Hello and welcome back to Max Q!
In this issue:
- ispace lunar lander presumed missing
- Ursa Major Update
- Hydrosat news and more
ispace loses contact with lunar lander seconds before landing
The Japanese company ispace lost communication with its Hakuto-R lander moments before it was it was supposed to land on the lunar surfacea big blow for what the company hoped would be the first completely private lander to reach the moon.
“At this time, we have not been able to confirm a successful landing on the lunar surface,” ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said on the company’s live broadcast. “Currently, we have not confirmed communication from the lander. […] We have to assume that we were unable to complete the landing on the lunar surface.”
He said ispace engineers will continue to assess the situation and provide an update once the investigation is complete.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Hakamada said that while the lander may be safe and intact on the surface, there is still no data to support this and it’s unclear whether images from a lunar orbiter could shed any light on the situation. .
Image Credits: Live broadcast of ispace Hakuto-R landing (screenshot)
Ursa Major’s deal with Astra and new tranche of financing
Rocket engine manufacturer Ursa Major made great achievements: First, it publicly announced the news that Astra’s new Rocket 4 launch vehicle will use Ursa Major engines. Hadley liquid engine to power its upper stage. Then I found out that the company quietly closed a massive new tranche of financing last October at a pre-money valuation of $400 million.
Ursa, led by CEO Joe Laurienti, is building a 5,000-pound liquid-oxygen-kerosene engine called the Hadley and a much larger Ripley engine 10 times more powerful with 50,000-pound thrust. The company avoids the vertical integration paradigm that has historically dominated the aerospace industry. Instead, it focuses solely on the engine, one of the most difficult parts of a rocket to develop.
“We really like the idea that we’re a technology development company, and companies that fly rockets today shouldn’t be flying with the same engine that they designed for their rocket 10 years ago,” Laurienti told TechCrunch in an interview on Thursday. last year. “That’s the paradigm we see in vertical integration.”
Ursa’s other public customers include small launch companies Phantom Space and Stratolaunch. The company also won an engine delivery contract with the US Air Force.
Jordan Forness, vehicle operations manager at Ursa Major, checks out a Hadley engine before sending it to Astra. Image Credits: Great Bear
More news from TC and beyond
- Astra will provide five spacecraft propulsion kits to power up Apex Space’s satellite bus platform. (Astra)
- astrobotic selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to launch its Griffin lunar lander to the moon in the fourth quarter of this year. (astrobotic)
- astroscale secured a loan agreement and opened a new line of credit with two separate Japanese banks, each for approximately $22 million. (astroscale)
- hydrosatellite closed with $20 million in new funding to scale its operations, including launching its first two thermal infrared satellites into orbit. (TechCrunch)
- POT and its partners confirmed that they would support operations on the International Space Station until 2030, and Russia agreed to support operations until 2028. Long live the ISS! (POT)
- quantum space is accelerating the schedule for the launch of its Ranger orbital transfer vehicle in response to growing customer demand. (space news)
- from spacex The starship’s orbital flight test scattered debris over hundreds of acres and blanketed a nearby city in dust. (Bloomberg)
- US Space Force agreed to lease Space Launch Complex 6 to SpaceX for Falcon launches. (USSF)
Max Q is featured by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you like reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.
Max Q: Expect the worst, expect the best by Aria Alamalhodaei originally posted on TechCrunch
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