Firefly Aerospace sent its Alpha rocket to orbit this morning, with the company carrying a payload from Lockheed Martin to space.
Today’s launch marks the fourth-ever flight of Firefly’s Alpha rocket.
The rocket was carrying Lockheed’s demonstrator payload, called the Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) technology demonstrator, to low Earth orbit.
From there, the Lockheed Martin payload should have been deployed.
For that mission, Firefly had just 24 hours to complete final launch preparations, encapsulate the payload and mate it to the rocket.
Arkon Energy, a data center infrastructure company, closed a $110 million private funding round to expand its operations, the company’s CEO Josh Payne shared exclusively with TechCrunch.
“These sites appeal to both bitcoin miners and AI [or] machine learning clients who have very high power computing demands,” Payne said.
“We are essentially a landlord who owns the underlying infrastructure assets.”Arkon’s business model focuses on strategically acquiring distressed data center assets across the globe.
“The current and future demand for data center capacity of all types that we are seeing globally, but especially in the U.S., is unprecedented and monumental.
Arkon aims to fill that gap by providing the underlying infrastructure layer that the AI sector relies on.
Akron Energy, a data center infrastructure company, closed a $110 million private funding round to expand its operations, the company’s CEO Josh Payne shared exclusively with TechCrunch.
“These sites appeal to both bitcoin miners and AI [or] machine learning clients who have very high power computing demands,” Payne said.
“We are essentially a landlord who owns the underlying infrastructure assets.”Akron’s business model focuses on strategically acquiring distressed data center assets across the globe.
“The current and future demand for data center capacity of all types that we are seeing globally, but especially in the U.S., is unprecedented and monumental.
Akron aims to fill that gap by providing the underlying infrastructure layer that the AI sector relies on.
This year was tough for many space companies, and we aren’t trying to paper that over with our optimism.
Advanced satellite operations demonstrationsIn the broadest possible terms, a huge portion of space startups are interested in increasing the number of things a satellite can do in space.
Another hot area of satellite operations involves in-space manufacturing and satellite reentry.
Next year, we expect to see more demonstrations from startups looking to execute state-of-the-art satellite operations.
2024 should be chock full of exciting tests and new developments from other companies looking to take their slice of the launch market.
Intuitive Machines is pushing back the mission of its first lunar lander to mid-February in coordination with launch provider SpaceX, the company said earlier this week.
The lunar lander must launch from a specific launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39A, because it needs to be fueled with oxygen and methane propellants prior to launch.
While Intuitive Machines did not specify an exact launch window, it’s looking increasingly likely that it could coincide with the planned landing of another privately developed lunar lander.
Overall, the new launch window is a negligible delay for Intuitive Machines, which is aiming to make lunar access a cornerstone of its business.
Intuitive Machines is also setting up business segments related to orbital services, like satellite servicing and refueling, providing data services for the moon, and the sale of other space products.
Astrobotic’s first lunar lander is ready for lift-off.
The company announced Tuesday that the lander, called Peregrine, has completed final checkouts and fueling after it was mated with United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket last month.
Astrobotic is executing the mission as part of a $79.5 million contract from NASA under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic is one of a handful of commercial players betting that there will be a thriving market for lunar payload delivery services.
Other companies include Intuitive Machines, which is aiming to launch its first lander just days after Peregrine, on January 12, as well as Firefly Aerospace and Japanese firm ispace, which had a failed lunar launch earlier this year.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard is officially back in action, with the company today successfully launching the suborbital rocket for the first time in more than 15 months.
The rocket lifted off from Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas at around 10:42 a.m. local time.
The mission successfully concluded after a period of 10 minutes, when the capsule safely returned to Earth after a brief suborbital flight.
This is the first time Blue Origin has launched New Shepard since September 2022, when an anomaly triggered an auto-abort mid-flight.
Blue flew New Shepard four times in 2022, including the failed launch.
Threads is finally available to users in the EUFive months after its launch in July, Meta’s social network Threads is now finally available to people living in the European Union.
At launch, the company restricted access to the new social network in the EU to become compliant with various rules of the bloc.
In July, days after Threads’ launch, Meta had to take “additional” steps to prevent EU-based users from using a VPN to access the social network.
The official launch comes after the Wall Street Journal’s report last month indicated that Meta planned to launch Threads in the EU in December.
The social network’s launch in the EU will help the company cross that mark.
The FCC explained that this first application was a high-level, short one, and that those qualifying for that would receive closer scrutiny.
(In fact the FCC had considered not even letting orbital communications companies apply, but decided to allow them to compete on their merits.)
This was in addition to “numerous financial and technical deficiencies” the agency identified in the proposal and the company’s operations.
It even leaned on the promise of SpaceX’s super-heavy launch vehicle Starship as evidence for these claims.
As the FCC points out, though:A the time of the Bureau’s decision, Starship had not yet been launched.
Blue Origin is aiming to finally conclude a more than 15-month pause in operations of its New Shepard suborbital rocket, with the company announcing today that it will fly an uncrewed mission as early as December 18.
The company confirmed the launch on its social media account following a Bloomberg report of an internal email on the new targeted date.
The mission, called NS-24, will carry 33 science and research payloads and other cargo.
The Federal Aviation Administration formally concluded its investigation into the mishap in September, instructing Blue Origin to implement 21 corrective actions, including redesigning the engine and nozzle components as well as “organizational changes.”This new launch date means that Blue Origin has implemented all the actions and received its modified launch license from the FAA.
To date, the vehicle has flown more than 22 times, and has taken 31 people to the edge of space and back (including CEO Jeff Bezos himself).
