Overview: In the Stable

I’ve often used the word “workhorse” to describe SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 and for good reason. The rare inflight failure a couple weeks ago opens a revealing gap in how the U.S. gets much of anything to orbit these days, with ripple effects across the industry apparent for even a few weeks’ delay.?

The previous major grounding of a U.S. launch vehicle was Rocket Lab ’s Electron last fall. The company ultimately went a total of 86 days between launches, which even then was a brief gap for typical launchers. The blistering pace of Falcon 9 launches, on average every two to three days this year, means that while it sits on the ground, a lot less stuff is going to space.

We’re now at 15 days and counting of the Falcon 9 grounding and recent indications are that SpaceX aims to resume flights any day. The company has requested that the FAA allow Falcon 9 to return to flight with uncrewed satellite missions and, at midnight yesterday, SpaceX performed a static fire test of a rocket in Florida that’s expected to represent its return-to-flight mission.

The ability to resume flights for SpaceX’s own satellites would mark a step toward once again serving its external launch customers.?

George Nield , who led the FAA’s space office for a decade, emphasized to me that SpaceX’s ability to begin launching again soon is thanks to the company’s “long track record now of safely operating this system” – which, at the end of the day, is what the regulator cares most about.

“This is a little bit different than has historically been the case when everybody was launching at a much slower pace,” Nield said, so a return-to-flight approval hinges on “what, if anything, is going to be different going forward?”

This is also a good opportunity to recognize why SpaceX is so often a topic of this newsletter and, in general, of industry reporters. Beyond its outspoken owner, SpaceX is effectively multiple companies in one between its operational Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules, growing Starlink network, and development of the next-gen Starship.

Beyond the company itself, you can look at the next month or so of Falcon 9 launches to see how much other companies and U.S. allies rely on the rocket. As I’m oft-reminded of by industry sources, every day a satellite is waiting on the ground is a day it’s not making money in orbit.

Taking Starlink missions out of the equation, you’ve got more than a half dozen missions planned for Falcon 9 in the coming weeks servicing countries like India and Norway; agencies including the U.S. Space Force, companies such as Dish, Viasat , Maxar Technologies and AST SpaceMobile . That’s before taking into account the pending crewed flights of NASA and the Polaris Program, too.

Nield, for his part, isn’t worried about an extended impact given the likelihood SpaceX gets Falcon flying again soon.?

“The potential is there to affect a lot … [but] I still believe that they could get the go-ahead very quickly, in which case it might not affect hardly anybody,” Nield said.

WHAT'S UP

• U.S. signs space cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which “establishes the overall legal framework to facilitate and strengthen mutually beneficial collaboration between the two countries” and was signed by the leaders of NASA and the Saudi Space Agency. – NASA
• The global space economy grew 7.4% last year to $570 billion, according to the latest report by the nonprofit Space Foundation. The industry has nearly doubled in size in the past decade. – Space Foundation
• First summer intern launched to space? Blue Origin announced the six-person crew for the upcoming New Shepard flight NS-26, which includes UNC undergrad Karsen Kitchen – the daughter of NS-20 crewmember Jim Kitchen and, per her LinkedIn, a current Blue Origin intern. – Blue Origin
• ABL Space Systems loses rocket to pad fire as the company was preparing for its second demonstration launch in Kodiak, Alaska. The company says the fire followed a test on the pad. It's investigating the cause. – ABL Space
• Sierra Space conducts second full-scale burst test of its space habitat tech: The company heralded the test at NASA’s Marshall center in Alabama as further validation of its inflatable module as it prepares to certify the tech for use in space. – Sierra Space / Sierra Space
• Morpheus Space opens satellite electric propulsion factory in Germany, which the company says will manufacture 100 units of its GO-2 system a year out of the facility in Dresden. – Morpheus
• Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major opens Ohio lab in Youngstown, which the company says will focus on using 3-D printing to produce components and solid rocket motors. – SpaceNews
• AST SpaceMobile prepares to ship Bluebird satellites, the company’s first commercial satellites, for a September launch window. – AST
• Maxar shows off first images from WorldView Legion satellites that boast a resolution as low as 30 centimeters as it completes the commissioning of the spacecraft in orbit. – SpaceNews

INDUSTRY MANEUVERS

• SpaceX won a $112.7 million NASA contract to launch NOAA's JPSS-4 satellite from Vandenberg on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2027. – NASA
• Astroscale awarded $15 million in government funds from the U.K. Space Agency and European Space Agency for support of its ELSA-M satellite removal demonstration mission scheduled for 2026. – Astroscale
• Astranis Space Technologies raises $200 million at an undisclosed valuation in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund and BAM Elevate and joined by BlackRock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford. The company says the raise fully funds its next-generation satellite program Omega, with the first aimed for launch in 2026. – TechCrunch
• Space energy startup Star Catcher Industries raises $12.25 million in a seed round led by Initialized Capital and B Capital and joined by Rogue VC. The company aims to create a power grid in orbit that redirects solar energy to other spacecraft. – SpaceNews
• Viasat adds LOT Polish Airlines inflight WiFi deal, which will see the company’s satellite communications service added to 15 aircraft across Poland's flag carrier fleet. – Viasat
• United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX awarded additional Space Force launch funds: Space Systems Command, under Phase 2 of the NSSL program, doled out contract modifications worth $1.1 billion to ULA and $661 million to SpaceX. – Defense Daily

MARKET MOVERS

• Iridium stock jumps after Q2 report: The satellite communications company delivered net income of $32.3 million for the period, up from a $30.7 million net loss a year ago, with total revenue of $201.1 million, up 4% year over year. It had 2.4 million total subscribers at the end of the quarter, up 13% year over year. – Iridium
• Lockheed Martin ’s Q2 space results come in nearly flat, at roughly $3.2 billion representing 1% growth year over year. The defense giant noted it saw lower sales for classified national security space programs as well as on the Orion program for NASA. – Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman ’s space unit sees weakest Q2 growth among the aerospace and defense company’s business segments, rising just 2% year over year at nearly $3.6 billion for the quarter. Despite that, Northrop’s space business saw a 14% year-over-year increase in profit for Q2, which it attributed in part to higher sales for programs such as SDA satellites and rocket motors for ULA’s launch of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites. – Northrop Grumman
• Terran Orbital Corporation opens at-the-market raise for up to $98 million in common stock, which the company says is intended “to give our customers and vendors additional confidence that we have adequate capital to successfully manage current and future programs.” – Terran Orbital

BOLDLY GOING

• Tim Peake joins Axiom Space as a strategic advisor, a role for the British astronaut on the company’s team that it says will support the development of “a potential all-UK human spaceflight mission.” – Axiom
• Lisette Bergeron named to USGIF advisory committee: Bergeron, a VP at Leidos, joins the nonprofit United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) . – USGIF
• Angel Smith appointed as SmallSat Alliance executive director, joining the coalition that represents small satellite companies having previously served as a Microsoft executive. – SpaceNews

ON THE HORIZON

• July 26: #NASA Crew-9 press conferences.
• July 30: ULA Atlas V launches the USSF-51?national security mission from Florida.