Starbridge Weekly Space Update for 5/1/2023

Portfolio News

Axiom

• Boryung Corporation, Axiom Space Announce Joint Venture Agreement: A New Chapter in Partnership

• Falcon Heavy delay affects space station manifest

• Axiom Space, ESA Sign Agreement with Swedish National Space Agency on Future Mission to ISS

Lynk

• Rogers Partners With Lynk Global to Bring Satellite-to-Phone Coverage to Canadians

Offworld AI

• Offworld Europe and Luxembourg Space Agency Collaborate in New Lunar Exploration Program

SpaceX

• The Starship Damage Left Behind: How Is SpaceX Moving Forward?

• FAA sued over SpaceX Starship launch program following April explosion

• Nelson also told the committee that SpaceX expects to be ready to make another Starship launch attempt in as soon as a couple months.

• SpaceX will take over a launch pad at Vandenberg that had been used by United Launch Alliance.

• A SpaceX Falcon Heavy finally launched the first ViaSat-3 satellite and two other spacecraft Sunday night.

General Space News

• Lunar gravity prevents skeletal muscle atrophy but not myofiber type shift in mice

  One of the areas of research many have been waiting to be done on the ISS is the effect of partial gravity on mammals. In one of the first studies of its kind, researches determine that Lunar gravity does prevent skeletal muscle atrophy but does not prevent microgravity-induced slow-to-fast myofiber-type transition. Other studies suggest that the myofiber transition can be effectively mitigated with exercise (so treadmills on the Moon will still be a thing.)

• Days before dying, Japan's lunar lander snaps a glorious photo of Earth during a total solar eclipse

• US, South Korea Commit to Closer Cooperation in Orbit

  Anyone paying attention to South Korea’s space program over the past two years has noticed a significant increase in ambition for not only the country’s national space program but new startups as well. Axiom has been developing a closer relationship with Boryung Pharmaceutical and the country has seen a recent increase in space-related startups. 

• VC Investment in the Space Industry Sees Lowest Numbers Since 2021

  As expected, space sector VC investments shrank in the first quarter of this year as many VCs from outside the sector took a breather. 

• NASA tweaks Voyager 2's power settings • The Register

  Imagine patching ‘software’ developed in the early 1970s on a spacecraft 14.793 billion miles from Earth.

Other Space News

• Contractors who cause delays and cost overruns may find themselves on the Pentagon's version of a "naughty list."

• AST SpaceMobile said it has made its first voice calls using the company's test satellite.

• Geospatial data analytics company Hydrosat has secured $20 million in grants and investment.

• Engine manufacturer Ursa Major has raised $100 million in additional funding. 

• The governments of the United States and South Korea signed an agreement to enhance cooperation in space exploration.

• Among the classified documents leaked by an Air National Guardsman include those assessing competition with China and Russia in space.

• Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flew for the first time in nearly two years Wednesday as the company edges closer to commercial service.

• The Czech Republic will be the next nation to sign the Artemis Accords.

• The International Space Station will remain operating through at least 2028 after Russia joined the other partners in an extension.