New aerospace VC, updates from early-stage launch providers, and NSR space industry report
Precious Payload
Book your seat on a rocket, insure your satellite, and manage your mission’s progress all in one place
Precious Payload Weekly Smallsat News: July 18 — 24
Precious Payload’s weekly newsletter is the only place to get the latest smallsat news, organized for you and your team!
Launch Updates
????Isar Aerospace will fly satellites from equatorial ????Guiana Space Centre (CSG) starting in 2024. [Press Release]
????ATSpace, a sister company to Taiwanese rocket developer ????TiSPACE, will conduct two suborbital test flights of its experimental Kestrel I rocket (Missions VS02 and VS03) from ????the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex operated by ????Southern Launch. [SpaceWatch]?
????Stoke Space Technologies unveils the images of its hydrogen-oxygen rocket test facility and shares some updates on their rocket manufacturing progress: the team designed and tested thrust chambers, ox turbopump, and fuel turbopump. [LinkedIn]
????ISISPACE will provide launch services on the Transporter 8 mission by ????SpaceX in April 2023 for the 11,5 kg ????The Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) spacecraft (the University of Melbourne + Australian industry partners + ????the Italian Space Agency). [Press Release]
????Vaya Space will launch a satellite constellation for ????All2Space. [SatNews]
Headlines
An unnamed ????US Governmental entity signed a contract with ????Alba Orbital to use the company’s ‘Night-Time’ satellite optical imagery to monitor light pollution. [Press Release]
????Relativity and ????Impulse Space announce a joint robotic ??Mars lander mission to be launched aboard Terran R? in 2024. [SpaceNews]
????Spire Global will use ????RAL Space’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HYMS) instrument in its future satellites to improve its weather forecast services. [SpaceNews]
????Satellite Vu orders a second satellite from ????SSTL (a clone of a previously ordered one, based on SSTL’s 130kg DarkCarb design) for its planned thermal imaging constellation which starts to launch in Q1 2023 on a ????SpaceX Transporter rideshare. [MeteorologicalTI]
????OneWeb is nearing a deal to combine with ????Eutelsat in a transaction that would create a pan-European operator that could better compete with ????Starlink. [Bloomberg] [TalkSatellite]
????Northern Sky Research (NSR) sees the global satellite manufacturing and launch market positioned to generate $633B through the next decade. Primarily driven by non-GEO constellations, 33,000+ satellites are projected to be manufactured and launched by 2031. With over 150 satellite constellations in various phases of funding and development, this segment is critical to the revenue picture for manufacturing & launch markets. [Press Release]
????Millennium Space could control the orbital spacing of its LEO constellation of three small satellites without internal propulsion using atmospheric drag management techniques. [SpaceNews]
Funding
????Boeing to invest $50M in a new aerospace venture fund AEI HorizonX, which aims to raise $250M to invest in startups in future mobility, space, sustainability, digital enterprise applications, networks, and security. [Via Satellite]
????ESA gives ????/ ???? Thales Alenia Space and ????/ ????QinetiQ a $2.4M contract to develop a Skimsat tech-demo, a smallsat platform designed to operate in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). [SpaceNews]
Looking for a launch?
Check out our?comprehensive
Companies highlighted in this market update: Isar Aerospace, tiSPACE - Dedicated Space Services, STOKE Space Technologies, ISISPACE Group, Italian Space Agency, Vaya Space, SatNews, Alba Orbital, Relativity Space, Impulse Space , Satellite Vu, Northern Sky Research, NSR, Millennium Space Systems, A Boeing Company, Thales Alenia Space, QinetiQ, Via Satellite Magazine, @Meteorological Technology International, and others.