Weekly Recap #41

Main Topics Lunar * NASA awarded $590M in CLPS contracts for 2028 Artemis Missions: two contracts to Astrobotic, one to Firefly, and one to Intuitive Machines. [source] * NASA announced they will repurpose their spare PROMISE nuclear Mars rover to send to the Moon. [source] * Lunar Forge came out of stealth targeting a 2027 demonstration of their laser sintering device capable of building structures out of lunar regolith. [source] * Instinct Space and Polimak announced a partnership to provide access to lunar regolith for payloads that fly on their Moon mission. [source] Launch * Katalyst Space’s LINK mission successfully deployed from the Kwajalein Atoll on July 3 and made contact from orbit. [source] * Amazon Leo launched a batch aboard ULA’s last Atlas 5 carrying satellites, Leo now has enough satellites on orbit to begin operations. [source] * AST Spacemobile launched 3 more Bluebirds - 8 through 10 - aboard Falcon 9, successfully achieving operational orbits. [source] * Planet Labs agreed to launch a Pelican satellite onboard ISAR’s Spectrum launch vehicle as early as the end of 2026. [source] * Southern Launch raised a $25M round led by Brindabella and Company to fund their rockets and spaceports. [source] * Hongqing, and affiliate of Landspace, raised a $191M round led by the China Construction Bank and ICBC to develop Jinwu-200 satellites for the Honghu-3 communications constellation. [source] * Nayuta Space announced their intent to use the second stage of their Xuanniao-R rockets as orbital data centers. [source] * Firefly announced plans to launch Alpha out of Sweden’s Esrange Space Center. [source] * French rocket company Latitude announced plans to launch their inaugural rocket out of Oman’s Etlaq Space Center instead of French Guiana. [source] Orbital * China formed a VLEO consortium for satellites below 300 km to accelerate the development of key technology. [source] * Vantor announced WorldView3D which provides up to date 3D ground truth globally on the order of every 6-24 hours. [source] * Dominion Dynamics closed a $100M Series A to scale their Arctic Surveillance network and drone systems.[source] * Observable Space raised $90M led by Lux Capital alongside a $94M USSF contract to develop mobile ground space domain awareness. [source] * Polish space observation company Sybilla secured $10M to enter the US market. [source] * Space Tango raised $7.4M to develop automation for in-space manufacturing. [source] Business Moves * Rocket Lab acquired Iridium in an expansion into the space application layer, securing their assets and valuable L-band spectrum rights. [source] * SpaceX received FTC clearance to buy Mesh Optical Technologies for their optical transceiver technology useful in AI hardware interconnects. [source] * Dish TV, subsidiary of Echostar, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [source] * Mitsubishi Electric acquired Infostellar for the ground stations to bolster satellite operations. [source] * The Exploration Company acquired European Astrotech for their electric propulsion technology. [source] * Draper raised $300M Fund 8 to invest in AI, Robotics, and Automation; Crypto & Blockchain, Healthcare / Biotech, and Aerospace / Space. [source] Tech Advances * BAE Aerospace validated the rad-hardness of their Endura space processor, based on GlobalFoundries 45nm chip. [source] * Verde Technologies announced their plans to shift their perovskite solar tech to space, providing an up to 50% reduction in cost to silicon based solar. [source] Get full access to Space Times at spacetimespod.substack.com/subscribe