Fresh off the success of its first mission, satellite manufacturer Apex has closed $95 million in new capital to scale its operations.
The Los Angeles-based startup successfully launched and commissioned its first spacecraft, a model called Aries, in March.
The company is on track to manufacture five Aries this year alone, Apex CEO and co-founder Ian Cinnamon told TechCrunch.
Apex was founded on the thesis that the one of the main bottlenecks facing the growth of the space industry was satellite bus manufacturing.
The company is approaching fifty people and that number is likely to double by the end of this year.
The funding, which would go to Rocket Lab subsidiary SolAero Technologies, would help increase the company’s compound semiconductor production by 50% within the next three years.
The funding would help the company build out its Albuquerque-based facilities and create more than 100 direct manufacturing jobs, Rocket Lab said in a statement.
Rocket Lab acquired SolAero, which operates a ~115,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, in 2022 for $80 million.
The company is one of just two in the United States that specializes in the production of space-grade, radiation-resistant compound semiconductors, or space-grade solar cells.
SolAero is highly vertically integrated: In addition to the solar cells, the firm also manufactures solar panels and power modules.
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space.
In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we got to watch those two astronauts dock with the International Space Station.
And we also got to see SpaceX launch Starship for the fourth time ever — and then bring it back home.
I think I’m not alone in thinking that some of the most spectacular images in the history of rocketry were generated during that flight.
Of course, the mission isn’t over yet: After around a week aboard the station, the two astronauts will re-board Starliner and use it to get back home.
EnerVenue, a startup that has developed an alternative to lithium-ion batteries for long-duration renewable energy storage, is raising $515 million in fresh equity, per an SEC filing seen by TechCrunch.
The company is in the process of building a gigawatt-scale factory in Kentucky to produce its nickel-hydrogen batteries, an endeavor that’s estimated to cost $264 million.
So far, EnerVenue has raised $308 million of the $515 million target, the filing says.
Nickel-hydrogen batteries aren’t as energy dense as lithium-ion, meaning they won’t be competing for space in electric vehicles quite yet.
The next challenge will be completing the factory, scaling production and sending its novel batteries out into the world.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has successfully delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station, a key milestone in the aerospace giant’s quest to certify the capsule for regular crewed missions.
After taking some time to equalize pressure between Starliner and the station, the hatch opened at around 12:46 PM.
“Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky,” Wilmore said to Mission Control.
Welcome aboard Starliner crew!!
This mission is the critical final step before Starliner can be certified for regular astronaut transportation missions with NASA.
But e-bike subscription startup Whizz sees it as an opportunity.
The lack of disruption in the e-bike subscription arena could mean that Whizz is in a perfect position to get a first-mover advantage.
Or it could mean that the e-bike subscription model is difficult to get right.
Other consumer-facing micromobility subscriptions in NYC have come and gone, like Beyond’s e-scooter rental offering and charging infrastructure company Revel’s attempt at an e-bike subscription.
His co-founders — Alex Mironov, Ksenia Proka, and Artem Serbovka — built and sold an e-bike subscription platform, Moy Device, to a private equity firm in Russia.
NASA’s decision to scrap its $11 billion, 15-year mission to Mars to bring back samples could create a startup feeding frenzy, TechCrunch reports.
Describing its plans as too slow, and too expensive, NASA is going back to the drawing board, with an eye on getting the space industry to help.
But space startups are not worried about it.
So, the NASA money might have a bunch of startup-sized buckets to drip into, and I am here for it.
To that end, if any startup that works with NASA on the Mars rock mission needs a human to send up there to check on the dials and such, I’m your guy.
Paris-based Dark Space is taking on the dual problems of debris and conflict in orbit with their mobile platform designed to launch, attach to, and ultimately deorbit uncooperative objects in space.
team of space.”The three-year-old startup is developing Interceptor, a spacecraft that is essentially a rocket-powered boxing glove that can be launched on short order to gently punch a wayward object out of its orbit.
“All the space sector is organized to do planned, long missions … but orbital defense is more about unplanned, short missions,” Laheyne said.
In that sense, Interceptor “is more like an air defense missile,” he explained.
Dark Space was founded by Laheyne and CTO Guillaume Orvain, engineers who cut their teeth at multi-national missile developer MBDA.
TikTok is rolling out its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, in select markets.
The app is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in Canada and Australia, the company said.
Starting today, TikTok Notes is available for download and limited testing in Australia and Canada.
— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) April 17, 2024“We hope that the TikTok community will use TikTok Notes to continue sharing their moments through photo posts.
Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported that the Bytedance-owned company’s Instagram competitor is likely to be named TikTok Notes.
Inversion Space is aptly named.
Inversion has developed a pathfinder vehicle, called Ray, that’s a technical precursor to a larger platform that will debut in 2026.
Impressively, the company has designed and built almost all of the Ray vehicle in-house, from the propulsion system to the structure to the parachutes.
“The purpose of our Ray vehicle is to develop technology for our next-gen vehicle.
As such, we’ve built basically the entire vehicle in-house,” Fiaschetti said.
