Author: starpathwp-production
-
Rocket Report: India’s Vikram-1 nears debut flight; AST to become rocket company?
Welcome to Edition 9.03 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX counted down all the way to T-0 on Thursday evening in South Texas before a handful of Raptor engines decided not to light at ignition of the rocket. It is not clear whether the vehicle can be worked on at the pad, or whether Starship will…
-
Sky Perfect JSAT and ispace Partner for Lunar Exploration Ambitions
Sky Perfect JSAT is linking up with ispace in a new MoU in the area of lunar exploration. The two companies will exchange technical information and conduct system compatibility studies with the aim of establishing communications between JSAT Space Line ground stations and ‘ULTRA’, ispace’s next-generation lunar lander planned for Mission 3, currently targeted for…
-
NASA Taps SpaceX Starlink to Beam Artemis III Imagery in 4K
The award reflects NASA’s broader transition away from its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system, which the agency is slowly retiring. Through its Communications Services Project, NASA is commercializing satellite relay services for near-Earth missions. Optical communications systems use infrared light to transmit higher amounts of data than traditional RF systems. The two Starlink mini…
-
AST Eyes $1B Notes as Vikram-1 Targets Orbit
What Is Driving AST SpaceMobile Toward Vertical Launch Integration? AST SpaceMobile announced $1 billion in convertible notes — and its stock dropped more than 10 percent the same evening. The stated rationale tells the more important story: the direct-to-device satellite operator says it needs more rockets, and it is explicitly considering "partnerships and/or acquisitions" to…
-
SWISSto12 Closes US $70 Million Series C to Meet Growing Multi-Orbit Demand
SWISSto12, a leading enabler of the new space economy, announced the close of its $70 million (€61 million) Series C. This news follows the award of $84.8 million (€73 million) from European Space Agency (ESA) Member States to the HummingSat ARTES partnership project, through which ESA supports SWISSto12 in the development and in-orbit validation of HummingSat.…
-
Voyager Technologies Partners with Penn State on Space and Defense Research
Voyager Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with The Pennsylvania State University to collaborate within the Voyager Institute for Space, Technology and Advancement (VISTA) ecosystem. The collaboration will develop joint research programs and applications across in-space research and manufacturing and national security, combining commercial and defense-focused research activities. “This announcement is the latest in…
-
SpaceX scrubs Starship launch after some of its engines didn’t start
SpaceX called off a test flight of its powerful Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster as the countdown clock reached zero Thursday at the company’s spaceport in South Texas. The launch team at Starbase, Texas, just north of the US-Mexico border, aimed to launch the more than 400-foot-tall rocket at 5:45 pm local time (6:45 pm…
-
Space Force Chief Nominee Schiess Counts Moving Target Indication Among Top Priorities
Building U.S. space-based moving target indication systems and the capability to disrupt Chinese military space systems is a top deterrence priority for U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) during his nomination to become the third chief of space operations since the service’s founding in December 2019.…
-
Starship Flight 13 Aborts at Engine Startup, SpaceX to Swap Two Raptors
The launch team at Starbase, Texas, north of the US-Mexico border, aimed to lift off at 5:45 pm local time. The countdown had proceeded smoothly through the day, including the loading of more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen into the two-stage rocket, which stands more than 400 feet tall. The…
-
Could China and Russia really destroy Starlink? Only with a boomerang.
One week ago, three widely respected European news outlets published the results of an investigation into what they described as a “joint plan” by China and Russia to “defeat Elon Musk’s Starlink.” The story was the product of a long-running inquiry by The Insider, Der Spiegel, and Le Monde. Reporters at those publications said they…