Challenges | Campaigns | Solicitations
NASA is inviting students across the US to design an experiment to test on a suborbital rocket or high-altitude balloon. $1500 awarded to each winning school. Contest opens August 18. [Forward]
Launchspace Technologies’ orbital debris remediation spacecraft removes small orbital debris that can damage or destroy satellites. Deadline to invest is November 8, 2021. [Forward]
Exo-Space is raising a seed round on Spaced Ventures, the equity crowdfunding platform. Exo-Space developed FeatherEdge, an on-orbit machine vision / edge computing image-analysis device. Ends December 9, 2021. [Forward]
Aphelion Aerospace aims to revolutionize access to space, by providing dedicated services for small spacecraft for use in commerce, science, and research. [Forward]
University rocketry teams: want to launch rockets and compete regionally against other university teams and potentially join next year's Spaceport America Cup? Registration closes March 31, 2022. [Forward]
Book your six-hour voyage on Spaceship Neptune now for 2025 and see Earth from space. Book an individual seat or a full 8 person capsule. $125,000 per space explorer. [Forward]
XPRIZE Carbon Removal is aimed at tackling climate change and advancing space exploration. Teams will create and demonstrate solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans. [Forward]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Join 12,349 volunteers in labelling images from the Curiosity Rover, collectively creating the first open-source navigation-classification dataset of the Red Planet, which will be used to train future rovers. [Forward]
Events
ASEC is a virtual forum for the space environment engineering and applied space science community to discuss current space programs and to identify gaps in knowledge and technology. November 1-5. [Forward]
This free, virtual workshop covers a variety of subjects, including research and development work on state-of-the-art aerospace battery technologies, flight and ground test data, and more. November 16-18, 2021. [Forward]
This free online event gathers experts from global space agencies, space corporations, and more to gain a comprehensive understanding of the mission of the new space age. December 6-7, 2021. [Forward]
Forge the future of space at this two-day virtual event with the startups, researchers, investors, and technologists making it all happen. Tickets range from $35 - $75. December 14 - 15. [Forward]
Add your event or campaign. Contact us for details.
// FYI
Space Ecosystem | Startups | Deals
Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station will be a “mixed use business park,” habitable for up to 10 people. It will also be capable of “exotic hospitality” for space tourists. [Forward]
The new space station will include an inflatable habitat module, a docking node, and a robotic arm. The companies anticipate robust demand from both the public sector and private industry. [Forward]
Terran’s announcement shows space startups are still looking to SPAC mergers as a way to raise cash and go public. The deal will furnish the company with around $470 million. [Forward]
ABL Space Systems raised the money from existing investors, giving the company additional funding to scale up production of its RS1 rocket and work on R&D projects. [Forward]
NASA is paying $93.3 million for the mission, which will see Firefly’s “Blue Ghost” spacecraft carry 10 payloads down to the Mare Crisium lunar basin in September 2023. [Forward]
Image Credit: ispace
Airbus Ventures thinks the moon can be "the first space for off-world manufacturing". ispace launches its Series 1 robotic lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in late 2022. [Forward]
The stratospheric balloon will take customers to around 20 miles above Earth for a six hour ride. A seat costs $125,000. Space Perspective has already collected 475 reservations. [Forward]
With the infusion of cash, Hedron intends to roll out the first phase of what it calls “the world’s first hybrid optical/RF data relay network” in late 2022. [Forward]
The new fund, dubbed Orbital Ventures, is just the latest sector-specific space fund to emerge in recent years, as investor interest in the burgeoning orbital market continues to rise. [Forward]
Space Exploration | Development
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is meant to explore the origins of the universe, is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble. [Forward]
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will travel 12 years to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which are 4 billion years old and could shed light on the origin of the outer solar system. [Forward]
NASA scientists believe humanity can send crewed missions to Saturn’s moons by the 2080s—but only if we can avoid what astronomers call “the great filter.” [Forward]
After a planned launch in July was aborted due to issues with the valves, it's looking unlikely that Starliner will get a crewed Demo launch in 2022. [Forward]
Astronomy | Astrophysics | Cosmology
Astronomers have found evidence for a possible planet candidate in the M51 ("Whirlpool") galaxy, potentially representing the first planet seen to transit a star outside of the Milky Way. [Forward]