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Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Happy Memorial Day everyone.

In this issue:

• Astranis’ new approach to GEO satellites
• Virgin Galactic’s return to the skies
• SpaceX news and more

astranisA San Francisco-based satellite internet startup said Wednesday that its first spacecraft has completed a landmark test and will begin bringing broadband access to rural Alaska in mid-June.

It’s a big step for the company, which was founded in 2015 by John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko. By taking a first-principles approach to satellite development, the pair bet they could make a smaller, cheaper spacecraft for geosynchronous orbit, the farthest orbit from Earth and arguably the most inhospitable, and use it to carry the internet. to millions, or even billions, of people around the world.

Their gamble is paying off: the company’s first satellite, Arcturus, launched on a Falcon Heavy in late April. Less than two minutes after separating from the rocket’s upper stage, the spacecraft began sending telemetry and tracking data to Astranis engineers. From there, the satellite connected to an Internet gateway in Utah and communicated for the first time with multiple user terminals in Alaska.

Image Credits: astranis

following a successful flight to the edge of spacespace tourism company Virgin Galactic says it is ready to enter commercial service in June.

Virgin Galactic’s aircraft, VMS Eve, departed the New Mexico launch site with a crew of six (plus two aircraft pilots) at around 9:15 am MT. The VSS Unity space plane fell from the plane’s wing just over an hour later, taking off into suborbital space at an altitude of 44,500 feet. The entire mission lasted around 90 minutes.

The mission, called Unity 25, concludes a nearly two-year hiatus in the company’s operations. That last flight which took place in June 2021, also carried six people into suborbital space, including the company’s founder, billionaire Richard Branson. While Virgin Galactic did not broadcast the Unity 25 mission, the company kept followers updated on social media. NASA Spaceflight, a private news website with a massive following on YouTube and Twitter, unofficially broadcast the flight live.

Image Credits: galactic virgin

More news from TC and beyond

• space fleet raised $33 million to grow its mineral prospecting business in space. (SpaceNews)
• gitai, a Tokyo-based startup, wants to use robots as laborers for the Moon and Mars. (TechCrunch)
• POT is still working on building Mobile Launcher 2 for the next Space Launch System (Artemis II) mission, with steel arriving at Kennedy Space Center. (Bechtel)
• from NASA The Office of the Inspector General found discouraging cost overruns with the Artemis program and, in particular, with the development of the Space Launch System and RS-25 rocket engines. (IGO)
• Vu satellite, a thermal imaging startup, closed a new tranche of funding ahead of its first launch. (TechCrunch)
• spacex will join the US Federal Aviation Administration as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed against the regulator over the environmental effects of the Starship launch program. (CNBC)
• South Korea launched a domestically made rocket into space. (Reuters)
• SkyFi allows anyone to request satellite images from their smartphone. (TechCrunch)
• The Spaceport Company demonstrated the potential of offshore rocket launches in partnership with Evolution Space. (Evolution)
• TRL11 closed pre-seed funding to further develop video solutions for the space environment. (TRL11)
• Great Bear won a contract with the US Air Force to continue development of two massive engines, one for space launch and one for hypersonics. (DefenseNews)
• virgin orbits The launch business was sold for parts to Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch, and Vast. (TechCrunch)

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