Space News | TechCrunch

SpaceX debuts portable Starlink Mini for $599

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 21:47:41 +0000

SpaceX unveiled Starlink Mini, a more portable version of its satellite internet product that is small enough to fit inside a backpack. Early Starlink customers were invited to purchase the Starlink Mini kit for $599, according to an invitation sent to customers and viewed by TechCrunch. That’s $100 more than the standard Starlink kit. They […]

Gravitics prepares a testing gauntlet for a new generation of giant spacecraft

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:16:48 +0000

The space industry is all abuzz about how SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and other heavy-lift rockets will change just about everything. One likely consequence is that spacecraft will get bigger — much bigger — as engineers work outside the constraints of low mass requirements. There’s one problem: The current testing regime for spacecraft […]

Boeing’s Starliner capsule took astronauts to space — now it needs to bring them back

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:41:59 +0000

The delays are not over for Boeing’s Starliner capsule. After years of delays, the aerospace giant finally launched the spacecraft earlier this month, but the two-person crew will spend more than double the planned amount of time in space due to continuing technical issues on orbit. On Tuesday, NASA and Boeing officials confirmed that spaceflight […]

Announcing the agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Aria Alamalhodaei, Devin Coldewey, Richard Smith — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000

We’re out-of-this-world excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated Space Stage to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Fintech, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under one big roof. And we’re excited to share we’ll be hosting a pitch competition this year “The Space Challenge, powered by Aerospace” as part of […]

Internal SpaceX documents show the sweet stock deals offered to investors like a16z, Gigafund

Julie Bort, Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 18:11:41 +0000

Like many highly valued startups, SpaceX sometimes allows its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling to company-authorized outside investors. TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an internal SpaceX document about such a tender offer from May 2022. Musk posted on X last month that SpaceX holds such sales for employees about […]

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck on reshaping the space economy at Disrupt 2024

Devin Coldewey — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000

The future of the space industry may look a lot like its past, or so believes Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco, he’ll be explaining how full-service, vertically integrated space companies will (again) be the big winners of this evolving space economy. Rocket Lab was started […]

TechCrunch Space: A new era for human spaceflight research

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We’ll have to wait a little longer for the return of Boeing’s Starliner capsule from the International Space Station — the capsule and its two astronauts will stay at the station for twice as much time as originally planned, to give mission operators additional time to conduct tests […]

Astroscale’s space junk inspection satellite snaps a close-up photo of a discarded rocket stage

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 18:35:08 +0000

Astroscale’s space junk observation satellite has moved within striking distance to a discarded rocket upper stage that’s been floating around Earth for nearly 20 years, taking close-up pictures — preliminary to actually deorbiting the object in a future mission. The company released an image captured by its satellite from a distance of just 50 meters […]

Albedo takes Earth observation up close and personal from very low Earth orbit

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 22:14:45 +0000

Satellite imagery startup Albedo is preparing for its up-close-and-personal debut. Albedo’s first satellite will take to orbit next spring as the company looks to turn the commercial Earth observation industry upside down with its novel approach and ultra-high-resolution cameras. The satellite, called Clarity, will hitch a ride to very low Earth orbit (VLEO) on SpaceX’s […]

We’re about to learn a whole lot more about how the human body reacts to space

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 22:35:39 +0000

We could be entering a renaissance for human spaceflight research, as a record number of private citizens head to space — and as scientists improve techniques for gathering data on these intrepid test subjects. A sign that the renaissance is imminent appeared earlier this week, when the journal Nature published a cache of papers detailing […]

Apex’s off-the-shelf satellite bus business attracts $95M in new funding

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 04:01:00 +0000

Fresh off the success of its first mission, satellite manufacturer Apex has closed $95 million in new capital to scale its operations. The Los Angeles-based startup successfully launched and commissioned its first spacecraft, a model called Aries, in March. That mission has gone off seemingly without a hitch — a rarity in the space industry […]

Biden administration looks to give Rocket Lab $24M to boost space-grade solar cell production

Aria Alamalhodaei — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:12:52 +0000

In addition to the federal funding, the state of New Mexico — where SolAero is based — committed to providing financing and incentives that value $25.5 million.

TechCrunch Space: A week that will go down in history

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. What a week! In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we got to watch those two astronauts dock with the International Space Station. And we also got to see SpaceX launch Starship for the fourth time […]

iPhones will soon text via satellite

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:45:44 +0000

"Messages via Satellite," announced at Apple's WWDC 2024 keynote, works much like the SOS feature does.

William Anders, astronaut who took the famous ‘Earthrise’ photo, dies at 90

Anthony Ha — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 20:12:25 +0000

William A. Anders, the astronaut behind perhaps the single most iconic photo of our planet, has died at the age of 90. On Friday morning, Anders was piloting a small plane that dove into the water near Roche Harbor, Washington. His son Greg confirmed his death. Anders retired from the Air Force Reserve as a […]

NASA puts $10M down on Mars sample return proposals from Blue Origin, SpaceX and others

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 22:10:58 +0000

It turns out the space industry has a lot of ideas on how to improve NASA’s $11 billion, 15-year plan to collect and return samples from Mars. Seven of these proposals have caught the agency’s attention. Announced today, NASA has awarded $1.5 million contracts to seven companies to further develop their plans for the revamped […]

Boeing’s Starliner overcomes leaks and engine trouble to dock with ‘the big city in the sky’

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 21:04:07 +0000

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has successfully delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station, a key milestone in the aerospace giant’s quest to certify the capsule for regular crewed missions. Starliner safely docked at 10:34 AM Pacific Time. After taking some time to equalize pressure between Starliner and the station, the hatch opened at around 12:46 […]

SpaceX launches mammoth Starship rocket and brings it back for the first time

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 14:33:26 +0000

SpaceX achieved a key milestone in its Starship flight test campaign: returning the booster and the upper stage back to Earth.

Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule is en route to the ISS

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:18:15 +0000

This is the last major step before Starliner can be certified as an operational crew system, and the first Starliner mission is expected to launch in 2025.

DARPA and Slingshot build system to detect ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ adversary satellites

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The number of satellites on low Earth orbit is poised to explode over the coming years as more mega-constellations come online. This will create new opportunities for bad actors to hide weapons or spy satellites among their fleet. That’s according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which tasked space startup Slingshot Aerospace with […]