Starbridge Weekly Space Update for 3/20/2023

Portfolio News

Axiom

• Axiom Space reveals next-generation spacesuit for astronauts returning to lunar surface

• NASA Reveals Artemis 3 Moon Mission Spacesuit

• New NASA spacesuit from Axiom Space promises better fit for Artemis III moonwalkers

• Ax-2 Mission to Expand Robust Scientific Research, Biomanufacturing, Technology Demonstrations in Low-Earth Orbit

Lynk

• Lynk selects Dawn Aerospace propulsion following an extensive industry trade study

• Satellite executives spar over direct-to-device evolution

• The FCC released its proposed framework for how satellites can provide direct-to-device connectivity using terrestrial spectrum.

Umbra

• ‘How to Change an Industry (Slowly, then all at once)’ -Joe Morrison

General Space News

• Last week, NASA released a cost/benefit analysis of various debris mitigation methods. The general findings were that some low cost techniques (space and ground-based lasers) have a very fast return on investment. The value of returning large but well known pieces of debris (ie. old Russian and Chinese upper stages) was not as significant as rhetoric suggests.

• While Space Force has been working hard to change how and what satellite assets it acquires, Congress simply can’t wean itself off of the pork. This not only distorts the industry as a whole but distracts DoD from its mission. 

• Early last week Virgin Orbit announced it was temporarily halting operations and furloughing staff. Furloughs in a tight aerospace jobs market usually means losing key personnel almost immediately. 

  
  Now, less than a week later, Virgin Orbit is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection if it cannot secure new funding. 

Other Space News

• The space industry is grappling with the effects of the collapse of a major bank Friday.

• The Space Force has assigned three historic pads at Cape Canaveral to four small launch vehicle companies.

• A startup is betting that the future of satellites involves bigger, not smaller, buses.

• The White House is requesting $30 billion for the U.S. Space Force in its 2024 budget proposal.

• NASA projects spending up to $1 billion on a tug to deorbit the International Space Station at the end of its life.

• Amazon plans to start offering "beta services" from its Project Kuiper broadband constellation next year.

• Investors expect funding for space companies to rebound in 2023.

• Firefly Aerospace won a second NASA lunar lander mission Tuesday.

• Voyager Space has acquired ZIN Technologies to bolster the capabilities needed for its Starlab commercial space station.

• OneWeb says it's given up any hope of recovering satellites stranded at a Russian-operated launch site.

• Venus may have active volcanoes today, according to a new analysis of decades-old radar images.

• Astra is asking Nasdaq for an extension of the deadline to raise its share price or face delisting.

• SpaceX launched the final two satellites for SES to clear C-band spectrum Friday night.

• The surge in SpaceX launches comes as much of the space industry complains of a launch shortage.

• Cost growth in Mars Sample Return could affect not just other planetary missions but also a heliophysics mission.

• Satellogic, a company that provides Earth imagery from its satellite constellation, is now offering to sell whole satellites.