AE Industrial Partners, a U.S. private equity firm active in aerospace and defense, said Feb. 24 that it had struck deal to buy a “significant” stake in embattled rocket startup Firefly Aerospace from investment group Noosphere Venture Partners.
Northrop Grumman is taking the next step in its space servicing business, SpaceLogistics, with the sale of its first Mission Extension Pod and a launch agreement with SpaceX for a Mission Robotic Vehicle.
Space tourist company Virgin Galactic, whose stock price has been on a proverbial roller coaster in recent months, said Feb. 18 that Chamath Palihapitiya is no longer chairman of the board or even a member.
Max Polyakov, a Ukrainian co-founder of launch company Firefly Aerospace, said he handed off his majority stake in the startup to co-founder and CEO Tom Markusik under pressure from U.S. officials.
SpaceLink, of McLean, Virginia, has selected Houston-based commercial space station developer Axiom Space to demonstrate an end-to-end optical communications relay service for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which manages the U.S. National Laboratory elements of the International Space Station.
Orbital Sidekick has validated an upgrade to its existing hyperspectral satellite sensors and is announcing an investment by national security startup seed funder In-Q-Tel.
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur who financed and commanded Inspiration4, SpaceX’s first private charter, plans a new venture with SpaceX for up to three more missions, culminating with the first crewed flight of the company’s Starship transport.
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expect that a data repository of satellites will be operational by 2024, providing U.S. government agencies and commercial space companies with a resource to prevent potential collisions as the number of spacecraft in orbit grows exponentially.
Hungary is inviting space experiments from Singapore to be part of the research agenda for the astronaut it will send to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024.
The day after a SpaceX Falcon 9 delivered a batch of 49 Starlink satellites into orbit, a solar storm struck, causing atmospheric particles from Earth to expand into space, increasing drag on the newly launched flock.
Having achieved steady progress in the areas of space technology and manufacturing, Singapore outlined a three-pronged strategy to encourage further growth in the local space sector at the Global Space & Technology Convention.
The investment fully funds E-Space’s Beta 1 launch of its first test satellites in March, as well as its Beta 2 launch “later” this year, the company says.
The UK is moving to bolster its burgeoning sustainable space sector with government funding for projects to advance capabilities ranging from situational awareness to debris removal.
