Existing investors – Speciale Invest, pi Ventures, and Artha Ventures – along with prominent angels including, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Anand Mahindra,, Aarthi Ramamurthy, and Sriram Krishnan invested in this round

CHENNAI, India, May 19, 2021 (Agnikul PR) — Space tech startup,Agnikul today announced raising $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Mayfield India, making it the largest funding round for a private Indian space technology company in India. Existing investors pi Ventures, Speciale Invest, and Artha Ventures also invested in this round. The round also saw participation from BEENEXT, Globevestor, LionRock Capital and prominent angel investors Anand Mahindra, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Nithin Kamath, Abhishek Singhania, Aarthi Ramamurthy; and Sriram Krishnan, Anicut Angel Fund, among others. As a part of the round, Mayfield India’s managing partner Vikram Godse will be joining the board of the company. The funds will be deployed to strengthen the technology infrastructure, expand ground testing and build a world class team to help Agnikul become India’s first private player to launch satellites in space.

Redwire Agreement Explores Untapped Opportunities for In-Space Manufacturing & Production Marketplace

LOUISVILLE, Colo., May 19, 2021 (Sierra Space PR) – Sierra Space, the new commercial space subsidiary of global aerospace and national security leader Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), today announced the signing of a joint agreement with Redwire aimed at leveraging Sierra Space capabilities for a range of in-space services and manufacturing. The memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) in the emerging In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) industry is among new commercial agreements for Sierra Space across multiple industries – including space-enabled manufacturing, biopharma research, on-orbit satellite servicing assembly and manufacturing, and microgravity research. SNC announced earlier this month the transition of its space business to Sierra Space, a new commercial space company.

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (CNSA PR) — At 12:03 on May 19, China used the Long March 4B carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to successfully launch the Haiyang 2D satellite. The satellite successfully entered the scheduled orbit, and the mission was a complete success.  Haiyang 2D is the third operational satellite of the National Space Infrastructure Ocean Power Satellite series. It will form my country’s Ocean […]

China released the first photographs of its Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars. The vehicle landed on the Red Planet’s Utopia Planitia on May 14. China is the third nation after the Soviet Union and the United States to land on Mars. China also released animated gif images of the Zhurong lander separating from the Tianwen-1 orbiter. Zhurong will explore Mars with six instruments: ground-penetrating radar (GPR) capable of imaging […]

ALAMEDA, Calif. (Astra PR) — We are thrilled to be working with Planet Labs on a multi-launch mission in 2022. This is a milestone for both of our companies, and creates an important inflection point as we begin delivering launch services to our customers that are creating a healthier and more connected planet.

The new eight-acre campus will support spaceflight, host Houston’s first space incubator

HOUSTON, May 19, 2021 (Collins Aerospace PR) – Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), and Houston Airports, which manages and operates Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport, EFD, announced plans for a new eight-acre, 120,000 square-foot campus that will support spaceflight and host Houston’s first spaceflight incubator.

This morning, Blue Origin unveiled bids for a seat on New Shepard’s first suborbital crewed flight on July 20. The top bid was $1.4 million, an amount that has since increased to $2.2 million in open bidding. The bids are now increasing at an automatic $200,000, not including a 6 percent buyer’s premium on the total amount. Blue Origin said it received bids from more than 5,200 people living in […]

NASA has selected Relativity Space for that a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award that will allow the company to continue developing a suite of sensors capable of real-time detection of flaws in 3D printing.

“At this time, we do not perform automatic, real-time defect detection, but the company has developed significant elements that when integrated together demonstrate the capability for real-time in-situ flaw detection. We use sensors and cameras to collect data on multi-dimension time series; real-time processing elements to review camera and time series data; and closed-feedback loops to modify print deposition parameters,” the company said in the project summary.

Relativity Space, which is 3D printing its launch vehicle, said the suite of sensors will have a variety of uses both on Earth and in space.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The Department of Defense (DOD) needs to improve its efforts at developing alternatives to the Global Positioning System (GPS), whose signals are vulnerable to being jammed by enemies, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). [Full Report]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is “highly likely” to be delayed beyond its planned Oct. 31 launch due to anomalies with the European Ariane 5 booster that will send the giant observatory into deep space, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). [Full Report]

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. May 18, 2021 (ULA PR) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO) Flight 5 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) lifted off on May 18 at 1:37 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. To date ULA has launched 144 times with 100 percent mission success.

DENVER, May 18, 2021 (York Space Systems PR) — York Space Systems (York), a Denver-based aerospace company specializing in complete space mission solutions and the manufacture of a family of spacecraft platforms, announced today that it will be opening a new, mega manufacturing facility in Denver to meet the growing demand from government and commercial customers for the company’s flight proven spacecraft products and numerous critical subsystem technologies in the supply chain.