers. [SpaceNews]
Aetherflux, a startup working on space-based solar power and orbital data center technologies, is preparing to raise a major funding round. The company is seeking to raise between $250 million and $300 million at a valuation of $2 billion. The company was founded to develop space-based solar power systems that would beam power to Earth from space using lasers, but more recently has studied leveraging that technology for orbital data centers. [Wall Street Journal]
Preparations for the launch of Artemis 2 are entering their final phases. The four Artemis 2 astronauts arrived at the Kennedy Space Center Friday ahead of a launch scheduled for Wednesday evening. NASA officials said at a briefing Sunday that they are not dealing with any major issues with the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, or ground systems. There is an 80% chance of acceptable weather for a Wednesday launch during a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. Eastern. [SpaceNews]
The European Space Agency expects to decide by June how to respond to NASA's plans to cancel the lunar Gateway. In an interview, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said ESA will see if the components it was developing for the Gateway can be repurposed in some way. It also plans to work with the other non-NASA Gateway partners in Canada, Japan and the UAE. He said he expects to present a plan forward at an ESA Council meeting in June. [SpaceNews]
Starfish Space is changing course after the original partner for a docking demonstration mission backed out. Starfish launched its Otter Pup 2 mission in June with the intent of approaching and docking with an ION spacecraft from D-Orbit. However, Starfish said last week that its partner ended cooperation for reasons beyond Starfish's control and that it found a new, undisclosed partner to attempt a docking. D-Orbit declined to comment on its decision, citing a non-disclosure agreement between the companies. Otter Pup 2 is designed to test technologies Starfish intends to use on future servicing spacecraft. [SpaceNews]
India's Bellatrix Aerospace raised $20 million to ramp up production of spacecraft propulsion systems. Indian venture capital firm Cactus Partners led the pre-Series B funding round, which Bellatrix said will help it shift to large-scale manufacturing of its electric and chemical propulsion systems. Founded in 2015, Bellatrix has already supported several missions for India's space agency with its electric Hall-effect thruster and a propulsion system that uses a less-toxic alternative to hydrazine. Bellatrix announced plans last year for a U.S. manufacturing facility to support domestic supply chain needs for customers in the country. [SpaceNews]
| | | | | | Other News
Rocket Lab launched a pair of navigation technology demonstration satellites for ESA on Saturday. An Electron lifted off from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 5:14 a.m. Eastern for ESA's Celeste program. The rocket carried two smallsats, one built by GMV and the other by Thales Alenia Space, that will test technologies for future low Earth orbit navigation satellite constellations. [Rocket Lab]
While Artemis 2 is a test flight, there will also be some science on the trip around the moon. The nearly 10-day mission will include observations of the moon during its closest approach, which scientists say can provide value even with much sharper images available from robotic spacecraft. There will also be some life sciences and related research on the mission, such as "organs on a chip" using cells from the four astronauts to study effects from radiation exposure. [SpaceNews]
NASA wants to increase both the cadence and the reliability of future lander missions. At last week's "Ignition" event, agency officials discussed the desire to significantly increase the pace of robotic lander missions, including 21 landings between 2026 and 2028. That will leverage the CLPS program of commercial landers, which has a mixed record of success so far. NASA plans to give companies greater access to agency expertise to improve their landers and increase their success rate. NASA also announced last week the latest CLPS task order, a $180.4 million award to Intuitive Machines for a mission to the south polar region in 2030. That lander, using a new, larger design by the company, will carry several instruments and two small rovers, from one the Australian Space Agency. [SpaceNews]
The vision of combining Earth observations from multiple commercial satellites is proving to be difficult to implement. At a conference last week, executives described a gap between what military users want — seamless integration of data from different sources — and how the commercial market actually operates. Military customers want to be able to combine data from multiple sources, called "sensor fusion," and use that to coordinate new observations, or "tipping and cueing." However, most companies operate vertically integrated platforms that collect, process and deliver data through proprietary systems. There is no widely adopted, standardized interface that allows different providers to exchange data or task each other's satellites in real time. [SpaceNews]
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke has provided new details about the medical issue that prompted his early return from the International Space Station. In an interview, he said he was eating dinner when he lost the ability to talk for about 20 minutes. He said he experienced no pain and felt fine afterwards. What caused the medical incident remains a mystery, and he noted he hadn't experienced a similar episode before or since. That incident in January led him and the three other Crew-11 astronauts to come home weeks ahead of schedule. [AP]
The FCC is all in on "weird space stuff." At a meeting last week, commissioners voted to advance a notice of proposed rulemaking for spectrum access for novel space activities such as satellite servicing and commercial space stations, which the commission collectively dubbed "weird space stuff." The proceeding seeks input on ways to free up spectrum needed for tracking, telemetry and control for those new space applications. Comments on the notice are due within 30 days. [FCC]
| | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET: Join SpaceNews and Star Catcher, in partnership with the Commercial Space Federation, for a conversation on the energy and computing needs driving the push toward orbital data centers, where there are gaps and where there are opportunities and what comes next in this fast-moving field. Register now. | | | | | | The Week Ahead
Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: -
Washington: The Fourth Annual Spacepower Security Forum by the Mitchell Institute will discuss national security space power issues. -
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.: Scheduled launch of NASA's Artemis 2 mission in a two-hour window opening at 6:24 p.m. Eastern. Thursday: -
Jiuquan, China: Anticipated test flight of Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 rocket at 12 midnight Eastern. -
Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Scheduled inaugural launch of the Soyuz-5 rocket at 7 a.m. Eastern. -
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 7:52 a.m. Eastern. -
Washington: The Nuclear Launch Seminar by the Association of Commercial Space Professionals and the Nuclear Energy Institute will discuss issues related to launching nuclear power sources. -
Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 7:03 p.m. Eastern. Friday: Saturday:
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