Welcome to S-SPACⁱ!  In this edition, Terran Orbital shares sank after the company sold shares and replaced its CFO, Rocket Lab’s booster and stock both fell to Earth, AST SpaceMobile made a cosmic phone call, Spire Global won two contracts, customers for Virgin Galactic next flight revealed themselves, Satellogic and Skyloom announced a laser communications partnership, Momentus signed a contract to deliver a payload in orbit, and Planet Labs’ CEO acquired a big chunk of shares as a joint satellite project with NASA advanced.

Welcome to the Launch Roundup! The failure of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket temporarily sent the company’s stock plunging, Firefly Aerospace launched a satellite on 24-hours’ notice, a new crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), and Stoke Space conducted its first hop.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ! In this edition, Astra announced a reverse stock split and filed to sell more shares, Redwire filed to raise $400 million, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck plans to sell millions in stock, Rocket Lab won a contract for four HASTE launches, Planet Labs and SatixFy reported higher revenues, Virgin Galactic completed another commercial flight, Terran Orbital doubled its satellite production capacity, and Satellogic announced a new partnership.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ! In this week’s edition, Rocket Lab announced a five-launch deal with BlackSky as it reported higher earnings, Virgin Galactic is on the eve of launching its first space tourists after lowering expectations on future earnings, Astra Space laid off a quarter of its employees as it pivoted to producing rocket engines, Planet Labs conducted layoffs of its own, and Momentus unveiled its first satellite bus.

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched a swarm of Starling satellites for NASA, and three spacecraft for Spire Global and Telesat from New Zealand on Monday, July 17 (Tuesday, July 18 local time). Rocket Lab recovered the first stage from the ocean in what the company called a major step toward making the Electron partially reusable.

In this week’s Launch Roundup, Rocket Lab conducted the first launch of its new suborbital rocket while a new Spanish suborbital booster suffered an on-pad abort during its maiden launch attempt. Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is scheduled to conduct its first launch of 2023 on Tuesday, and SpaceX is preparing to launch an European space telescope.

Virgin Orbit spent well over $1 billion developing a launch system that produced only tens of millions in revenues before the company went bankrupt. Richard Branson’s launch provider recently auctioned off most of its assets for just under $36.5 million and announced it would be shutting down for good.

Welcome to S-SPACⁱ. In this edition, Terran Orbital’s stock is double downgraded, Virgin Galactic plans to issue more stock to key personnel, BlackSky will monitor U.S. coal power plant inventory, Intuitive Machines moves its landing site to the lunar south pole, Rocket Lab wins a launch contract, Planet Labs partnered to monitor biodiversity, Momentus will deliver a Lunasonde satellite to orbit, and Satixfy appointed an interim CEO.

Rocket Lab said on Tuesday that it will use the manufacturing facility and equipment it acquired from bankrupt Virgin Orbit to accelerate the development of its new Neutron rocket. The company has no plans to integrate Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket into its line of launch vehicles, however, indicating the booster will likely never fly again.

Richard Branson’s bankrupt launch provider Virgin Orbit (OTCMKTS: VORBQ), which spent more than $1 billion developing the capability to launch satellites from a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, auctioned off its assets to Rocket Lab, Launcher, Stratolaunch, and a fourth company called INLIPER for just under $36.5 million on Monday, according to a court filing.