Tag: commercial

Japan awards $32.5 million contract for lunar GPS-type satellite constellation to startup

9:52 am

Capitalism in space: As part of the multi-billion dollar fund the Japanese government has allocated to encourage private enterprise by new Japanese startups, its space agency JAXA has now awarded a $32.5 million development contract to the startup ArkEdge Space to design and fly a GPS-type satellite in orbit around the Moon, thus demonstrating the technology.

Under the agreement, ArkEdge Space will plan and design the mass production and operation of micro-satellite constellations to lead the development of a next-generation Lunar Navigation Satellite System (LNSS), a vital component to the International “LunaNet” initiative driven by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA) and JAXA. LunaNet seeks to establish essential infrastructure to support sustainable lunar exploration and foster the growth of the lunar economy.

The real significance of this contract award is that it signals JAXA’s growing shift from designing, building, and owning everything to simply becoming the customer who gets what it needs from the private sector. The Japanese government had established that fund for this express purpose, but JAXA has shown a reluctance to proceed, as it directly threatens its turf. This award indicates that reluctance is finally being pushed aside.

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Orbex gives up on the Sutherland spaceport, switches to SaxaVord

9:27 am

Map of spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Spaceports surrounding the Norwegian Sea

In a very sudden decision, the rocket startup Orbex, based in Great Britain, has “paused” its long-delayed work to develop a launch facility at the Sutherland spaceport in northern Scotland and instead decided to launch its first rockets from the competing SaxaVord spaceport on the Shetland islands.

Orbex says it is halting construction work on the £20 million spaceport and instead is mothballing the project, which has received a £14.6 million public investment package. The space company, which was to have made the Sutherland Spaceport its home port, will now launch its rockets carrying commercial satellites from another north spaceport – SaxaVord on Unst, Shetland.

According to the company’s CEO, it will retain its 50-year lease at Sutherland to give it “flexibility to increase launch capacity in the future.”

The company had originally hoped to launch its Prime rocket from Sutherland in 2022, but has been faced with red tape from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which has still not issued a launch licence, even though the application was submitted almost three years ago. Orbex has also faced lawfare opposition from local activists as well as a major local landowner, billionaire Anders Povlsen, who is also a major investor in SaxaVord.

That last detail might help explain this decision. In private talks Orbex might have learned that the red tape and opposition would disappear if it switched to SaxaVord. The timing is also suggestive, as only a few days ago construction started on a new spaceport in Scotland, located on the island of North Uist.

All told, Orbex might have decided that the stars were aligned against it at Sutherland, and it was better to move. It now hopes to complete the first test launch of its Prime rocket from SaxaVord next year.

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Two launches completed of the seven launches expected in the next 24 hours

9:04 am

Today will be one of the busiest ever at spaceports worldwide. Already we have had two launches, with five more expected by this time tomorrow.

First, China launched a radar satellite, its Kuaizhou-1A solid-fueled rocket lifting off from the Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China. No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed in China.

Next, SpaceX placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in the early morning hours. The first stage completed a record 24th flight, the most flights of any Falcon 9 booster so far, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

And we are only getting started today. If all goes right, by this time tomorrow Russia will have done a military launch from its Plesetsk spaceport, Arianespace will have launched a Vega-C from French Guiana, SpaceX will have completed two more Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg and Kennedy, and India will have launched its PSLV rocket from its Sriharikota spaceport.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

125 SpaceX
58 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 144 to 86, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 125 to 105.

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SpaceX looking to raise more private investment capital

3:47 pm

According to a report yesterday by Bloomberg, SpaceX is now in talks to raise more private investment capital, based on a new and vastly increased valuation of the company, from $255 billion to $350 billion.

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

The amount the company hopes to raise by this tender is at present not known. In the past decade the company has raised about $12 billion in private capital in order to fund development of both its Starship/Superheavy rocket as well as its Starlink internet constellation. The latter however is already generating about $9 billion in revenue annually in the past two years, more than enough to fund the projects.

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PLD obtains a new loan, this time for $11.6 million

11:45 am

The Spanish rocket startup PLD yesterday announced it has obtained a new $11.6 million loan that it plans to use to build its launch facility at the French-owned French Guiana spaceport.

The loan was issued by the Spanish governmment finance agency COFIDES, which comes on top of an earlier $43.8 million Spanish government grant. In addition, the company has gotten a $2.4 million grant from the European Commission, as well as a $1.37 million grant from the European Space Agency.

The company has also obtained a loan of $34 million from banks in Spain.

All told, the company has raised about $164 million, more than $58 million came from government agencies, with another $34 million from loans.

For whatever reason, PLD has found favor with the various governments in Europe, fueling its work. None of the other European rocket startups from Germany or Great Britain have been as lucky.

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Varda wins $48 million Air Force contract

9:29 am

Varda's space capsule, on the ground in Utah
Varda’s first capsule on the ground in Utah.

The U.S. Air Force last week awarded the reusable orbiting capsule company Varda a four-year $48 million contract for placing experimental hypersonic payloads on the capsule for testing during its re-entry through the atmosphere.

The four-year deal with AFRL [Air Force Research Laboratory], announced on Nov. 26, leverages Varda’s W-Series reentry capsules as platforms to test payloads at hypersonic speeds. The spacecraft are built on Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite bus,

…Varda’s next mission, W-2, is scheduled for early 2025. This mission is designed to showcase the Varda Hypersonic Testbed vehicle. The capsule will carry an AFRL-developed spectrometer payload named OSPREE (Optical Sensing of Plasmas in the Reentry Environment) to collect critical data during atmospheric descent.

Up until now Varda’s customers have been entirely focused on using the capsule to produce pharmaceuticals in weightlessness for sale back on Earth. This new contract provides it another and initially unexpected way to make money on the capsule’s capabilities.

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Construction begins for 3rd spaceport in Scotland

8:04 am

Map of spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

Construction of a third spaceport in Scotland has now begun, its location on the northwest coast of the island of North Uist (as shown on the map to the right), with its plans to serve suborbital launches initially.

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise, a Scottish government agency focused on regional development, has allocated £947,000 for the construction of the site’s enabling infrastructure. Additionally, the Comhairle is contributing £675,000 from its 2023-2028 capital programme. The total cost of the enabling works project is estimated to be £2.6 million.

After the construction of the enabling infrastructure is complete, which is expected to occur by Spring 2025, a private sector operator will take over to complete the second phase of construction and manage the spaceport.

According to the Wikipedia page for this area on North Uist, the project was first proposed in 2019, and was then hoping to attract orbital launches. Subsequent opposition by activists slowed development and likely reduced the project from orbital to suborbital, at least for now.

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SpaceX launches for NRO

7:46 am

SpaceX early today successfully completed a launch for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The broadcast by SpaceX began after launch, had degraded visuals, and cut off immediately after the first stage, on its very first flight, touched down successfully on a drone ship in the Pacific. Very little confirmed information was released about the payload, though according to this story that payload included 20 Starlink satellites as well as an additional payload for NRO. It is also possible the Starlink satellites were that NRO payload, being the Starshield military version of Starlink.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

124 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 102.

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites

12:35 am

SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

123 SpaceX
55 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 142 to 83, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 123 to 102.

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