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Founders on the tech frontier show off their gadgets

Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about the LaserWeeder system with a satellite in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about the LaserWeeder system with a satellite in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Four founders of companies on the tech frontier got together this week at a Seattle conference for a show-and-tell about the hardware at the heart of their businesses. And like any good show-and-tell, their talks touched on strategy as well as gadgetry.

For example, consider the laser-powered weed zapper pioneered by Seattle-based Carbon Robotics. The LaserWeeder system takes advantage of optical sensors and artificial intelligence to identify and target the weeds among the crops as the robotic rig is pulled through a field. Carbon Robotics’ founder and CEO, Paul Mikesell, held up one of the LaserWeeder’s scanners during Monday’s DeepTech session at the downtown office of K&L Gates.

“We have it set up so this camera can see exactly what the laser shooting this way is going to hit, and every time we turn on that laser, the same pixel area in the camera is going to explode and blow up,” he said. “This device reminds me of a lot of science and technology that we had to tackle, but also, there’s a lot of pain that went into this thing.”

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FCC gives Amazon Leo more leeway on satellite schedule

View of Amazon Leo satellites in their dispenser in orbit
Amazon Leo satellites are folded up in their dispenser, ready for deployment in low Earth orbit. (Amazon Photo)

The Federal Communications Commission has freed Amazon from a requirement to deploy the first 1,616 satellites in its Amazon Leo broadband internet constellation by July 30.

The looming deadline had been a condition of the FCC’s 2020 license for the network, when it was known as Project Kuiper. But in January, Amazon asked for a two-year extension of that deadline, citing the limited availability of commercial launch opportunities.

Instead of pushing back July’s interim deadline, the FCC issued a conditional waiver. Amazon is still required to deploy all 3,232 of its planned Gen 1 satellites by July 30, 2029, as originally mandated. Amazon Leo currently has 331 satellites in orbit, with another 36 due for launch next week.

SpaceX — which operates Starlink, a rival satellite broadband network with more than 10 million subscribers — opposed giving Amazon more time. It argued that the FCC should make Amazon wait for a future processing round. But in an order issued on June 5, the FCC said its remedy was “tailored to ensure that Americans quickly benefit from multiple, facilities-based providers of next-gen satellite services.”

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Universe Today

SETI experts update their protocols for ‘Disclosure Day’

Array of radio telescopes with mountain in background
The Allen Telescope Array in California uses dozens of antennas to look for signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. (SETI Institute Photo)

An international committee of experts says it has updated its rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The revisions to the decades-old Declaration of Principles, created and maintained by the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Committee, come just days before the release of “Disclosure Day,” a movie about alien visitation directed by Steven Spielberg.

This is the first major update to the committee’s protocols in more than 15 years. “The information environment we operate in today is vastly more complex than it was in 2010,” committee chair Michael Garrett, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester, said in a news release. “In an era of deepfakes, automated misinformation and instant global connectivity, a single unverified claim could trigger confusion or panic. These new protocols ensure that scientists maintain the highest standards of evidence before making announcements to the world.”

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Space Northwest revs up a space business accelerator

Aerial view of Stoke Space HQ
Stoke Space has its 168,000-square-foot headquarters in Kent, Wash., where Mount Rainier can be seen on a good day. (Stoke Space Photo)

Space Northwest, a nonprofit association serving the Pacific Northwest’s space industry ecosystem, says it’s partnering with the Commercial Space Federation to launch a regional space business accelerator.

The initiative will begin with an executive roundtable scheduled this summer, followed by a 12-week accelerator program due to begin in autumn. The accelerator is expected to support up to 10 early-stage space companies with programming focused on commercial space markets, investment readiness, tech commercialization, growth strategies for commercial and government markets, and integration into the space industry’s global supply chain.

The accelerator initiative will receive local support from the City of Kent, which hosts Blue Origin. Stoke Space, PowerLight Technologies and other ventures targeting space applications. The city has a heritage in the space industry that goes back to Boeing’s role in building lunar rovers for NASA’s Apollo moon missions.

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Blue Origin pledges to return to flight by year’s end

Before-and-after satellite images of Blue Origin New Glenn launch pad
The SkySat satellite image at left shows Blue Origin’s launch pad in Florida on May 20, before the New Glenn rocket explosion. The satellite image at right shows the pad on May 31, three days after the blast. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: Planet Labs PBC)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture aims to repair the damage done last week by a launch-pad rocket explosion and return to flight before the end of the year, the company’s CEO says.

In a post to X, CEO Dave Limp laid out a schedule that was more optimistic than what was expected immediately after the fiery destruction of a New Glenn rocket during a static-fire test on May 28. CNBC quoted NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman as saying that it would “take some serious time” to restore Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

In his post, Limp said he had “a bit of good news” to share after inspecting the pad and the complex’s integration facility.

“The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape,” he said. “This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced. The booster ‘Never Tell Me The Odds’ and the three GS-2s [upper stages] that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.”

Limp said the pad would be rebuilt to accommodate the current 7×2 New Glenn configuration, which offers a seven-engine first stage and a two-engine upper stage, rather than immediately transitioning to the next-generation configuration with nine engines on the first stage and four on the upper stage.

“Rate manufacturing of 7×2 is going well, and we’re going to continue that at pace as planned and store the stages for use,” he said. “In addition, we had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical conop [concept of operations], and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector.

“We will fly again before the end of the year,” Limp wrote. Then he signed off with Blue Origin’s motto, “Gradatim Ferociter,” which is Latin for “Step by Step, Ferociously.”

If New Glenn returns to flight this year, that would be relatively good news for NASA and Blue Origin’s other customers.

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Blue Origin’s rocket blast hits NASA and Amazon Leo

ULA Atlas 5 launch with Amazon Leo satellites on board
One day after Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on its pad, an Atlas 5 rocket launched 29 Amazon Leo satellites. (ULA via YouTube)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is still assessing the damage from this week’s catastrophic New Glenn rocket explosion on the company’s Florida launch pad, but it’s already clear that it will take months to make repairs and return to flight. So, what does that mean for Blue Origin and its customers?

“I guess the short answer, without pontificating, is that everybody gets delayed,” said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, a Florida-based industry research institute.

The May 28 blast occurred during a static-fire test for the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, which was nicknamed “No, It’s Necessary.” The launcher was due to put 48 satellites into low Earth orbit as early as next week for Amazon Leo’s high-speed internet network.

That launch is now off the table, but Amazon Leo (formerly known as Project Kuiper) is still pushing ahead with satellite deployment in anticipation of kicking off commercial service as soon as this summer. Not far from Blue Origin’s ruined pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36, United Launch Alliance sent 29 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit today on an Atlas 5 rocket.

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New Glenn rocket explodes on launch pad during test

Spectacular explosion at Florida launch pad. (Credit: Spaceflight Now)
An explosion at Blue Origin’s launch pad lights up the skies over Florida. (Spaceflight Now Video)

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded today during a hotfire test on its launch pad in Florida — dealing heavy damage to the pad, and dealing a heavy blow to Jeff Bezos’ space venture.

“All personnel are accounted for and safe,” Bezos said in a post to X. “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

The U.S. Space Force confirmed that there were no injuries or fatalities. “Range officials, in coordination with Blue Origin and appropriate partners, are currently evaluating available data to determine the exact cause of the anomaly,” it said in a Facebook post. In a follow-up post to X, the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 cautioned that debris from the anomaly could wash ashore over the coming days or weeks.

The 322-foot-tall rocket, nicknamed “No, It’s Necessary” in a reference to the movie “Interstellar,” had been due to send 48 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit as soon as next week. The Federal Aviation Administration gave its go-ahead for launch last week after Blue Origin wrapped up an investigation of a launch failure that occurred in April.

In preparation for liftoff, the New Glenn rocket was brought out to Blue Origin’s pad at Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a static test firing of its booster engines. The satellites were not aboard the rocket for the test.

Video showed the rocket exploding in a huge fireball after the engines were lit up. “They just nuked the pad,” one observer could be heard saying in a video recorded by Spaceflight Now. Other views of the blast were captured by NASASpaceflight.com.

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Blue Origin gets ready to launch Amazon Leo satellites

Two New Glenn rockets being processed at Blue Origin facility
New Glenn rockets are being processed inside Blue Origin’s Florida facility. (Blue Origin Photo)

Five weeks after experiencing its first launch failure, Kent, Wash.-based Blue Origin is getting ready to put its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket back in service to launch 48 satellites into low Earth orbit for the growing Amazon Leo constellation.

The mission, designated as NG-4 for the rocket and LN-01 for the payload, will mark the first time Blue Origin’s rockets have launched satellites for Amazon — forging a new connection between the two best-known companies founded by Jeff Bezos. It will also set a new high for the number of Leo broadband satellites launched on a single mission.

“Couldn’t be prouder to support the Leo team on this mission,” Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said in a post to X. Before he joined Blue Origin in 2023, Limp was the Amazon executive in charge of the Amazon Leo program (when it was known as Project Kuiper).

This will be the fourth launch of a New Glenn rocket. The first-stage booster for NG-4 is nicknamed “No, It’s Necessary” — a line from the movie “Interstellar” that refers to the need for a bold space maneuver.

New Glenn had been grounded in the wake of last month’s unsuccessful launch of an AST SpaceMobile satellite from Florida. But last week, the Federal Aviation Administration said it accepted the findings of an investigation led by Blue Origin. The investigation said the mishap was caused by a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line, leading to a thrust anomaly during the second-stage engine burn.

Blue Origin identified nine corrective actions to prevent a recurrence of the mishap, and the FAA authorized the return to flight. An FAA advisory suggested the launch could take place as early as next week.

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NASA chooses Blue Origin to deliver moon buggies

Illustration: Blue Origin Blue Moon lander with Astrolab rover on moon's surface
An artist’s conception shows Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander lowering an Astrolab rover to the lunar surface. (NASA Illustration)

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has won NASA’s nod to deliver crew-carrying rovers to the lunar surface as part of the space agency’s decade-long plan to create a base near the moon’s south pole.

“America is returning to the moon,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said today during a news briefing at the space agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We are working alongside our many international and commercial partners to leverage the incredible capabilities from commercial industry to build a moon base for all we hope to accomplish in this endeavor.”

NASA awarded Blue Origin an initial $188 million contract to get its robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 lander ready to deliver lunar terrain vehicles, or LTVs, with an option period worth an additional $280.4 million for two task orders. The option period will be based on Blue Origin’s performance during the initial contract phase, NASA said.

Carlos Garcia-Galan, program manager for NASA’s Moon Base program, said the LTVs will be “a mix between the Apollo lunar roving vehicle and the Mars-style rover.” Each rover will weigh a little less than one metric ton, he said, and will be folded up to fit on Blue Origin’s lander during transit to the moon.

The first LTV is due to be brought to the moon in advance of the Artemis 4 mission’s crewed landing, which is currently scheduled for 2028, Garcia-Galan said.

One of the LTVs will be built by California-based Astrolab, with Seattle-based Interlune serving as a subcontractor. In a LinkedIn post, Interlune said it would work with Astrolab on “many aspects of the rover development, involving the science of survival in the lunar environment.” The Interlune Research Lab in Texas will develop varieties of simulated moon dirt specifically for testing Astrolab’s moon rover, which has been designated CLV-1.

The other LTV will be Colorado-based Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover, which is being developed in partnership with General Motors, Goodyear and Leidos.

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Universe Today

Next-gen Starship passes its first flight test despite snags

Aerial view of Starship launch from Texas pad
SpaceX's Starship V3 rocket rises from its Texas launch pad. (SpaceX via X)

SpaceX’s next-generation Starship V3 rocket got off to a glorious start for its first test flight, and although not all of its engines fired fully according to plan, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the mission “scored a goal for humanity.”

This was the 12th Starship launch, but the first one since SpaceX completed a thorough redesign of the rocket’s Super Heavy first-stage booster, the second stage (known as Ship), the Raptor rocket engines and the launch facilities at SpaceX’s Starbase in south Texas.

Super Heavy lit all 33 of its Raptor V3 engines at liftoff, and successfully sent Ship on its way over the Gulf of Mexico. But after stage separation, Super Heavy shut down its engines prematurely. As a result, the booster tumbled through the atmosphere to an uncontrolled but safe splashdown in the gulf.

SpaceX had planned for a controlled splashdown but hadn’t planned to recover the booster, so it was no great loss.

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