Back at it (1/3/23)

Happy 2023, readers. Payload is back on the daily newsletter grind, Pathfinder will hit your pod feeds tomorrow with a special episode, and Parallax will go out the next day. We're wasting no time getting back into the swing of things...just like the industry we cover.

In today's newsletter:🚀 SpaceX raise🚂 Transporter-6🗓️ The week ahead🔁 On the move

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Report: SpaceX Targeting $750M Raise

SpaceX is seeking another round of funding. According to emails seen by CNBC, the launch juggernaut is raising $750M in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z), valuing the company at $137B.

2022 was a busy year of fundraising for SpaceX. Last month, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was offering insiders the opportunity to sell shares at $77, a tender offer valuing the company at $140B. That offer came on the heels of an equity round in May valuing the company at $127B and a $250M round in July. All told, SpaceX raised more than $2B in 2022.

a16z, the reported lead investor of SpaceX’s latest financing round, also backed Elon Musk’s $44B Twitter LBO. The storied Sand Hill Road VC has also backed Apex Space, Hadrian, and Astranis.

SpaceX’s 2022: Last year, SpaceX blew past the competition in terms of launch cadence and reliability. The Falcon 9 flew 60 times last year. Tacking on one Falcon Heavy launch, SpaceX successfully launched 61 missions to orbit, setting a new bar for commercial launches in a year.

Starlink also reported a number of milestones in 2022. The service rolled out in a handful of new countries, including emergency deployment in Ukraine, and hit 1M subscribers last month.

Looking forward: With last year’s launch and reuse records in the rear-view mirror, SpaceX already has an ambitious 2023 planned. In roughly an hour, the company plans to ring in the new year with the Transporter-6 launch on a Falcon 9, sending 114 customer payloads to orbit. (Read on for more Transporter-6 deets.)

Starship is also just about ready for its first orbital attempt. Regulatory challenges, product iteration, and all the other challenges that come with developing a new rocket kept SpaceX from launching the super heavy rocket from Starbase last year, but hopes are high for an orbital flight test sometime in the coming months.

Share this with someone who can't wait to see Starship fly:

Gang's All Here

For the first orbital launch of 2023, a bunch of payloads—114 in total—are set to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-6 rideshare mission. Here’s a rundown of some of those payloads set to launch very soon.

EO: Umbra is launching two satellites, while France’s Unseenlabs will launch its latest RF-detecting, ship-tracking satellite. Spire will launch six satellites that will demonstrate new weather and aviation capabilities, in addition to carrying the company’s signature payloads. Spire will also host payloads for Myriota, a space-based IoT provider.

Finally, Planet is launching Flock 4y, which consists of 36 SuperDove satellites, on Transporter-6. The SuperDoves will replenish Planet’s ~200-satellite fleet.

Tugs: Italy’s D-Orbit will fly two ION satellite carriers on the mission, while Momentus will launch Vigoride-5, the second test flight of its deployer vehicle. Orbiter SN1, a space tug and hosted payload platform from Hawthorne-based Launcher, will deploy with eight customers on board. “This milestone will be five years ahead of our original ten-year plan to reach orbit and revenue,” Launcher CEO Max Haot said on LinkedIn, “thanks to SpaceX rideshare’s existence.”

Firsts: Launcher isn’t the only one headed to orbit for the first time. Magdrive, a startup developing electric plasma thrusters, is launching its first in-orbit demonstration. And Epic Aerospace, a chemical space tug startup, is launching its CHIMERA LEO 1 spacecraft.

Etc: Lynk will launch Tower 4 to continue the buildout of its satellite-to-phone network; Albania will launch two satellites and Kuwait will launch its first cubesat; Sony will launch Star Sphere-1; and Loft Orbital will launch its YAM-5 mission hosting a number of customer payloads.

Best of luck to everyone flying today.

In Other News

• ispace completed the second orbital maneuver of HAKUTO-R Mission 1.

• Russia will make a final decision on the leaky Soyuz ship this month. In the interim, NASA has been exploring contingency plans with a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

• China launched the Shiyan-10 test satellite on a Long March 3B on Dec. 28. The Chinese space program set a new national record in 2022 with 64 orbital launches.

• Separately, the country’s prestigious Peking University lifted the wraps on plans for Asia’s biggest optical telescope.

• ORBITS, a bipartisan bill that would fund debris removal development, passed in the Senate but died in the House.

• Terran Orbital ($LLAP) delivered 10 satellite buses to Lockheed Martin ($LMT) for the SDA’s Tranche 0 Transport Layer.

• The Space Force launched a redesigned, sleeker website, in a bid to attract a wider swath of future Guardians.

• Nanoracks deployed eight cubesats from the ISS on Dec. 29.

• Here’s a must-read obituary for NASA’s InSight Mars lander. RIP.

On the Move

• General Dynamics ($GD) named CFO Jason Aiken as EVP of Technologies, effective Jan. 1. Christopher Marzilli, who previously held the position, is retiring in early 2023.

• iRocket appointed Marzilli and Kelyn Brannon to its board of directors. Brannon was most recently CFO of Astra ($ASTR).

• Machina Labs hired Alexander Kwan, a SpaceX veteran, as its VP of ops.

• JAXA has selected 10 finalists for its next astronaut class. The eight men and two women were picked from a pool of 4,100+ applicants.

The View from Space