Category: GeekWire

Categories
GeekWire

Starfish doubles down on Space Force satellite servicing

Illustration: Otter spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit with Earth in background
An artist’s conception shows Starfish Space’s Otter spacecraft in geosynchronous Earth orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space has been awarded a $54.5 million contract to produce another Otter satellite servicing spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command.

The deal, announced this week, builds on a $37.5 million Space Systems Command contract that was awarded in 2024 through the Department of the Air Force’s Strategic Funding Increase program, or STRATFI. This new contract is funded through a Pentagon program called Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, or APFIT. Starfish noted that the award is the only APFIT contract issued to a space company in the current cycle and ranks among the largest in the program’s history.

Austin Link, co-founder of Starfish Space, said his company was “proud to grow our partnership with the Space Force under the APFIT program.”

“APFIT is a key program in transitioning platforms like Otter from development to deployed capability,” Link said today in a news release. “Through dynamic space operations and autonomous augmented maneuver, we enable the Space Force to sustain critical space assets, increase resilience and maintain operational flexibility across evolving mission demands.”

Like the earlier contract, the new one calls on Starfish to provide an Otter spacecraft for dynamic space operations in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Delivery is scheduled for 2028, with an option for two years of operational support.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Interlune digs into opportunities for lunar construction

Interlune prototype excavator being tested on rocky patch of land
Interlune and Vermeer worked together to test a full-scale prototype of an excavator with auxiliary components. (Interlune / Vermeer Photo)

Interlune is leveraging a $150,000 NASA contract to develop develop lunar trenching and excavation technology — and although the primary goal is to extract valuable helium-3 from moon dirt, the project also signals the company’s broader play for lunar infrastructure.

Interlune’s work on the Small Business Technology Transfer Phase 1 contract, done in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines, demonstrates that the Seattle-based startup’s business model isn’t limited to helium-3. In the years ahead, the technologies pioneered by Interlune for resource extraction can also be used for building roads, base camps and other construction projects on the moon.

For example, the excavator that’s the focus of the NASA funding — known as the Scalable Implement for Lunar Trenching, or SILT — will support Interlune’ plan to sift through tons of lunar soil. But it will also support NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable lunar presence in the 2030s.

“We’re looking at some other tools that would move regolith around, or prepare a site for making a road or building a radiation berm, burying a certain piece of infrastructure like a nuclear reactor,” Interlune CEO Rob Meyerson told me. “So, we’re very interested in participating in the Artemis program in broader ways, and we think the technology we’re developing for helium-3 extraction can support that.”

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

SpaceX wants to launch a million data center satellites

Starlink streaks
This time-lapse image of Venus and the Pleiades shows the tracks of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (Torsten Hansen / IAU OAE / CC Attribution)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk wasn’t kidding about his plans to go big with orbital data centers: The company is asking the Federal Communications Commission to approve a plan to put up to a million satellites in orbit to process data for artificial intelligence applications.

“Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centers is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that can harness the sun’s full power — while supporting AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multiplanetary future amongst the stars,” SpaceX said in an application filed with the FCC on Friday.

If realized, the plan could pose a challenge to AI titans including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and OpenAI — and to Seattle-area space companies such as Starcloud, Sophia Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, all of which are aiming to serve the emerging market for AI data centers.

On the other hand, it could be a boon for SpaceX’s manufacturing facility in Redmond, Wash., which produces the satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation; and for Musk’s xAI company, which has been the focus of merger talks as SpaceX considers an initial public offering. The Wall Street Journal quoted unidentified sources as saying that Musk decided to take SpaceX public in part to raise more capital to build orbital data centers and to help xAI.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Amazon asks FCC for more time to launch Leo satellites

Atlas 5 rocket launch with Amazon Leo satellites
An Atlas 5 rocket rises from its Florida launch pad in December to send 27 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit. (United Launch Alliance Photo)

Amazon says it’s been harder than expected to secure rides for its Amazon Leo broadband internet satellites, and now it’s asking the Federal Communications Commission for more time.

The request for an extension, filed today, asks the FCC to give Amazon until July 30, 2028, to deploy half of its 3,232 satellites in low Earth orbit. The current deadline is July 30, 2026.

Amazon said it’s spent more than $10 billion on its Leo constellation and has reserved more than 100 launches to get the satellites in their proper orbits. But it acknowledged that it’ll miss the original deadline, which was set in 2020 when the FCC gave the initial go-ahead for what was then known as Project Kuiper.

“Despite a historic reserve of launch capacity and deep investments in launch infrastructure, Amazon Leo has faced a shortage in the near-term availability of launches,” the company said. “This shortage has been driven by manufacturing disruptions, the failure and grounding of new launch vehicles, and limitations in spaceport capacity.”

Citing the launch availability gap, Amazon said it has had to reduce the production rate at its satellite manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Wash. “Amazon Leo is capable of consistently manufacturing 30 satellites per week — or over 1,500 satellites per year,” the company said. “To date, Amazon Leo has produced hundreds of flight-qualified satellites, and could readily have produced a multiple of this amount but for adjustments to its production schedule made in response to the delays in its launch manifest.”

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Interlune brings in more cash to get set for moon mining

Illustration: Interlune Harvester on the moon
An artist’s conception shows the Interlune Harvester on the lunar surface. (Interlune Illustration)

Seattle-based Interlune is raising additional investment to support its campaign to identify and extract resources on the moon that can be brought back to Earth, starting with helium-3.

The fundraising effort came to light in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The $5 million offering takes the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE, a contractual arrangement in which investors have the right to receive equity in the company at a later time.

In its initial filing on Jan. 28, Interlune reported that $500,000 of the offering had been sold to a set of six investors. The filing didn’t identify the investors.

In an emailed statement, Interlune CEO Rob Meyerson said the SAFE funding would help support the company’s preparations for the lunar missions ahead.

“Interlune has elected to raise $5 million on a Simple Agreement for Future Equity from existing and new investors to advance key technical milestones ahead of its next priced round,” Meyerson said. “We have several significant projects in the works, which we’re excited to announce shortly.”

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Blue Origin plans ultra-fast satellite data network

TeraWave logo superimposed on picture of trees and night sky with star trails
Blue Origin has lifted the curtain on its plan for an ultra-high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’ll be ramping up an ultra-high-speed satellite data network called TeraWave, which will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network for business from data centers, large-scale enterprises and government customers.

The service appears to dovetail with Amazon Leo, the satellite-based broadband internet service that was Bezos’ brainchild while he served as Amazon’s CEO. Amazon Leo — previously known as Project Kuiper — promises downlink speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). In contrast, TeraWave is targeting higher-end data applications with symmetrical data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second (Tbps), a rate that’s 6,000 times faster.

In today’s announcement, Blue Origin said TeraWave’s constellation would consist of 5,408 laser-linked satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). It plans to start deploying satellites in late 2027, presumably using the company’s New Glenn rockets.

Blue Origin’s plans are discussed in an application and technical annex filed today with the Federal Communications Commission. In its application, the company is seeking waivers from several regulatory requirements in order to get TeraWave off the ground quickly.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Starfish will set up disposal service for military satellites

Illustration: Starfish Space's Otter spacecraft near another satellite in orbit
An artist’s conception shows an Otter spacecraft in proximity to another satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Starfish Space has secured a $52.5 million contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency to dispose of military satellites at the end of their operational lives.

The Tukwila, Wash.-based startup says it’s the first commercial deal ever struck to provide “deorbit-as-a-service,” or DaaS, for a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. In this case, the constellation is the Pentagon’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, which provides global communications access and encrypted connectivity for military missions. The contract calls for Starfish Space to launch the satellite disposal service in 2027.

“This is not research and development. This is an actual service, in a structure that allows that service to scale for this constellation, for an entire industry,” Starfish Space co-founder Trevor Bennett told me. He said the arrangement validates the Space Development Agency’s approach to building and maintaining its constellation, and also validates “the path that we can take with the industry at large.”

Starfish is developing a spacecraft called Otter that would be able to capture other satellites, maneuver them into different orbits, release them and then move on. In a deorbiting scenario, Otter would send the target satellite into a trajectory for atmospheric re-entry that wouldn’t pose a risk to other orbital assets.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

NASA’s moon rocket makes the slow trip to its launch pad

Space Launch System rocket on its way to launch pad with "Drive Safely" sign in foreground
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and its mobile launcher head for the launch pad at a top speed of 1 mph. (NASA Photo / Keegan Barber)

NASA’s massive Space Launch System rocket crept toward its Florida launch pad today at a top speed of about 1 mph, marking the first step in a journey that will eventually send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

The 4-mile trek to Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center began at 7 a.m. ET (4 a.m. PT) and lasted until evening. Because the rocket with its mobile launcher stands more than 300 feet tall and weighs millions of pounds, the trip required the use of a crawler-transporter — the same vehicle used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs, now upgraded for NASA’s Artemis moon program.

Liftoff for the Artemis 2 mission could come as early as March, but there’s lots to be done in the weeks ahead. After today’s rollout, the mission team will conduct a thorough checkout of the Space Launch System and its Orion crew spacecraft. NASA also aims to conduct a “wet dress rehearsal,” during which the launch team will fuel the rocket and count down to roughly T-minus 30 seconds. (Update: The first such rehearsal took place on Feb. 2 but had to be called off at about T-minus 5 minutes due to a liquid hydrogen leak.)

“We have, I think, zero intention of communicating an actual launch date until we get through wet dress,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters.

Artemis 2 is slated to send three NASA astronauts and one Canadian astronaut on a 10-day journey tracing a figure-8 route around the moon. The trip will take them as far as 4,800 miles beyond the lunar far side — farther out than any human has gone before.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Decades-old rocket factory is in for a Rocketdyne rebrand

Aerojet Rocketdyne Redmond facility
Aerojet Rocketdyne engineer Matt Dawson processes rocket engines in Redmond, Wash. (Aerojet Rocketdyne Photo)

A decades-old rocket factory in Redmond, Wash., is due to be rebranded with a time-honored name: Rocketdyne.

If all goes according to plan, the facility will become part of a joint venture created under the terms of an $845 million deal involving L3Harris Technologies and AE Industrial Partners.

L3Harris took over the Redmond facility in 2023 when it acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion. Now L3Harris plans to sell a majority stake in its Space Propulsion and Power Systems business to AE Industrial, while retaining 40% ownership of the newly created Rocketdyne venture. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.

Get the full story on GeekWire
Categories
GeekWire

Startup has big plans for robotic arms powered by AI

Illustration: Spacecraft with robotic arms next to Hubble Space Telescope in orbit
An artist’s conception shows a spacecraft with robotic arms preparing to grapple the Hubble Space Telescope. (Orbital Robotics Illustration)

A space startup founded by veterans of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is recruiting partners in its quest to build robotic arms powered by artificial intelligence.

Founded in late 2024, Puyallup, Wash.-based Orbital Robotics is still in its infancy — but it has already raised about $310,000 in funding. Orbital Robotics CEO Aaron Borger told GeekWire that the company is working with a stealthy space venture on an orbital rendezvous project for the U.S. Space Force, with a series of demonstration missions scheduled in the next year and a half.

And that’s just the start: Borger and his teammates are trying to get traction for a plan that could give NASA’s aging Hubble Space Telescope a much-needed boost.

Get the full story on GeekWire