Tag: competition

Saxavord spaceport lost about $7 million in both ’23 and ’24; Andoya launch scheduled for today

9:00 am

Proposed or active spaceports in North Europe
Proposed or active spaceports in North Europe

According to a report in the Times of London yesterday, the Saxavord spaceport on the Shetland Islands lost about $7 million in both ’23 and ’24.

Annual accounts for Shetland Space Centre, the SaxaVord operating company, show a near 32 per cent rise in revenue to £2.5 million for 2024. The document, recently lodged at Companies House, shows a £5.4 million [$7.25 million] pre-tax loss, compared to £5.1 million [$6.85 million] in 2023.

The spaceport is controlled by billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who had been instrumental in using the courts to block launches from the other proposed spaceport in Sutherland, Scotland. Saxavord meanwhile was first proposed about four years ago, but it has also not yet had its first launch. In both cases, the major obstacle has been the United Kingdom’s regulatory bureaucracy run by its Civil Aviation Authority, which has taken years to issue permits and licenses. Those delays have bankrupted two rocket companies, Virgin Orbit and Orbex, because they were unable to launch as scheduled.

Saxavord hopes its first launch will occur later this year, from the German rocket startup Rocket Factory Augsburg. That company had hoped to launch in 2024 — after more than a year delay due to red tape — but an explosion during the final static fire test of the first stage ended those plans.

Meanwhile, the first orbital launch from Norway’s Andoya spaceport is now expected later today by the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace. This will be the second launch of its Spectrum rocket, the first failing just after lift-off in 2025. This second attempt had been scrubbed in January and March, and is now scheduled for 1 pm (Pacific) today. I have embedded its live stream below.
» Read more

1 comment

Russia’s latest plans for its post-ISS space station

8:12 am

The present Russian plans to transition from ISS to its Russian Orbital Station
Click for full resolution image.

Anatoly Zak yesterday posted the picture to the right, showing a presentation by Russian officials of Roscosmos’ latest plans for its transition from ISS to their own Russian Orbital Station (ROS). Though it is in Russian, I think I can glean from it some significant take-aways about Russia’s future space plans.

First, if these plans proceed as planned (doubtful based on Russia’s track record in the past three decades), at some point in the next four years they will attach a new module to ISS, docking with the Prichal docking hub, launched in 2021. Then in 2030 they will undock this new module as well as Prichal and the Nauka module, which also launched in 2021, and use these three modules as the core of their new station.

That 2030 date is significant, as it is an admission by Russia that it intends to stay with ISS until then. Up till now Roscosmos has only committed to ISS through 2028, even though NASA and its partners at ESA and Japan have set 2030 as ISS’s present retirement date.

Second, they plan to add more modules to this core station, beginning in 2031, and by 2034 to have completed a four-module cross-shaped station with Prichal as the central hub. That completion date is one year later than the timeline Russia announced in 2024, when it claimed ROS would be completed in 2033. That 2024 timeline also said ROS’s first module would be launched in 2027, but the graphic to the right no longer gives any date for that launch. I suspect 2027 is extremely unlikely.

Finally, don’t expect the new modules promised in the 2031-2034 timeframe to launch on schedule either. As I note above, all Russian space projects in this century have routinely been delayed repeatedly, with most never launching at all.

This plan also makes no mention of an agreement with India in December 2025 to coordinate the construction of its station with Russia’s, flying both in the same inclination presently used by ISS. This is not really a surprise, as both projects will operate independently, so that delays in one do not impact the other.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

1 comment

China launches 18 more Qianfan internet satellites

5:16 pm

Earlier today China successfully placed 18 more Qianfan internet satellites into orbit, its Long March 8 rocket lifting off from its coast Wenchang spaceport.

This was the seventh launch for this Starlink competitor, which is also called Spacesail or G60, bringing the total number of satellites launched to 137, out of a planned constellation of as many as 10,000. The first phase of the constellation however only requires 648. Though China hopes to reach that number before the end of this year, it will be a year late, based on the constellation’s international licensing requirement. Moreover, there have been stories suggesting this project is short of cash.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

42 SpaceX
17 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25, 42 to 32.

China was supposed to do another launch this afternoon, but as of posting there is no report announcing it.

2 comments

Update on SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy launchpad improvements at Boca Chica

9:35 am

Link here. The article provides many details about the design improvements and testing that SpaceX is doing at the Boca Chica launchpad prior to the next Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight, now expected sometime in mid-May.

All the improvements appear designed to allow for quicker reuse of the pad, including protecting it better when both Starship and Superheavy return to be captured by the chopstick towers. For example:

On the tower, work has progressed on the Ship Quick Disconnect (SQD) arm, which connects to the Starship upper stage for propellant loading. This week, technicians added steel reinforcements to the lower side of the arm’s shoulder section. These additions are believed to strengthen the structure while enabling the arm to retract more quickly during launch.

A faster swing-out reduces the risk of damage from the intense exhaust plume of Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines at liftoff. This improvement should minimize post-launch refurbishment and contribute to a higher launch cadence. The core work on the SQD arm itself appears largely complete, and scaffolding may soon be removed as final preparations continue.

Other work includes a new tower roof structure to protect it from the rocket’s engine exhaust, and other work on the pad itself to facilitate faster fueling. These additions have been accompanied by testing to make sure they work.

All this work appears intended to make it possible to launch frequently once the next test launch is completed.

10 comments

Orbital repair startup Starfish raises $100 million in private investment capital

9:13 am

Remora rendezvous
Images taken by Starfish’s camera.

The orbital servicing startup Starfish Space has now raised an additional $100 million in private investment capital, in addition to the $29 million raised previously.

Seattle-based Starfish announced April 7 it closed a Series B round led by Point72 Ventures, raising more than $100 million. Activate Capital and Shield Capital co-led the round, with major participation from Industrious Ventures and NightDragon. Several other new and existing investors were also part of the funding round.

…The company, which raised $29 million in November 2024, says the funding will enable it to scale up production of its Otter line of spacecraft designed for in-space servicing of other spacecraft. The company has won several contracts from government and commercial customers for missions to extend the lives of satellites or deorbit defunct satellites.

Starfish has already won contracts to do a variety of demo and satellite repair missions with the military (see here, here, and here) totaling about $144 million.

This financial success has occurred despite the fact that Starfish’s Otter servicing robot has yet to dock and repair any satellite. It has done two rendezvous and proximity demo missions, the second of which was supposed to do a docking but could not when the owner of the target satellite backed out of the project. The Otter-2 robot is still working in orbit, but the company has not been able to find a new target spacecraft to dock to. The company has also demonstrated its camera on another company’s orbital tug, as shown by the images above.

1 comment

Astroscale to fly mission to rendezvous and inspect two different satellites

8:01 am

Screen capture of ISSA-J1 operations around ALOS
Click for full animation.

The Japanese orbital tug company Astroscale this week announced a 2027 mission to fly an inspector satellite to rendezvous and inspect closely two different defunct satellites in different orbits.

The ISSA-J1 mission will inspect two retired Japanese satellites launched in the early 2000s. By approaching them in orbit, ISSA-J1 will observe their current condition more than 20 years after launch, including their attitude, rotation behavior and signs of degradation. The mission will conduct close‑range observations of multiple objects, closer than traditional monitoring methods, demonstrating new possibilities for on‑orbit inspection services.

The screen capture graphic to the right shows ISSA-J1’s proximity flight path around the first defunct satellite, ALOS, which was an Earth resource satellite that operated from 2006 to 2011. After completing its inspection of ALOS, it will then move into a higher orbit to inspect ADEOS‑II, another Earth observation satellite that operated in 2003.

Astroscale has already demonstrated it can do these kinds of inspection missions with its ADRAS-J mission, which flew within fifty feet of an abandoned rocket upper stage. Its eventual goal is to do space junk removal missions, grabbing this kind of space junk and de-orbiting it.

0 comments

Northrop Grumman’s Minotaur-4 rocket launches three payloads for War Department

8:40 am

Northrop Grumman early this morning successfully placed three experimental payloads into orbit for the War Department’s Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), its Minotaur-4 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

NRL’s payloads included the Lasersheet Anomaly Resolution and Debris Observation (LARADO) instrument; the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Orbiting Situational Awareness Sensor (GOSAS); and the Gadolinium Aluminum Gallium Garnet (GAGG) Radiation Instrument (GARI-1C).

The first is testing new methods for tracking space junk, the second improved GPS-type location and navigation for military operations, and the third new gamma-ray detection technology for tracking nuclear tests.

This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2026, so the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:

42 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.

3 comments

Firefly signs deal with modular sea launch startup Seagate

8:02 am

The startup Seagate, which is building a modular sea launch platform for any rocket company, has now signed a partnership deal with the rocket company Firefly to jointly develop that sea platform.

Seagate Space Corporation announced today a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Firefly Aerospace to collaborate on the development of an offshore launch platform that enables a sea-based launch capability for Firefly’s Alpha rocket. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in expanding responsive, resilient launch solutions for the rapidly growing space economy.

Under the MOU, Seagate Space is working closely with Firefly to mature the design of an integrated offshore launch system capable of supporting the unique requirements of liquid-fueled orbital rockets. Central to this development is the integration of Seagate Space’s Gateway Series, the industry’s first purpose-built offshore spaceport designed specifically for launch operations.

Firefly presently has one operational launchpad, at Vandenberg, though it has a deal to launch its Alpha rocket from Sweden’s Esrange spaceport as well as a lease for a pad at Cape Canaveral. It has also been studying launching from a proposed commercial spaceport in northern Japan. Apparently, the company wants more spaceport options, and a sea platform gives it the most flexibility.

4 comments

SpaceX launches 25 Starlink satellites using new first stage

7:58 pm

SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 25 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This was the first flight for the first stage, which landed safely on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race.

42 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.

0 comments

Japan’s lunar lander startup Ispace wins contract with Korean rover startup

9:18 am

Artist rendering of Ispace's Ultra lunar lander
Artist rendering of Ispace’s Ultra lunar lander

The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace has won a new customer for its next attempt to soft-land on the Moon, with the South Korean startup Unmanned Exploration Laboratory (UEL) signing a contract to put its proposed two-wheeled rover on that mission.

Under the terms of the agreement, the UEL rover will be integrated as a commercial payload on ispace’s ULTRA lunar lander for Mission 3, currently scheduled to launch in 2028. The mission would mark the first Korean rover to explore the Moon’s surface and underscores the growing commercial collaboration between Japan and Korea in the aerospace industry.

Mission 3 will serve as the inaugural flight for ispace’s ULTRA lunar lander.

Ispace so far has a very mixed record. It has successfully gotten two landers to the Moon, but both failed just before landing. It has also recently had to delay its lander mission for NASA because it had to replace the lander’s engine, the previous engine found to be inadequate.

Ultra is Ispace’s new larger lander design, intended to fly on all future missions. It remains untested in flight. The company presently has lander contracts for the following missions:

  • 2028: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
  • 2029: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Space Strategy Fund (designed at encouraging the private space sector
  • 2030: NASA’s mission, being built in partnership with the American company Draper

At the moment, everything about Ispace remains tentative. It needs to finally land something on the Moon to truly establish itself.

2 comments

Japanese rocket startup Interstellar gets another $47 million grant from Japan

8:58 am

The Japanese rocket startup Interstellar last week announced it has been awarded a new $47 million grant from Japan’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, in addition to the $53 million awarded in earlier grants.

The SBIR is a 3-phased governmental program aimed to promote the implementation of advanced technologies developed by startups in Japan. Interstellar was selected in September 2023 under the space section focused on the “Development and Demonstration of Private Launch Vehicles”, a project spanning for 5 years, from September 2023 to March 2028. After being selected as one of the four participating companies, Interstellar became one of three companies to pass the Phase 1 review in September 2024.

In this latest round, Interstellar is one of only two companies to pass, moving into the 3rd and final phase, which includes flight demonstration. Including the funds of the previous phases the total amount has reached a maximum of 15.4 billion JPY ( 98.97 million USD).

The company has also raised a little under $130 million in private investment capital, and has also signed contracts placing seven satellites on the first launch of its proposed Zero rocket. That launch was originally supposed to occur in 2025, but did not. No new launch date has been set, though this new grant suggests the company is getting close, though I also doubt it will occur in 2026.

At the moment Japan has no launch capability, as the two rockets controlled by its space agency JAXA are both grounded due to launch failures. It has several startups trying to build their own rockets, but none has succeeded as yet. The only one to attempt a launch, Space One, has tried three times to reach orbit with its Kairos rocket, all failures.

1 comment

Avio delays next Vega-C launch due to “technical issue”

8:40 am

The Italian rocket company Avio announced yesterday that is has postponed the May 9, 2026 launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Smile solar wind spacecraft due to “a technical issue” discovered by a subcontractor in a component used by the Vega-C rocket.

The press release provided little information:

The launch of the Smile satellite has been postponed, due to a technical issue occurred on a subsystem component production line after VV29 launcher integration. Additional investigations are needed to exclude any relation between such issue and the VV29 launcher in order to safeguard flightworthiness. The new launch date will be announced following the completion of these activities, as agreed with the supplier.

This launch will be the first entirely managed by Avio since it regained control of its rockets from ESA’s Arianespace division. The rocket itself was grounded for two years in 2023 and 2024 due to nozzle issues. It has since flown four times successfully.

1 comment
1 … 11 12 13 14 15 … 785