Starbridge Weekly Update for the week ending 3/8/2021

Starship launch fever followed the Monday morning SPAC fever with SN10’s spectacular launch and landing that appeared to be successful at first but a persistent fire at the base resulted in an explosion about 14 minutes after landing. But in true SpaceX fashion, SN11 rolled out of the highbay this morning to start its rollout to the pad. Some of SN10’s landing legs appeared to fail to lock into position which led to the significant lean after touchdown. In subsequent reviews the vehicle also appeared to land a bit more energetically than intended, resulting in a noticeable ‘bounce’ on touchdown. 

In SPAC news, Virgin Galactic Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya sold the rest of his personal shares in Virgin Galactic for $213 million. That, added to his previous sales of shares, brings his net to $313 million. He still owns a large number of shares through Social Capital Hedosophia. Chamath, through his firm Hedosophia, was the driving force behind the Virgin Galactic’s SPAC. 

In the “we aren’t sure if these are related” department, former Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides is stepping down from his role as Chief Space Officer to pursue opportunities in public service. Whitesides voluntarily moved from CEO to the role of Chief Space Officer back in July when Virgin Galactic hired Michael Colglazier, a former Disney exec, into the CEO role. We wish George well in his new endeavor. 

The other big news last week was a surprise across the board increase in pricing for space station services by NASA. The new pricing is meant to capture all costs associated with providing any service by NASA for purely commercial use of the ISS. According to clarifications from NASA this does not apply to commercial companies involved with NASA on research, which is what both Lynk and Axiom fall under. This appears to be related to Congress’ unwillingness to fully fund the LEO commercialization budget and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s objections to any real or perceived subsidies for commercial use of ISS. 

This week's picks of space sector news compiled from Jeff Foust's FIRST UP newsletter are:

• That Crew Dragon mission remains on schedule for launch next month, but a Boeing CST-100 Starliner test flight is facing more delays. 

• The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) is looking for ways to provide faster and better products and services. 

• A Japanese billionaire is relaunching plans to fly people around the moon on SpaceX's Starship. 

• SpaceX is reportedly interested in incorporating the Texas site where Starship is being built and tested as a town. 

• An Australian company is developing "quantum sensors" for space applications. 

• A change in NASA pricing policy has sharply increased the costs for commercial users of the station.

• The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) will solicit proposals later this year for up to 150 satellites to be launched in late 2024. 

• The longtime CEO of Virgin Galactic, who moved to a new position at the company past year, is stepping down.

• The chairman of Virgin Galactic has sold his personal stake in the company. 

• A South Korean manufacturer that does business with American space companies is expanding its presence in the United States.