Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Happy Memorial Day everyone.
in this issue:
- Astranis’ novel approach to GEO satellites
- Virgin Galactic returns to the skies
- News from SpaceX, and more
Astranis, a satellite Internet startup based in San Francisco, said Wednesday that its first spacecraft has completed a milestone test and will begin bringing broadband access to rural Alaskans as soon as mid-June.
It’s a big step forward for the company, which was founded in 2015 by John Gedmark and Ryan McLinco. Taking a first-principle approach to satellite development, the pair bet they could build a small, cheap spacecraft for geosynchronous orbit — the farthest orbit from Earth and arguably the most inaccessible — and use them to send millions or even billions of internet data. Can bring. of people all over the world.
Their bet is paying off: The company’s first satellite, Arcturus, launched on a Falcon Heavy in late April. Less than two minutes after separation from the rocket’s upper stage, the spacecraft began sending telemetry and tracking data to Astranis engineers. From there, the satellite connected to an Internet gateway in Utah and communicated with several user terminals in Alaska for the first time.
Image Credits: Astranis
After a successful flight to the edge of space, space tourism company Virgin Galactic says it is set to enter commercial service in June.
Virgin Galactic’s aircraft, VMS Eve, carrying a crew of six (plus two flight pilots) lifted off from the New Mexico launch site at approximately 9:15 a.m. ET. The VSS Unity spaceplane dropped off the jet’s wing a little more than an hour later, flying to suborbital space at an altitude of 44,500 feet. The entire mission lasted for about 90 minutes.
The mission, dubbed Unity 25, ends a nearly two-year hiatus in the company’s operations. That last flight, which took place in June 2021, carried six people into suborbital space, including billionaire Richard Branson, the company’s founder. While Virgin Galactic did not broadcast the Unity 25 mission, the company kept followers updated on social media. NASA Spaceflight, a private news website with massive followings on YouTube and Twitter, unofficially livestreamed the flight.
Image Credits: Virgin Galactic
More news from TC and beyond
- Fleet Space Raised $33 million to grow its space-based mineral prospecting business. (Space News)
- Gitai, a Tokyo-based startup, wants to use robots as a labor force for the Moon and Mars. (TechCrunch)
- NASA With Steele arriving at Kennedy Space Center, work is still on building Mobile Launcher 2 for the next Space Launch System mission (Artemis II). (Bechtel)
- NASA’s The Office of the Inspector General found the Artemis program, and particularly the development of the Space Launch System and RS-25 rocket engine, to be cost prohibitive. (OIG)
- satellite view, A thermal imaging startup closed a new tranche of funding ahead of its first launch. (TechCrunch)
- spacex Starship will join the US Federal Aviation Administration as a co-respondent in a lawsuit filed against the regulator over the environmental impacts of the launch program. (CNBC)
- South Korea Launched a home-made rocket to space. (Reuters)
- SkyFi Allows anyone to order satellite imagery from their smartphone. (TechCrunch)
- spaceport company Demonstrated off-shore rocket launch capability in partnership with Evolution Space. (Development)
- TRL11 Closed pre-seed funding to further develop video solutions for the space environment. (TRL11)
- Sptrshimondl Won a contract with the US Air Force to continue development of two giant engines, one for space launch and one for hypersonics. (Defence News)
- virgin orbit The launch business was sold to Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and VAST for parts. (TechCrunch)
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