Latest from Stefanie Waldek
Space
With $20M in new funding, Hydrosat preps climate-monitoring satellites for launch
5:02 am PDT • April 25, 2023
Data is becoming as precious as water in precision agriculture, and Hydrosat aims to help provide both with a new set of Earth observation satellites. The company has raised a…
Space
NASA’s InSight mission is winding down — a look back at the Mars lander’s many accomplishments
1:55 pm PST • December 20, 2022
Another Mars robot is settling in for a long, long sleep. With dust caking its solar panels, InSight has been losing the ability to recharge for months — in the…
Space
Space startup Stells wants to put spacecraft-charging covers on the moon
9:16 am PST • November 21, 2022
The portable power bank first came on the scene in 2001, and since then, on-the-go charging has been a possibility for most mobile device users. Now, a new space company…
Space
Smashing success: NASA’s DART spacecraft bumped an asteroid off its orbit
3:00 pm PDT • October 11, 2022
The demise of a spacecraft is usually something rather poignant. But two weeks ago, NASA celebrated one’s destruction. On September 26, NASA executed the final stage of the Double Asteroid…
Space
Morpheus Space’s satellite thrusters are propelled forward with a $28M Series A
4:28 pm PDT • September 14, 2022
The booming satellite industry has been a boon for Morpheus Space, which produces a modular, electric propulsion system for small satellites. Morpheus has raised a $28 million Series A, with…
Space
Northrop Grumman taps Firefly Aerospace to upgrade its Antares rocket to American-built engines
12:18 pm PDT • August 8, 2022
Chalk one up for the American broomsticks. Northrop Grumman has announced that it will partner with startup Firefly Aerospace to build an all-American version of its workhorse Antares rocket, which…
Space
SpaceX launches South Korea’s first moon mission, an orbiter named Danuri
12:45 pm PDT • August 5, 2022
South Korea is headed for the moon. Last night, the country launched its first-ever lunar mission — in fact, its first-ever mission beyond low Earth orbit. Formerly called the Korea…
Space
China’s new Mars images show off the country’s robust (but secretive) space program
10:34 am PDT • July 1, 2022
With a $24 billion budget and dozens of active, high-profile missions, it’s not surprising that NASA is the most visible of the dozens of government space agencies in the world.…
Space
Watch Virgin Orbit’s ‘Straight Up’ launch of Space Force satellites live tonight
12:47 pm PDT • June 29, 2022
Update: The launch was delayed due to a slight problem with propellant temperature, but Virgin Orbit has confirmed it will make its next attempt tonight (July 1st) no earlier than…
Space
At NASA’s Lunabotics competition, students design mining robots for the moon
1:48 pm PDT • June 27, 2022
If this year’s Lunabotics competition is any indication, there’s a bright future ahead for the surface of the moon — and below it. The NASA-hosted challenge recently saw 39 teams…
Space
NASA assembles a UFO research team to study ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’
4:19 pm PDT • June 9, 2022
NASA has announced the formation of a study team dedicated to UFOs — or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), as they’ve been rebranded to shed some of their tin-foil-hat stigma. But…
The concept of solar sails is not particularly new — just check out the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2, French startup Gama or NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System. But one group…
UK taps Virgin Orbit to launch first satellites from its own soil this summer
12:31 pm PDT • May 11, 2022
The United Kingdom has a small but growing space industry, with the number of space-related organizations increasing by an average of 21% each year since 2012, but there is one…
Space
GPS signals could detect tsunamis better and faster than seismic sensors
10:40 am PDT • May 5, 2022
GPS networks are already a crucial part of everyday life around the world, but an international team of scientists has found a new, potentially life-saving use for them: tsunami warnings.…
Startups
Vyoma is the latest player seeking to prevent satellite collisions with space junk
9:22 am PDT • April 29, 2022
As you might’ve heard, it’s getting a little crowded in space, between thousand-satellite constellations à la SpaceX’s Starlink and the millions of pieces of space junk accumulated from decades of…
Space
NASA grants $279M to six private satcom providers, including $70M for SpaceX
9:20 am PDT • April 21, 2022
NASA is deepening its relationship with the commercial space industry, announcing $278.5 million in funding for six American satellite communications providers — though it expects the companies to make some…
We often think of NASA as an agency that looks outward into space, but it’s the agency’s position in space that makes it such a powerful tool for observing the…
Startups
Slingshot Aerospace scores $25M Space Force contract to build ‘digital twin’ space simulator
6:01 am PDT • March 31, 2022
Space simulation and analytics company Slingshot Aerospace has been awarded a $25.2 million, 39-month contract by the U.S. Space Force (USSF) to further develop and deliver two of its products:…
Space
French aerospace company Gama raises $2M to develop a solar sail spacecraft
11:02 am PDT • March 21, 2022
Just as sea breezes propel sailboats across the sea on Earth, solar radiation might one day be able to propel spacecraft between the stars. Or at least that’s the hope…
Space
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter will keep flying on Mars through at least September
10:15 am PDT • March 21, 2022
It’s been a busy year on Mars for NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, and it’s not about to slow down now. After 21 flights, the aircraft is still in excellent condition, so…
Startups
Slingshot Aerospace raises $25M to help satellite operators navigate space traffic
5:01 am PST • March 10, 2022
It’s getting a little crowded in low Earth orbit. Between the proliferation of small-scale satellites, massive constellations à la SpaceX’s Starlink and an ever-growing collection of space junk, launching and…
Space
SpaceX launches 48 more Starlink satellites on an ‘American broomstick’
2:42 pm PST • March 9, 2022
It’s up, up and away for another SpaceX Starlink mission. At 5:45 this morning PST, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in…
SpaceX is aiming to launch more rockets in 2022 than it has in any year past, and with today’s successful Starlink launch, it’s well on its way to reaching that…
Space
NASA extends SpaceX’s Commercial Crew contract by three missions for $900 million
6:58 pm PST • February 28, 2022
NASA announced today that it has officially awarded SpaceX the Crew-7, Crew-8 and Crew-9 missions to the International Space Station, bringing SpaceX’s total Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to…
Space
Watch Rocket Lab launch a StriX satellite from its new launch pad in New Zealand live
10:24 am PST • February 28, 2022
Update: Successful launch and payload deployment per Rocket Lab. For its first launch of 2022, Rocket Lab is sending to orbit a StriX satellite for Japanese company Synspective via an…
