More news from TC and beyond
Astroscale raised a $109 million Series F to scale its on-orbit servicing technology, designed to extend the lifespan of satellites and reduce orbital debris. (The startup’s CEO and founder, Nobu Okada, will be joining us onstage at TC Sessions: Space 2021 this year.)
Isar Aerospace won an €11 million ($12.4 million) award from the German government and the German Aerospace Center to further the development of the startup’s Spectrum launch vehicle, in return for transportation services of up to 150 kilograms of payload on two separate flights.
Northrop Grumman won a massive $3.19 billion contract from NASA to build boosters for the agency’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket. The company is tasked with building boosters for nine SLS flights.
Phase Four, a propulsion startup, has released the specs of its next-gen radio-frequency plasma thruster, which the company says offers key performance improvements to allow spacecraft using it a wider range of maneuverability in orbit.
Q-CTRL, a startup that provides quantum control engineering solutions, closed a $25 million Series B financing round led by Airbus Ventures. The company is developing space-qualified quantum sensors and exploration technologies for Earth and beyond.
SpaceX sent a batch of 48 Starlink satellites, plus two satellites for geospatial intelligence company BlackSky, to orbit Thursday evening. It marked the ninth mission for that specific Falcon 9 booster. Rewatch it here.
Varda Space Industries, SCOUT and Neutron Star Systems came in first, second and third place (respectively) in Hyperspace Challenge, an accelerator run by the Air Force Research Laboratory and CNM Ingenuity as part of the U.S. Space Force’s SpaceWERX program.
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