Max Q

Max Q: Join us! • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 14, 2022Posted in Max Q, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Before we get to the news, I have a pretty exciting announcement myself: We’re offering to Max Q subscribers free tickets to ZebethMedia’s in-person space event. Find out more about the event and get your free ticket by clicking here. In this issue: Layoffs come to Astra News from NASA, Starlink and more Astra, a rocket startup that went public last year, told investors Tuesday it laid off 16% of its workforce as part of a wider strategy to increase shrinking financial runway and decrease expenses. The company also said it would reduce near-term investments in space services to grow its core businesses: namely, launch and spacecraft engines. This latter segment in particular has become a growing source of revenue for Astra, with the company reporting it had 237 committed orders for its spacecraft engines to entities including Maxar, OneWeb and Astroscale. That represents an increase of 130% from last quarter. The layoffs shine an unflattering light on Astra’s quick growth: CEO Chris Kemp told investors during a call Tuesday that the company tripled in size in the space of a year, swelling to more than 400 people. Given that number, Astra reduced its headcount by at least 64 people. Image Credits: Astra Major space companies, including SpaceX and Relativity, are urging the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stick to its purview — spectrum usage — as it looks to potentially update its rules for in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) missions. There is plenty that the FCC could — and should do — to support ISAM missions that sit squarely within its regulatory bounds, the companies said. SpaceX and others, as well as startups like Orbit Fab, which wants to build refueling depots in space, and Starfish Space, which is developing a satellite servicing vehicle, submitted recommendations related to spectrum and ISAM. The commission also heard from Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance and other space companies and industry groups. Here’s SpaceX: “The Commission must handle this potentially important but still nascent industry with care, exercising caution not to unintentionally stifle innovation by stepping outside the authority expressly delegated to it by Congress.” Image Credits: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images More news from TC and beyond Apple invested $450 million in upgrades to Globalstar’s ground infrastructure and satellite network to support the rollout of Emergency SOS via satellite for iPhone 14 users. (Apple) China is reportedly scrapping plans to make the booster of the Long March 9 heavy-lift rocket expendable in favor of a fully reusable booster. (SpaceNews) NASA did not move the Space Launch System rocket back to the safety of a hangar in advance of Hurricane Nicole’s approach, so the $4.1 billion rocket rode out the storm on the launch pad. As engineers continue inspecting the rocket for damage, the agency decided to move the next launch date to November 16. (NASA) Northrop Grumman‘s Antares rocket sent a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station for cargo resupply, a successful mission despite one of the capsule’s solar arrays not deploying properly. (Northrop Grumman) Rocket Lab had tons of news this week — in addition to releasing its quarterly financial results, the company also announced it won a $14 million contract to supply separation systems for U.S. Space Force satellites. (Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab set a launch date for its first mission from U.S. soil: December 7. My personal suggestion: come to the TC Sessions: Space event on the 6th, then take a direct flight to Virginia. Just saying. (Rocket Lab) Seraphim announced the newest cohort of space startups that will participate in the Seraphim Space Accelerator and Generation Space Accelerator. (Seraphim) SpaceX will impose slower speeds on Starlink users that use large amounts of power during peak hours, in an effort to curb network congestion and increase performance. (CNBC) Starfish Space provided more details about its in-space satellite docking demonstration mission that will take place next year. (GeekWire) Virgin Orbit received a $25 million cash injection from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group as the launcher company’s cash on hand continues to decline. (Virgin Orbit) Voyager Space’s Nanoracks has a new CEO: NASA astronaut and former OneWeb Technologies president Tim Kopra. (Voyager) Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.

Max Q: Ocean splashdown • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 7, 2022Posted in ispace, Max Q, Rocket Lab, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. TC’s in-person Space event is almost upon us. Will you be there? Learn more about the event here. In this issue: Rocket Lab’s helicopter catch attempt ends in ocean splashdown ispace wants to stake its claim to the moon News from the FCC, Constellr and more Rocket Lab’s second attempt to catch a rocket booster mid-air using a helicopter was aborted, though it’s unclear at the time of writing what exactly went wrong. Rocket Lab aims to recover its rocket boosters using a parachute and a helicopter — a bit different than SpaceX, whose boosters return to Earth by vertically landing on a pad. Instead, Rocket Lab’s technique is to equip the booster with a parachute to slow its descent, and keep a helicopter waiting nearby to snag it out of midair. From there, the plan is for the helicopter to carry the booster straight back to the company’s production complex. But alas, we did not see a catch after this launch. Here’s what we know: After a nominal launch and payload deployment, the company’s Sikorsky S-92 helicopter did not make the catch attempt. Instead, the company recovered the booster from the ocean after it splashed down. We’ll be looking out for more information on what went wrong in the days ahead. Tokyo-based startup ispace’s lunar ambitions will soon be put to the test, as the company gears up for its first launch at the end of this month. The startup will attempt to send its “Hakuto-R” lander to the moon’s surface, kicking off an ambitious lunar exploration program of the same name. Founded in 2010, ispace is one of many emerging companies that want to foster new markets on and around the moon; on its website, it describes its goal as becoming “a gateway for private sector companies to bring their business to the moon.” Being the middle- and last-mile delivery partner of the moon could prove to be lucrative, given the intensifying interest from both government space agencies and private companies in lunar exploration. But there’s more than far-off revenues at stake in this first launch; recent reporting suggested that ispace is preparing to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as this fiscal year. While the company was previously targeting a launch window of November 9-15, ispace said Monday it was now aiming to launch no earlier than November 22. The new date was chosen “in careful coordination” with launch partner SpaceX, the startup said in a statement. Indeed, ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada confirmed that the lander had arrived in Cape Canaveral, Florida, via cargo plane in advance of launch. The ispace M1 Hakuto-R lander. Image Credits: ispace More news from TC and beyond Arkisys is launching a new program called “Embark” for on-orbit payload services for SBIR and STTR Phase I entrants. (Arkisys) Blue Origin delivered its set of two BE-4 rocket engines to United Launch Alliance, which will be used on ULA’s heavy-lift Vulcan Centaur rocket as early as next year. (Blue Origin) China is releasing things into orbit using spaceplanes, and we don’t know what they are! (SpaceNews) China launched the third and final module for its Tiangong Space Station, and the rocket booster that carried it to orbit began its uncontrolled reentry back to Earth. (The New York Times/USSC) Constellr raised $10 million in seed funding for its space-based water monitoring system. (ZebethMedia) Exotrail, a company developing last-mile satellite transportation, signed a launch services agreement with German launch startup Isar Aerospace. (Payload) Firefly Aerospace is seeking to raise up to $300 million in private funding at an undisclosed valuation. (Reuters) NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was rolled back out to the launch pad in advance of the next launch attempt on November 14. (CNN) NASA’s Psyche mission was delayed and an independent review board was assembled to investigate why. The report is back, and it’s not good: The review board identified multiple staffing issues at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab, including burnout and a lack of technical expertise in key positions. (NASA) Orbex, a small rocket startup based in Scotland, will oversee construction of the first spaceport for vertical rocket launches on the U.K. mainland. (Orbex) Rocket Lab was contracted by Inmarsat to develop and manufacture an L-band radio for NASA; it also delivered the final solar panels to Maxar that will end up on the space agency’s lunar Gateway orbital platform. (Rocket Lab/Rocket Lab) Sierra Space and Blue Origin will be participating in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s feasibility study exploring g opportunities for Japan to participate in commercializing low Earth orbit. (Baker McKenzie) SpaceX is tentatively targeting early December for Starship’s first test flight, a NASA official said. The company is also now building seven Raptor 2 rocket engines a week. (!) (Ars Technica) SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy for the fourth time ever in a mission for the United States Space Force. The double booster landing made more than a few jaws drop. (ZebethMedia) Spire won a DARPA contract for a preliminary design of a satellite that would carry sensors to measure the ionosphere. (Spire) Terran Orbital landed an additional $100 million investment from Lockheed Martin, and announced it built its massive spacecraft manufacturing facility in California, rather than Florida as originally announced. (ZebethMedia) The U.S. Federal Communications Division will undergo a major organizational shakeup in response to the explosion of activity in commercial space by establishing a Space Bureau to separate satellite policy issues from the overall “International Bureau,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. (FCC) Virgin Galactic released its quarterly financial report and released details on how it plans to kickstart its space tourism service. (Space) Wyvern, a startup building satellites that capture hyperspectral imagery using telescopes that unfold in space, has raised $7 million in a seed plus round. (Wyvern) Photo of the week Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engine. Image Credits: Blue Origin Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.

Max Q: Halloween special • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 31, 2022Posted in Max Q, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Happy Halloween folks. Hope you’re having a very spooky day. By the way… We are counting down to TC’s Space event in December! Learn more here. In this issue: The satellite bus bottleneck Starlink for GPS? News from BryceTech, Quantum Space and more Apex Space, a startup that aims to transform satellite bus manufacturing, emerged from stealth Monday with a $7.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The Los Angeles-based company has set its sights on the satellite bus — the part of the spacecraft that hosts the payload — which it says is the “new bottleneck” hitting the space industry. Apex’s two co-founders, Ian Cinnamon and Maximilian Benassi, said in a blog post that they independently observed core changes to the industry that convinced them that a new satellite bus manufacturing solution was needed. Cinnamon, a technology startup founder whose company, Synapse Technology, was acquired by Palantir in 2020, said he saw payload customers being “held back” by the long and costly process associated with building custom satellite buses. Benassi, an engineer whose career includes a six-year tenure at SpaceX and nearly a year-and-a-half at Astra, observed changes to launch economics that make mass manufacturing — rather than the bespoke engineering process that’s characterized satellite buses thus far — more sensible. “Given this transformative change, we must begin to think about spacecraft differently and adapt to the new market conditions,” the pair said. “We cannot just build spacecraft. We must manufacture them at scale.” Image credit: Apex Space With some 3,000 satellites in orbit, the Starlink constellation is easily the largest in history and of course presents an immense opportunity for global connectivity. But its signals could also be analyzed and used as an alternative to traditional GPS, a new paper claims, with or without SpaceX’s blessing. It would be a public service and wouldn’t cost SpaceX much of anything to implement, but it’s also a valuable service that no business in its right mind (especially one that just committed to a deeply unprofitable connectivity deal in Ukraine) would just implement and provide for free. That said, it may be that the genie is out of the bottle — the data in the paper “illuminates the path” to this use, and someone might find a way to make it work no matter what anyone says. Image Credits: Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images TC’s Darrell Etherington did a nice roundup of our coverage of Musk’s purchase of Twitter, a months-long saga that came to an abrupt and tumultuous end last week. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, it’s hard to imagine how Musk will find the time to dedicate to managing the social media site, but he dove in head first by firing top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal. In the coming weeks, Twitter will delist from the NYSE (ending an approximately nine-year tenure as a public company) and become a private company under Musk’s X Holdings I, Inc. This is only the beginning. Speculation is running wild, but only time will tell how Twitter will transform under Musk’s formidable leadership. Elon Musk carries a sink into Twitter HQ. Image Credits: Elon Musk / Twitter More news from TC and beyond Amazon will build a 172,000-square-foot facility outside Seattle dedicated to making satellites for its Project Kuiper satellite internet initiative. (Amazon) Array Labs, a YC ’22 alum that wants to create a 3D map of the world, closed a $5 million seed round led by Seraphim Space and Agya Ventures. (YC) Boeing incurred another $195 million charge for costs related to the Starliner capsule, bringing the total losses to nearly $900 million, the company reported in its third-quarter financial results. (Boeing) BryceTech released its quarterly report on launch and satellites, finding once again that SpaceX leads for number of launches and number of spacecraft launched to orbit. (BryceTech) Firefly Aerospace is adding former NASA Administrator James Bridenstine to its advisory board. Bridenstine was NASA administrator from 2018 to 2021, during which the agency launched the Artemis moon exploration program and set up the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. (Firefly) NanoAvionics is now Kongsberg NanoAvionics, after the company was acquired by Norwegian technology conglomerate Kongsberg. In addition to the name change, the company said it will be increasing production capacity at its facilities in Lithuania to focus on “serial manufacturing of satellite buses.” (Kongsberg NanoAvionics) NASA generates economic returns three times the size of its annual budget, according to a new report published by…NASA. (CNBC) Orbit Fab has lined up a new investor, 8090 Industries, in its quest to build “gas stations” in space. (Orbit Fab) The Polaris Program’s first mission has slipped from late this year to March 2023, and that date could slip even further. Polaris is backed by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who flew on the Inspiration4 mission to the ISS. (SpaceNews) Privateer, the orbital debris tracking startup founded by Alex Fielding, Steve Wozniak and Moriba Jah, is inviting amateur astronomers to help it collect space junk data through a new partnership with consumer telescope manufacturer Celestron. (Spacewatch) Quantum Space will launch its first cislunar pathfinder mission in late 2024. The mission will collect space domain and space situational awareness data. (SpaceNews) Relativity Space unveiled the fourth generation of its Stargate 3D printer, which the company says has improved print speeds, improved print capacity through a horizontal printing structure, and other updates. These printers will be put to work for Relativity’s heavy-lift Terran R rocket. (Relativity) Russia suggested a military strike against Western satellites supporting Ukraine could be fair game in times of war, highlighting the precarious and uncharted territory of war in space. (Reuters) Sierra Space and IBM signed an MOU to collaborate on developing next-gen tech for Sierra’s space vehicles and infrastructure, like the private space station Orbital Reef. (Sierra) SpaceX is now NASA’s second-largest vendor, behind Caltech, which operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That second spot used to be held by Boeing. (Irene Klotz) Starlink opened preorders for a new piece of hardware equipped for use on vehicles in motion, like moving

The ghost in the machine • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 25, 2022Posted in Max Q, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Disrupt is finally behind us, which can only mean one thing: We are officially counting down to TC’s Space event in December! Learn more here. In this issue: Kayhan Space presents at Disrupt Report: Investment in space battered by high interest rates, inflation News from SpaceX, Orbex and more We’ve covered Kayhan before, but during a presentation at Disrupt the company revealed how it has progressed considerably. The company, which was founded by friends Araz Feyzi and Siamak Hesar, is taking on a growing problem in space: traffic. “There are a lot of satellite-on-satellite conjunctions; it’s less than 10% today but the paradigm is shifting,” Feyzi told ZebethMedia (by “conjunction,” he’s referring to situations when spacecraft orbits overlap). “The sheer number of conjunctions is increasing, because we’re tracking more objects and there are more active satellites — and we expect that to get worse.” As the number of satellites in the sky grows, operators can no longer rely on the time-intensive solutions they previously used to decrease the odds of an in-space collision occurring. That’s where Kayhan comes in. Click the link above to learn about how they’re attempting to fix this problem. Kayhan Space pitches in Startup Battlefield at ZebethMedia Disrupt in San Francisco on October 19, 2022. Image Credits: Darrell Etherington / ZebethMedia Private investment in space continues to be battered by larger macro-economic trends, like high interest rates and inflation, but not all sectors of the space industry are affected equally, a new report from New York-based VC firm Space Capital found. While broader market conditions are disproportionately affecting funding in deep tech — which includes high capex industries like launch and “emerging industries” (think private space stations and orbital debris mitigation) — geospatial intelligence and remote sensing companies are well positioned to withstand these trends, the quarterly report found. Overall, $3.4 billion was invested in 79 space companies this quarter, representing a 44% decline from the same period last year. While total investment declined, early-stage investments increased by 24% versus the same period. Total rounds also saw a 26% decrease YTD compared to the same quarter last year. Image Credits: SpaceX More news from TC and beyond Ariane 6’s first flight has been pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2023, the European Space Agency announced. (ESA) Astra has 200 committed orders for the Astra Spacecraft Engines on the books. (Astra) The Federal Aviation Administration named 21 new members to the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, including representatives from SpaceX, Astra, Relativity Space, Blue Origin and Virgin Orbit. (FAA) Firefly Aerospace added Chris Emerson, the former chairman and CEO of Airbus US, to its board of directors. (Firefly) James Webb Space Telescope did it again. Bravo. (NASA) Orbex, a U.K.-based spaceflight startup, closed £40.4 million ($46.1 million) in funding as it makes a final push to a first orbital flight next year. (ZebethMedia) NASA announced the 16 individuals that will form the independent study team examining unidentified aerial phenomena. (NASA) NASA’s Crew-4 returned home. The four-person crew splashed down off the coast of Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after six months on the International Space Station. (NASA) NASA ordered three more Orion spacecraft from Lockheed Martin for Artemis VI-VIII missions, to the tune of $1.99 billion. (Lockheed Martin) Relativity Space will increase its rocket engine testing footprint at NASA’s Stennis Space Center by 150 acres to support testing of the heavy-lift rocket Terran R’s Aeon R engines. (Relativity) SpaceX’s Falcon 9 completed its 48th launch this year, completely obliterating a once-a-week launch cadence and hitting a new record as the most flown launch vehicle in a year. (Elon Musk) SpaceX withdrew its request to the Pentagon that it fund the ongoing use of Starlink internet terminals in Ukraine, just hours after it was reported that the Pentagon was considering footing the bill using a fund that finances contracts for weapons and equipment for the Ukrainian military. (ZebethMedia / Politico) Starlink is coming to commercial airplanes through a partnership with a commercial- and private jet-focused subbrand, Starlink Aviation. (ZebethMedia) The White House is exploring bringing Starlink to Iran, where civil unrest is still widespread. First Ukraine, now Iran? (CNN) Photo of the week The iconic “Pillars of Creation” as captured by James Webb Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.

Any way you spice it • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 17, 2022Posted in Max Q, SpaceNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Last week was one of those weeks where your head spins with the sheer amount of news/announcements/launches in the space sector. It’s a crazy time to be alive, folks! In this issue: A busy November for… the moon! Launch companies expanding to new continents News from SpaceX, Spire and more If all goes to plan, Florida’s Space Coast could see two separate lunar missions take off in November. Japanese startup ispace said Wednesday it is targeting a launch window of November 9-15 for its first lunar lander mission. Separately, NASA set a trio of possible November launch dates for Artemis I, the first in a series of planned launches to return humans to the moon by the middle of the decade. For NASA, these November dates are backup opportunities after the agency decided to scrub August’s initial launch attempts due to technical issues. The two missions are part of an increasingly widespread push amongst private industry and government space agencies to conduct more science and explore commercial activities on our large natural satellite. ispace’s Hakuto-R lander. Image Credits: ispace Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are expanding their launch capacities as each company gears up for inaugural missions from countries that they have never flown from. For Rocket Lab, that’s the United States; for Virgin, that’s the United Kingdom (which has never seen an orbital launch, ever). Rocket Lab said Wednesday that the Electron rocket arrived at Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at Wallops Island, Virginia; Virgin’s Cosmic Girl 747 airplane touched down at the Newquay Airport in Cornwall, southwest England last week. Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket is expected to arrive in Cornwall soon. The missions are major milestones for the two companies. Until now, Rocket Lab has exclusively launched Electron from the company’s complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. Meanwhile, Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl 747 airplane and LauncherOne rocket have only ever taken off from U.S. soil. Rocket Lab’s Electron arriving in Virginia. Image Credits: Rocket Lab More news from TC and beyond Astra landed two contracts for its spacecraft engines: one with Astroscale for use on its Elsa-M satellite bus; and with Earth observation company Maxar. (Astra; Astra) China launched a synthetic aperture radar satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, marking the country’s 18th successful mission since August. (SpaceNews) Exotrail, a French startup developing in-space logistics, won a French government contract “worth several million euros” to demonstrate the Exotrail spacevan’s ability to change a satellite’s altitude and other capabilities. (Exotrail) Japan’s Epsilon rocket experienced a launch failure due to positioning issues, and the country’s space agency ordered the vehicle self-destruct seven minutes after take off. This is the first failure for the Epsilon rocket, which has been flying since 2013. (The Japan Times) NASA’s DART mission has officially been declared a success, after the space agency announced the target asteroid’s orbit changed significantly due to the impact. (ZebethMedia) Orbit Fab, the “gas stations in space” startup, was awarded $13.3 million to provide fuel for United States Space Force satellites in 2025. (Orbit Fab) Project Kuiper, Amazon’s broadband satellite project, will launch its first two satellites on United Launch Alliance’s under-development Vulcan Centaur rocket, and not ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket as originally planned. Kuiper’s agreement with ABL will stay in place for future satellite launches. (Amazon) Sierra Space is launching a new venture arm, Sierra Space Ventures, to invest in technologies that could be used on Sierra’s space platforms, including its planned private space station Orbital Reef. (Sierra Space) Skyrora’s launch ended in failure after the rocket tumbled into the Norwegian sea shortly after lift-off. This was the company’s first attempt to reach space with its suborbital Skylark L vehicle. (Skyrora) Solestial raised $10 million to take its space-grade solar panels from lab to orbit. (ZebethMedia) SpaceX is asking the U.S. governmement to pick up the bill it’s been paying for providing Starlink services in Ukraine; Elon Musk said monthly burn is approaching $20 million per month. (CNN; Elon Musk) SpaceX stacked Booster 7 and Ship 24 on the launch pad in preparation for more testing. Ars Technica’s Eric Berger tweeted he heard an orbital test flight may come in the second half of December, which would be a very nice Christmas gift for me! (SpaceX; Eric Berger) SpaceX will fly billionaire Dennis Tito and his wife on Starship’s fourth crewed launch, though it’s anyone’s guess when that mission might take place. (Bloomberg) Starlink’s roaming service, dubbed “Starlink for RVs,” now has more than 100,000 customers. (SpaceX) United Launch Alliance is targeting the first quarter of next year for the first flight test of the super-heavy Vulcan Centaur rocket. (ULA) Varda Space, a startup that wants to build factories in space, successfully executed a drop test of a re-entry vehicle in preparation for the first orbital test that will launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission. (Varda Space) Virgin Orbit signed a multi-launch agreement with Spire, with the first launch expected to take place next year. The two companies did not disclose the exact number of launches or the value of the deal. (Virgin Orbit) Photo of the week Stack stack stack stackedy stack. Image Credits: SpaceX (opens in a new window) Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.

Oh my gourd • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 11, 2022Posted in international space station, Max Q, NASA, Rocket Lab, Space, SpaceXNo Comments

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Will every October issue have a Halloween/autumn pun as its title? I’LL NEVER TELL. In this issue: Blast off for Crew-5 Russia’s rethinking on the ISS News from Firefly, TK and more By the way…We are a little over ONE WEEK away from ZebethMedia Disrupt, which is returning live and in-person to San Francisco on October 18-20. Use this link to receive 15% off passes (excluding online and expo). SpaceX continues to set the industry standard for launch cadence, successfully completing three separate missions in the span of five days. The first was Crew-5 on Wednesday (more on that below), followed by a Starlink mission a scant eight hours later. To cap it all off, it launched two satellites for Intelsat on Thursday night. Crew-5 was a milestone for a few different reasons. The mission (so named because it’s SpaceX’s fifth crewed mission with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program) took off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The crew of four — which includes American astronauts Nicole Mann, mission commander, and Josh Cassada, mission pilot; JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, mission specialist; and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, mission specialist — are traveling to the station in a Crew Dragon dubbed “Endurance.” It separated from the Falcon 9 rocket shortly after launch and arrived at the station on Thursday. SpaceX has now delivered 30 humans to space across eight human spaceflight missions. It also marks the first time that a cosmonaut has flown on a SpaceX Crew Dragon and the first time a cosmonaut has flown on an American spacecraft since 2002. Cosmonaut Kikina’s spot on the spacecraft is part of a recent astronaut transportation deal between the U.S. and Russia. American astronaut Francisco Rubio flew to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz last month as part of the deal. Looking ahead, SpaceX’s next CCP mission, Crew-6, will launch in February of next year. The Ax-2 mission, Axiom Space’s second private mission to the ISS, will follow in May. Image Credits: SpaceX Russia is having internal discussions over continuing its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2024, despite statements made earlier this summer that the country will pull out of the station program by the middle of the decade. Sergei Krikalev, head of human space programs at Roscosmos, said Monday that the Russian space agency is in discussions to extend its “participation in [the] ISS program with our government and hope to have permission to continue next year.” The about-face comes just a few months after Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov announced Russia’s plans to leave the station after 2024, and instead construct its own orbiting station. The ISS is operated in partnership between the space agencies of U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe. America has committed to operate the station through 2030. However, Krikalev admitted that a new Russian station may not be ready by 2025. “We know that it’s not going to happen very [quickly], so probably we will keep flying [on the ISS] until we have any new infrastructure that will allow us to do continuous human presence on low Earth orbit,” he said. Image Credits: NASA More news from TC and beyond ArianeGroup conducted a successful hot fire test of the Ariane 6 second stage, a key milestone in stage qualification testing. The European Space Agency is hoping to launch the Ariane 6 rocket sometime next year. CAPSTONE, NASA’s orbit-charting satellite, has regained three-axis attitude control and remains on track to enter its target orbit around the moon on November 13. Firefly Aerospace can now count itself amongst a small number of space companies to have reached orbit. The company launched its Alpha rocket from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 2 on October 1 and declared the mission “100% successful” in achieving its primary objectives. Inmarsat is collaborating with U.K. company Livewire Digital to create a “network of networks” for connectivity across Inmarsat’s geosynchronous satellites, terrestrial 5G and a new constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who bankrolled and flew on the Inspiration4 mission last year, outlined his ambitious plans for the Polaris Dawn series of private human spaceflight missions. The first is expected to launch in partnership with SpaceX in March next year. Redwire is buying QinetiQ Space, a Belgium-based supplier of small satellites and other space infrastructure, for €32 million ($31.1 million). Rocket Lab’s punnily-named “It Argos Up From Here” mission blasted off from the company’s New Zealand launch site on Friday. The dedicated launch carried a General Atomics satellite bus carrying an environmental monitoring payload named Argos-4. Skyrora’s head of government affairs, Alan Thompson, expressed concern over the ongoing vacancy of a key science minister position in the British government. “The new Tory administration has yet to recognize and prioritise the massive opportunities held within the UK Space sector, a truth echoed in 80 days of absence despite the previous incumbent’s commitment and readiness to champion UK Space and Science,” he said in a statement. Space billboards could turn a profit despite costing up to $65 million, according to a new study from Russian researchers at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy will see its first launch in over three years. The mission, scheduled for October 28, will deploy two satellites to GEO for the U.S. Space Force. SpinLaunch completed its tenth successful flight test using its suborbital accelerator. Unlike other tests, this one carried test customer payloads from NASA, Outpost and others. SpinLaunch said the test “demonstrated that SpinLaunch partners’ standard satellite components are inherently compatible” with the company’s unique kinetic launch system. United Launch Alliance launched two SES satellites aboard its Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The mission is part of SES’ effort to collect almost $4 billion in government payouts to clear the C-band. Virgin Orbit has completed a full launch rehearsal for its next flight from Spaceport Cornwall. It will be the first orbital space launch to ever take place from