Moonshot #21

FAA grounds Virgin Galactic, SpaceX tapped to launch Starlab, Interlune raises $15.5 million, and everything else happening in the private sector.

An early Virgin Galactic research flight shows how the VSS Unity spaceplane separates from its carrier plane. Credit: Virgin Galactic, AP

Virgin Galactic – If only it wasn’t so quiet, maybe no one would’ve noticed the alignment pin drop from the Galactic 06 flight on January 26th. Now, nothing “falling off” of an aircraft is ever great news – we were painstakingly reminded of this with the infamous Alaska Airlines 737 incident – but Virgin Galactic assured the public that the loss of an alignment pin during their Q1 flight posed no risk to the crew onboard. The pin is certainly important, as it helps connect the VSS Unity spaceplane to its mothership aircraft, the VMS Eve; however, it did not detach until after the two vehicles separated. Harmless or not, the company did have to report the incident to the FAA and will ultimately complete an investigation before flying again. They may just have time to do so and stay on schedule, as they transitioned to a quarterly cadence this year, as opposed to their monthly flights from 2023.

SSST – Starlink may see some new competition from China, as the government-backed Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) recently raised $933 million (6.7 billion yuan) to construct their own LEO constellation. The satellite constellation plan – known as “G60” – is Shanghai’s part in a nation-wide push for technological self-reliance and a thriving domestic commercial space industry. 

Lynk Global – A Virginia-based direct-to-device satellite operator is jumping on the SPAC train. Announced at the beginning of the month, Lynk Global has agreed to merge with baseball hunk star A-Rod’s firm, Slam Corp. Alongside the merger, which will bring in a minimum cash agreement of $110,000 million and allow the company to publicly list shares, Lynk is also pursuing a Series B round of $40 million. It is the company’s hope that all this cash will help them swiftly expand their LEO satellite presence. With the firm’s current three satellites, Lynk provides intermittent and low-bandwidth services directly to unmodified devices in over seven countries, although only three – Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, and Palau – have been officially announced. Lynk is not currently reporting revenue from these services, but with the growth of their satellite fleet, they anticipate 2025 to be a different story. With 38 total satellites kicking off 2025, Lynk projects revenue of around $100,000 in Q1 and $10 million in Q2. By the fourth quarter, Lynk hopes to have 74 satellites in operation and hence bring in $41 million during the last few months of the year. While there is undoubtedly hesitation in the market around SPAC mergers – specifically, a fear of unrealistic revenue projections – we do love to see more competition gearing up for direct-to-smartphone services beyond Starlink and AST SpaceMobile. 

OQ Technology – And on that note, also jumping into the direct-to-smartphone pool is Luxembourg-based OQ Technology. The European company received a “feasibility contract” from the Luxembourg government of an undisclosed amount, likely to be under $1 million based on similar contracts. The company already has eight cubesats in LEO and two on the way, scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket next month. Like Lynk, the goal of OQ’s satellites is to connect to unmodified smartphones, but at the moment, the fleet can only connect to IoT devices, or wireless sensors. In essence, the government-backed contract will allow OQ to upgrade their satellites and explore spectrum-sharing tactics with terrestrial mobile networks. Competitors in the sector are also attempting the latter, creating some stir around coverage interference risks.   

Synthetaic – Wisconsin-based startup Synthetaic is back in the news with $15 million raised in a Series B round. If that name sounds familiar, it may be from their hot, hot press last year, when they tracked the Chinese spy balloon’s path over the United States, using artificial intelligence to analyze satellite data from Planet Labs. The tech firm has – and will continue to develop – a way of leveraging AI to help clients “find the seemingly impossible answers locked inside their visual datasets,” according to CEO Corey Jaskolski. The new funding should allow Synthetaic to bring their analytics tool, Rapid Automatic Image Categorization (RAIC), to the market.

Collins Aerospace tests their spacesuits designed for the ISS on a zero gravity plane. Credit: Collins Aerospace

Collins Aerospace – You may have heard of Axiom’s fashion-forward Prada suits destined for Artemis 3, but new Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) – or in other words, spacesuits that can support presence outside of a spacecraft –  have been a pressing need plaguing the ISS for years. As part of their Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) program, NASA awarded North Carolina-based Collins Aerospace a $97.2 million contract in 2022 to develop an EMU that could replace the aging, leaky and overall limited design that currently exists for ISS astronauts. The company – along with partner ILC Dover and Oceaneering – recently completed a key demonstration of the suit’s compatibility in zero gravity, a successful step towards its critical design review with NASA. And while the modular design is intended for a more general agency technology advancement, Collins did receive an extra $5 million on top of its original contract back in July to develop a special lunar suit, as an additional option to that from Axiom for future Artemis missions. 

Firefly Aerospace – When it comes to a responsive space launch, Firefly Aerospace has shown it can move. Last September, the Texas-based company successfully integrated a satellite with its Alpha rocket and set up a launch within 24 hours as part of Victus Nox, a rapid response test mission commissioned by the U.S. Space Force. While the demonstration more than satisfied the government client, Firefly is now, well, addicted to the power speed. Why go back to a Corolla after you’ve driven a Jaguar, you know? Despite a mishap during an Alpha launch in December undergoing investigation, Firefly has four planned Alpha launches this year. The company is also hoping to apply their love of speed to the Antares 330 and MLV, two collaborations between Firefly and Northrop Grumman that could launch in the next couple years. 

SpaceX – With great space architecture comes great rocket needs, and if there’s one heavy-lifter we all know (and love?), it’s Starship. At the end of January, Voyager Space and Airbus announced a contract with SpaceX for Starship to be the launch provider for the 26 foot wide, stainless steel Starlab, ISS’s commercial successor. Launching the space station to orbit flawlessly, all in one piece and before the International Space Station’s retirement in 2030 is a lot to ask of any provider; while Starship certainly holds (powerful) promise, it’s still very much in its experimental phase, launching only its third demo later this month. Throw in some legal battles with conservation groups and FAA licensing wait times, and they’ve still got a ways to go. Plus, the Starlab team isn’t the only venture putting the pressure on Starship: the Department of Defense is also reportedly in talks with SpaceX about integrating the megarocket into their “sensitive” mission plans. And here’s the kicker: the department would take full command. In other words, SpaceX would deliver a Starship vehicle to the DoD, sans launch services, and the rocket would become the government’s asset…to do with what they will. We’d hate to see that novel of an instruction manual accompanying a first-of-its-kind rocket like Starship, but perhaps the effort feels worthwhile to the Pentagon – to be able to name their own command leader that is not on mushrooms they can trust for high-risk missions.