Plus: A SpaceX launch tripleheader
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: more questions about the cost and capabilities of Golden Dome, Rocket Lab signs a record commercial launch contract, a SpaceX launch tripleheader today and more.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Where do space investors see the biggest opportunities? SpaceNews has mapped the ranks of private space firms valued at $1 billion or more, capturing 37 companies working in launch and satellite broadband, Earth observation, space stations, orbital data centers and other promising markets. Drawing on public disclosures, original reporting and other sources, each profile tracks when and how a company achieved unicorn status and its latest known valuation, alongside funding-round breakdowns and total capital raised from BryceTech’s Startup Space database. Download the report. |
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Top Stories
Congressional budget analysts have finally been briefed on the Golden Dome missile defense system, but are remaining quiet about its cost. At a Senate hearing Tuesday, David Mosher, the Congressional Budget Office's director of national security analysis, said his office had been briefed last week on an architecture being developed under Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the officer leading Golden Dome. He declined to discuss details of the briefing in the open hearing, but the office has neither withdrawn nor publicly revised its $1.2 trillion 20-year cost estimate it released several months ago. The Pentagon has put the cost of Golden Dome at about $185 billion over the coming decade. Senators at the hearing raised questions about what coverage Golden Dome will provide, some noting that the name suggested nationwide coverage while the system will likely initially offer only a limited-area defense. [SpaceNews]
FCC commissioners voted Wednesday to exclude space activities from environmental reviews. The FCC ruled 2-1 that licensing satellites does not constitute a "major federal action" that would trigger reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. The decision codified the FCC's longstanding practice of excluding constellations from these environmental reviews. The commission also voted to make more than 1,000 megahertz of additional spectrum available for satellite services in the 12.7 and 42 gigahertz bands. [SpaceNews]
Rocket Lab has signed its biggest commercial launch contract to date with a long-time customer. Rocket Lab said Wednesday it signed a contract with Synspective, a Japanese company operating a constellation of radar-imaging satellites, for 20 Electron launches from 2028 through 2031. Each launch will carry a single StriX satellite. Rocket Lab has already launched 13 StriX satellites with contracts for 14 more before this latest deal. Rocket Lab said it now has more than 100 launches under contract with various government and commercial customers. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin is seeking permission to increase the cadence of New Glenn launches. The FAA released this week a draft environmental assessment of a proposal by the company to increase its New Glenn launch rate from a current cap of 12 per year to 50 from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36. The company, which has performed three New Glenn launches to date, is working to recover from a pad explosion in May that severely damaged the launch complex. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said at an event Tuesday that the company remained on schedule to resume launches by the end of the year. He also confirmed that Blue Origin is raising its first outside funding round after relying since its founding solely on Jeff Bezos. He did not comment on the size of the round of the valuation, but he said investors were interested because the company had "de-risked" New Glenn and also rolled out plans for the TeraWave broadband constellation and Project Sunrise orbital data center constellation. [SpaceNews]
Chinese launch startup Z-Trak Space has raised funding to work on a small reusable rocket. The company said Monday that it closed an "angel+" round worth more than 100 million yuan ($14.9 million). Z-Trak Space, also known as Zhiyu Aerospace, said the funding will support work on Fission-A, a small liquid-propellant rocket designed for reusability with a first launch planned before the end of next year. Z-Trak claims it has signed launch service agreements for 37 satellites. It has plans for a somewhat larger Fission-B rocket and, ultimately, a heavy-lift vehicle called Fusion. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX has three launches scheduled for today. The day starts with a Falcon 9 launch of the Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for 11:10 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral's SLC-40. There is a 55% chance of acceptable weather for that launch. Another Falcon 9 is set to launch at 2:18 p.m. Eastern from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on the Transporter-18 rideshare mission. SpaceX has also scheduled a Falcon Heavy launch from the Kennedy Space Center at 11:53 p.m. Eastern on the NROL-97 mission, carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. [Space.com]
Honda and Redwire are partnering on a robotic arm system for future commercial space stations. Honda announced Thursday that the companies will explore combining Honda's multi-fingered robotic hand with Redwire's Staark robotic arm to assist space station research and experiments. Honda has developed robotics technologies for decades to support automation of complex manufacturing and assembly tasks, including a multi-fingered robotic hand incorporating force and tactile sensing throughout the fingertips and palm. The companies said they plan to discuss potential applications for those robotic systems with space station developers and others at the International Astronautical Congress next week. [SpaceNews]
Viridian Space will work with the University of Washington to study development of control surfaces for satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). The company announced Wednesday a $225,000 NASA Small Business Technology Transfer contract to study how spacecraft can use the tenuous atmosphere in VLEO to aid in maneuvering, rather than treat it solely as a source of drag. Viridian was established in 2021 to develop air-breathing electric propulsion systems that ingest atmosphere at an altitude between 200 and 300 kilometers to feed a plasma thruster, and earlier this year signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory to support that work. [SpaceNews]
Firefly Aerospace will carry an orbital data center payload from Starcloud on a future lunar mission. The companies announced Wednesday that Starcloud will fly a computing payload called SC-1L on a Firefly Elytra orbital spacecraft on its third lunar landing mission in 2028. SC-1L will test the ability to carry out AI applications in lunar orbit, ingesting data from a camera system and processing it. The demonstration will test technologies that could support future orbital data center spacecraft operating around the moon. [Firefly Aerospace]
NASA awarded a contract to develop technologies for a 5G network at its future lunar base. The $38 million contract with Modulate Space Corporation will test technologies for a "5G Network-in-a-Box" that will also include Wi-Fi to support communications between elements of a lunar base. The agency said that the work will give it insight into the system architecture and operational performance while providing the flexibility needed to evolve the technology for future lunar surface communications. [NASA]
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Schizophrenic Spacecraft
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"All the components, if you allow me to use the word, they really have to be schizophrenic, meaning that they have to tolerate multiple environments, multiple dimensions, and survive all of this."
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– Najwa Aaraj, CEO of the Technology Innovation Institute in the UAE, discussing the thermal management challenges of the MBE Explorer asteroid mission at a briefing Thursday to mark the completion of the spacecraft, which will soon ship to the United States for testing.
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