Portfolio Company News
SpaceX
SpaceX loses $900 million in rural broadband subsidies
SpaceX lost its bid for almost $900M in rural broadband subsidies for its Starlink broadband service after failing to meet the FCC’s requirements for unlocking the additional funds. Starlink's median download speeds improved to 90.55Mbps in the first quarter of 2022 while their upload speeds decreased to 9.33Mbps according to Ookla speed tests. SpaceX also accused Viasat of attempting to have the FCC “impede competition at all costs to protect its legacy technology” back in July.
There is considerable speculation that this is the result of ViaSat lobbying within the FCC since there are very few other awardees that qualify according to the rules the FCC is using.
Europe eyes Musk's SpaceX to bridge launch gap left by Russia tensions
Much like the Northrop Grumman decision below, Europe has decided that SpaceX is preferable to depending on suppliers from Ukraine or Russia during the conflict there. Companies do tend to learn from SpaceX while they work with them so it will be interesting to see what ESA learns from working closely with SpaceX.
General Space News
Space Development Agency (SDA) to take another stab at space-to-aircraft laser communications
The SDA is currently seeking proposals to demonstrate laser communications between satellites and aircraft while in orbit and flight. They hope to connect their Tranche o Transport Layer satellites to an aircraft.
Virgin Galactic again delays the start of commercial suborbital flights
Virgin Galactic says they are now expecting to begin commercial flights of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity, in the second quarter of 2023 due to upgrades of their carrier aircraft that are taking longer than expected.
Chinese space firm raises funds for commercial weather data satellite constellation
Chinese space startup, Yunyao Yuhang, raised almost $14.8M in a Pre-A+ round led by Zhongwei Yihe Investment to build a constellation of 80 satellites to provide weather data. Yunyao Yuhang was founded in 2019 and aims to provide data for global weather forecasting and short-term earthquake forecasting.
Entire NASA astronaut corps eligible for Artemis missions
Chief of the Astronaut Office, Reid Weisman, says he expects the four-person Artemis 2 crew will be selected soon out of the current corps of 42 active astronauts and is expected to launch no earlier than 2024. Artemis 2 will be a crewed flight around the moon lasting about 10 days.
Masten Receives $4.5M Offer For Assets
Masten Space Systems has received an initial bid on its assets of $4.5M from Astrobtotic, another CLPS lunar lander company, as well as a $1.4M debtor in possession loan. Masten is using this minimum bid to generate interest in higher bids. Masten has significant assets such as a $15M credit with SpaceX, patents, a VTVL testbed that has been flying since 2009, and a contract with NASA.
Debris
Issues with space debris are becoming more of a concern for LEO constellations as the number of items tracked by US Space Command has grown from 25,000 items in 2019 to 47,000 three years later. Some of that growth came from a Russian ASAT test last year which is now directly affecting parts of the Starlink constellation. The responsibility of tracking everything in space is in the process of being transferred from US Space Command to the Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce but that transition is taking longer than Congress expected.
Ukraine Fallout
It is not commonly known that a fair amount of the US space industry relied on subcontractors in Ukraine since that’s where much of the Soviet Union’s space program was based. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused severe disruptions that have finally led Northrop Grumman to find other solutions for the first stage of its Antares rocket. The Antares has been the primary launch vehicle for the Cygnus ISS cargo carrier for ISS resupply. On Monday Northrop Grumman announced that it would begin flying its ISS resupply missions using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and begin working with Firefly to develop an upgraded version of the Antares rocket.
Interplanetary Smallsats
Beck: CAPSTONE demonstrates the feasibility of low-cost interplanetary smallsats
Rocket Lab's CEO says his company's launch of NASA's CAPSTONE lunar cubesat mission demonstrated the ability to do low-cost interplanetary smallsat missions. The orbit that CAPSTONE is investigating will be used by NASA’s Lunar Gateway. What may not be obvious about this mission is that the Earth-Moon L1 libration point (the point where the gravity of the Earth and the Moon balance out) is a jumping-off point for the entire inner solar system. With the right secondary propulsion, small satellites like CAPSTONE can begin exploring beyond the Earth/Moon system.
Other Space News
The FCC is considering opening up more Ku-band spectrum for satellite broadband constellations.
SpaceX disclosed Friday it has raised an additional $250 million.
A U.K. regulator is investigating Viasat's planned acquisition of Inmarsat.
NovaWurks is emerging from secrecy to talk about its technologies and customers.
Lockheed Martin's venture capital arm is planning to increase investments in space companies.
SpaceX tested both its Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster on Tuesday.
Momentus will reduce spending to conserve cash as it focuses on its next space tug missions.
Rocket Lab reported higher revenues but also greater losses in the second quarter.
A move by the FCC last week seeks to position the U.S. as a leader in an emerging space economy.
Astro Digital says it's seeing strong interest in providing small satellite technology as a service.