Plus: Anthropic's interest in SpaceX orbital data centers
By Jeff Foust
In this today's edition: India's first space unicorn, the NGA's push to develop disruptive capabilities, Anthropic's interest in SpaceX orbital data centers and more.
If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Stories
Indian launch startup Skyroot Aerospace has become the country's first space unicorn with a $60 million funding round. The company announced the funding round Thursday, co-led by investment firms Sherpalo Ventures and GIC. The company has raised $160 million to date and the new round values the company at $1.1 billion. Skyroot is developing the Vikram-1 small launch vehicle, slated to make its first orbital launch attempt later this year. The funding will allow the company to scale up production of that rocket and also develop the larger Vikram-2 rocket. [SpaceNews]
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is working to accelerate development of new capabilities for warfighters. NGA Director Lt. Gen. Michele Bredenkamp said at the GEOINT Symposium on Wednesday that she charged the agency's Rapid Capabilities Office to "take a lot of risk in acquisition" and use alternative contracting mechanisms, such as the Other Transaction Authority, to produce disruptive capabilities. Among the office's top priorities are moving advanced GEOINT capabilities supported by artificial intelligence to units operating in the field as well as finding new geospatial-intelligence products and services. [SpaceNews]
The outgoing director of the National Reconnaissance Office is placing an emphasis on hiring. In a speech at the GEOINT Symposium Wednesday, Christopher Scolese framed workforce challenges as a central issue for the agency he has led for nearly seven years. He is expected to leave later this year. That comes as the NRO shifts from a model built around a small number of large, highly classified satellites to a far more expansive and commercially integrated system. The bottleneck is no longer collecting data from space, but processing it fast enough to be useful. He emphasized the importance of AI as well as other advanced capabilities, like quantum sensing. [SpaceNews]
Speed is taking precedence over price in national security contracting. Companies say the ability to move quickly is eclipsing traditional priorities such as cost and, in some cases, even technical performance. The urgency reflects mounting concern over threats to the satellites that underpin U.S. military operations and economic activity. Officials say adversaries are moving faster than the traditional pace of government acquisition. A policy of spiral development, which often begins with a minimum viable product and proceeds through frequent upgrades, is replacing the traditional approach, where government agencies only accepted satellites or sensors that met extensive technical requirements. [SpaceNews]
French-led satellite operator Eutelsat and Indian maritime service provider Station Satcom have signed a multi-year agreement. Under the deal announced last week, Eutelsat will make its OneWeb broadband services available to across Station Satcom's maritime fleet. The agreement builds on a previous activation in 2025 covering hundreds of Station Satcom vessels and broadens the number of ships using OneWeb services to more than 1,000. [SpaceNews]
AI company Anthropic says it will consider using orbital data center satellites being developed by SpaceX. The companies announced an agreement Wednesday that, in the near term, gives Anthropic access to a SpaceX terrestrial data center. Anthropic added that it has "expressed interest" in working with SpaceX on several gigawatts of on-orbit computing capacity from SpaceX's proposed constellation of data center spacecraft. SpaceX announced in January plans to deploy up to 1 million satellites, which appeared initially to focus on supporting its own AI efforts through xAI. [SpaceNews]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other News
HawkEye360 is set to go public on the New York Stock Exchange today. The company announced late Wednesday it set a price of $26 per share for its IPO. That would raise $416 million for the company before commissions and other expenses. The company announced plans last month to go public, funding further development of its constellation of satellites that provide radio-frequency intelligence services. [HawkEye 360]
Chinese commercial launch startup Nayuta Space raised funding for an unconventional rocket concept. The company said it raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Pre-A1 to Pre-A3 rounds for its Xuanniao-R rocket. The vehicle features a reusable first stage that would use aerodynamics to control its return, landing horizontally using thrusters. The company is planning a first launch as soon as 2027. [SpaceNews]
Starfighters Space has hired two former Blue Origin New Glenn managers to help advance its air-launch system. The company said Thursday that Jose Arias has joined as vice president of space operations, while Catrina Medeiros was named director of operations for Starlaunch. The company is developing an air-launch system that would use F-104 fighter jets as a platform for a small launch vehicle. Starfighters Space recently went public on the NYSE American stock exchange to help raise capital for the program, but is not providing updated timing guidance or customer mission details publicly. [SpaceNews]
Hybrid satellite constellations seek to combine communications and imagery. Space42 of the United Arab Emirates, formed through the merger of Yahsat's geostationary communications operations and Bayanat's geospatial analytics business, is working with Iceye on radar imaging satellites that will be part of Space42's Foresight LEO imagery constellation. Similarly, Japan's flagship satellite TV and broadband provider Sky Perfect JSAT is buying 10 Pelican high-resolution optical imagery satellites from Planet, while Open Cosmos, a startup originally focused on Earth observation satellites, recently outlined plans for a sovereign broadband and Internet of Things connectivity constellation. [SpaceNews]
Satellite imagery is playing a growing role in operations. The Republic of the Marshall Islands worked with a New Zealand company, Starboard Maritime Intelligence, to fuse radar and optical imagery with AIS ship-tracking data to detect vessels suspected of illegal fishing in its waters. The effort reduced the detection time from days to hours. In another example highlighted by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, a Muon Space satellite was able to detect a wildfire in Oregon in its earliest stages that other sensors had missed, enabling quick action to extinguish it. [SpaceNews]
Commercial space station developer Vast has signed an agreement with Lithuania. The agreement between Vast and Innovation Agency Lithuania, announced Wednesday, covers the study of potential joint scientific research opportunties on the International Space Station or Vast's Haven-1 station, as well as collaboration with Lithuanian space companies. The agreement is the sixth between Vast and national space agencies related to international collaboration. [Vast]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Get Aligned or Else
|
"I tell industry, you know, get aligned right now. Everything you lobby for better be in the interest of America's national imperative of returning to the moon because, if not, if we see the Chinese get to the moon before America is able to return, I'll be fired. I'll be at home watching on TV as all of you get hauled before Congress."
|
– NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, discussing racing China to the moon on a Bloomberg podcast Wednesday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
FROM SPACENEWS |
 |
Missile defense at machine speed: On May 13, join SpaceNews and Wind River for a discussion that explores the mission assurance challenges behind missile defense initiatives, examining what military organizations must consider to ensure the software backbone connecting these systems remains resilient, interoperable and trusted in high-consequence environments. Register now. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment