There were 12 suborbital flights last year that tested inflatable heat shields, scramjet and hypersonic propulsion, spy satellite cameras, and reusable launch vehicle technologies. Flights were conducted from the United States, India, Japan, Germany, Brazil and North Korea.

Once a sleepy backwater largely focused on scientific research, the suborbital launch sector has boomed in recent years. Private companies and governments across the globe conducted 29 flights to test orbital and suborbital launch vehicles and a range of technologies last year.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ.

This week BigBear.ai sells more stock, management is shaken up at three space SPACs, Momentus signs a contract with FOSSA, Planet Labs teams with NASA to mitigate global food shortages, and Virgin Orbit’s price target gets cut in half after launch failure.

And then there were two.

Swedish and European Union (EU) officials inaugurated Spaceport Esrange on Friday as the sounding rocket range moved toward its first orbital launch later this year by an as-yet unidentified company. The ceremony came only days after Spaceport Cornwall in England hosted the first orbital launch attempt from Western Europe.

On June 21, South Korea’s domestically manufactured Nuri rocket roared off the pad at the Naro Space Center and placed satellites into orbit for the first time. Six months later, South Korea’s first lunar probe entered orbit around the moon, putting an exclamation point on a breakthrough year for the emerging Asian space power.

SpaceX launched its giant Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida on Sunday night to cap off a busy but failure-plagued period that saw nine launch attempts in three nations over eight days.

Lots of raises, contracts, grants and more as we powered through the second week of 2023. Let’s take a look.

Partnership

Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space are partnering to develop and operate Starlab, a free-flying space station set for launch in 2028 that will serve NASA and a global customer base of space agencies and researchers. Airbus will provide technical design support and expertise for the Starlab station.

Virgin Orbit Launcher One 2nd stage reentry recorded by Ramón López (Stargazer Lanzarote/Red SPMN) on Jan. 9th, 2023 at 23:18 UTC from Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.

The Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group (HKATG) and a Shanghai-based Touchroad International Holdings Group have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of Djibouti to build a $1 billion commercial spaceport with seven launch pads and three rocket engine test facilities.

A couple of updates on the launch failures this week.

ABL Space reports that all nine E2 engines on the RS1 rocket’s first stage failed simultaneously shortly after liftoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Tuesday. The rocket fell back on its launch pad and exploded, resulting in significant damage but no injuries, the company said.

While SpaceX led all U.S. providers with 61 launches, six other companies and NASA conducted launches that significantly advanced America’s space exploration program.

NASA’s Artemis I mission opened the way for the first crewed mission to the moon in 50 years. Rocket Lab launched a spacecraft to evaluate the orbit for the Lunar Gateway station the astronauts will use when they get there. United Launch Alliance (ULA) sent Boeing’s Starliner crew transport on a successful flight test to the International Space Station (ISS). And an inflatable heat shield was tested that could be used to deliver large payloads to Mars.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ.

In this week’s edition, Terran Orbital completed a contract for Lockheed Martin, UK government says it didn’t delay Virgin Orbit‘s launch, Rocket Lab sets a new date for its first launch from U.S. soil, and the clock continues to tick on Astra Space‘s delisting notice.