Space Economy

Vast is targeting a contract to build the successor to the International Space Station (ISS), unveiling Haven-2 on Monday, its proposed space station design. Vast said it developed Haven-2 to offer a compelling solution to ensure continued U.S. and international partner presence in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) after the ISS is retired. The company declared its...

Baiju Bhatt, one of the co-founders of investing app Robinhood, is launching a space solar power company called Aetherflux. Bhatt announced the concept of Aetherflux to commercialize space solar power as a renewable energy source, in a Medium post on Wednesday.  Bhatt co-founded the trading app Robinhood in 2013 and served as co-CEO of the...

NASA awarded Intuitive Machines a contract to support the agency’s lunar relay systems as part of the Near Space Network. As part of this contract, Intuitive Machines plans to deploy a lunar satellite constellation to provide communication and navigation services for NASA’s Artemis activities on the Moon.  NASA announced the award for “Subcategory 2.2 Geostationary...

The Polaris Dawn mission, in which a crew of four civilians will attempt the first civilian spacewalk, will also test out Starlink laser communications aboard the Dragon spacecraft.   SpaceX launched the Polaris Dawn mission early Tuesday at 5:23 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A crew of four civilians in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will...

Astroscale has signed a significant new MoU in the United Kingdom with Airbus Defence and Space as the two companies look to explore collaborative opportunities in the field of in-orbit servicing and space debris removal. The two U.K. subsidiaries will aim to leverage the strengths and capabilities of both companies to address the growing challenges...

Impulse Space has two new offerings to help satellites reach Geostationary Orbit (GEO). The company announced Tuesday it will offer a rideshare program to GEO for small satellites using its Helios kick stage starting in 2027. In addition, Impulse Space updated the design of its Mira orbital transfer vehicle to enable operations in GEO.  ...

Axiom Space will partner with various partners as it looks to send three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on Axion Mission 4 (Ax-4), the company’s next commercial human spaceflight mission to the orbiting laboratory. It will partner with India through the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Poland, with European Space Agency (ESA) support,...

Booz Allen Hamilton deployed a generative AI large language model (LLM) in space onboard the International Space Station (ISS) National Lab, the company announced Aug. 1. The LLM was uploaded to the Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Spaceborne Computer-2 onboard the ISS. In the payload experiment, the team uploaded the LLM repeated the experiment with new...

Former Made in Space and Redwire leaders Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder are launching a new venture Star Catcher Industries to build the first power grid in space to bring more power to satellites in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).  Star Catcher announced a $12.25 million seed round on July 24, led by Initialized Capital and B...

Japanese satellite manufacturer Axelspace is debuting a new service for in-orbit demonstration of space components, called AxelLiner Laboratory or AL Lab. The service allocates space on Axelspace’s 100 kg-class microsatellites to customers for their in-orbit demonstration equipment.  Axelspace said that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has provided in-orbit demonstration opportunties through the Innovative Satellite...