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Space Impulse
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Happy Friday, Space Enthusiasts!
From news about impressive and quick pivots to salvage seemingly doomed missions, to historic international collaborations and significant successful funding rounds - we've got your weekly space industry roundup covered below.
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The first commercial lunar mission launched on January 8, at 02:18 EST, with Pittsburgh-based company, Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander aboard the United Launch Alliance's new rocket, the Vulcan. Shortly after a successful launch, the team discovered several unforeseen challenges, rendering the original goal of a lunar soft touch-down impossible.
Despite the technical setbacks, Astrobotic's Peregrine spacecraft has successfully powered up several of the lander’s payloads and is currently collecting and transmitting valuable data. The mission’s predicted lifespan has increased, with the company estimating that the spacecraft had approximately 48 hours of propellant remaining, during their latest mission update, a significant improvement from previous estimates.
Two specific instruments, NSS and LETS, are actively measuring the radiation environment in the space surrounding Earth and the Moon, providing complementary insights into galactic cosmic ray activity and space weather phenomena caused by solar activity.
Oxford Space Systems Limited has completed an equity investment round, securing approximately ￡3 million in funding to drive expansion opportunities.
The funding round, primarily backed by existing investors, comes as the company experiences rapid growth, including a tripling of revenues, five successful antenna deployments in space, and an increase in employee numbers from 50 to 87 over the past two years.
Oxford Space Systems plans to use the funding to pursue high-growth product opportunities, including variants of existing antenna architectures, and expand its market reach into high-frequency satellite communication markets both in space and on the ground.
NASA and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have unveiled plans for MBRSC to contribute an airlock to Gateway, the first space station to orbit the Moon. Under the agreement, MBRSC will provide the Crew and Science Airlock module for the Gateway Space Station, along with a UAE astronaut to fly on a future Artemis mission. The airlock will serve as a critical component, facilitating transfers of crew and scientific research between Gateway’s pressurized modules and the vacuum of space.
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Italian space logistics startup D-Orbit has secured 100 million euros in a funding round led by Japan’s Marubeni. D-Orbit has seen triple-digit yearly revenue growth since 2021 and was valued at $1.28 billion in January of 2022. The company is looking to distinguish itself by providing technology to guide satellites to their planned orbits after successful rocket launches.
SpaceX's second Falcon 9 launch of 2024 carried a telecom satellite for Swedish company, Ovzon, on January 3, at 6:04 PM EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The satellite, Ovzon 3, included two 5-kW Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) that were developed and successfully deployed by Redwire Corporation, a leader in space infrastructure. This marks the first-ever integration of Redwire Corporation’s ROSA technology with a commercial satellite.
The ROSA technology will also power the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) for NASA’s Gateway program.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been awarded a $54 million contract by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop QuickSounder, the inaugural satellite in a new generation of low-Earth orbit environmental satellites for NOAA. QuickSounder will serve as a prototype for NOAA’s next environmental satellite series and is a groundbreaking small satellite (smallsat) with an accelerated development timeline – planning to be launched in 2026.
The innovative satellite promises a remarkable reduction in data latency, delivering 95% of collected data within 30 minutes, significantly enhancing NOAA’s weather forecasting capabilities.
NASA has announced a delay in its Artemis III mission, part of the ambitious Artemis program aimed at returning humans to the moon. The mission is now scheduled for September 2026. The safety of astronauts remains NASA’s top priority, and the postponement will provide additional time for addressing the identified issues.
The Artemis program aims not only to return humans to the moon but also to establish a long-term human presence beyond Earth’s orbit, paving the way for future exploration, including a mission to Mars.
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