Category: satellite
Why Kepler is building its full-stack satellite business in Canada
Toronto-based telecommunications startup Kepler Communications surprised many recently when it revealed plans to establish its own satellite assembly and base the operation in its own hometown instead of contracting the work to an existing manufacturer. It might seem a perplexing and unnecessarily costly choice at first, but I spoke to…
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Max Q: Spacex gets ready for first human flight
Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. This week turned out to be a surprisingly busy one in space news – kicked off by the Trump administration’s FY 2021 budget proposal, which was generous to…
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Rocket Lab will launch a satellite to the Moon for NASA to prepare for the Lunar Gateway
Launch startup Rocket Lab has been awarded a contract to launch a CubeSat on behalf of NASA for the agency’s CAPSTONE experiment, with the ultimate aim of putting the CAPSTONE CubeSat into cislunar (in the region in between Earth and the Moon) orbit – the same orbit that NASA will…
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Astranis raises $90 million for its next-gen satellite broadband internet service
YC-backed Astranis has raised $90 million of new combined debt and equity funding in a Series B round led Venrock, with a sizeable contribution by existing investor (and lead of their 2018 round) Andreessen Horowitz. The funding will be used to help the company launch its first commercial satellites, which…
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Blue Canyon Technologies chosen by Made in Space for orbital manufacturing demo mission
In-orbit manufacturing startup Made in Space has tapped Colorado’s Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) to help support its Archinaut One demonstration mission contracted by NASA, which is currently set to take place in 2022. The mission will see Made in Space show off the assembly of two ten-meter solar arrays on…
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Orbital debris startup Astroscale chosen by JAXA for its first space junk removal mission
Japanese orbital debris removal technology startup Astroscale is going to be working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the agency’s first mission to remove some of the junk that currently exists on orbit. They’ve been selected by the age y to participate in its Commercial Removal of Debris…
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