Hungry tugs (2/17/23)

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In today's edition...🌍 Euro tug overview🚀 H3 rocket primer 📈 $LUNR whipsaw💫 Payload's picks

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European Space Tugs Hungry for Market Share

Today in Europe, there are no fewer than 13 companies developing or operating orbital transfer vehicles, known in short as OTVs or more colloquially as space tugs.

Around the world, we assess that there are likely north of 100 companies that are keen to grab a slice of the space tug market. With healthy competition in both the US and Europe, the race to operational flight is well and truly underway.

In the latest edition of his Europe in Space newsletter, Payload contributor Andrew Parsonson took an in-depth look at Europe’s OTV players, the vehicles that they are developing (or currently flying), and the services these companies plan to offer.

Key takeaways

• D-Orbit is a pioneer of last-mile orbital dropoffs, not just in Europe but around the world. The Italian company got its start in 2011 and has completed eight operational missions. Two launched in January.

• There are currently no European launch startups pursuing mission extension services. However, the European Commission-backed Thales Alenia Space EROSS project will compete with Northrop Grumman’s MEV, or Mission Extension Vehicle. MEV first launched in 2019.

• ClearSpace is the only other European company pursuing an OTV project without last-mile delivery as one of its primary services. The startup’s vehicle is designed to be a debris removal robotic specialist. ClearSpace-1, the company’s first mission, is expected to lift off in 2026.

• Four European launch startups are pursuing the development of OTVs/kick stages to offer a wider range of mission options to their customers.

+ Want to go deeper? Read the full, 2,000+ word analysis here.

H3, Japan’s Next-Gen Rocket, Fails to Launch

Japan has been working to build its new H3 rocket for the past decade. Last night, JAXA attempted to launch it for the first time, but aborted the flight at T-0.

The road to launch: JAXA originally greenlit the H3 rocket in 2013 as a more cost-effective successor of the H2-A, which the Japanese space agency debuted in 2001. H2-A is comparable to the Falcon 9 in terms of mass-to-orbit but costs significantly more to launch, at ~$90M vs. $67M for the SpaceX workhorse.

JAXA contracted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build H3, an expendable rocket with similar lift capabilities and target price point of $51M per launch. H3’s maiden flight was initially penciled in for 2020, but Mitsubishi ran into engine testing snags that led to schedule slips.

The aborted debut: Countdown to launch proceeded as planned. At 8:37pm ET, the rocket’s two LE-9 engines on the core stage ignited, but its two solid rocket boosters failed. The agency is now investigating what went wrong.

The rocket was meant to deliver the ALOS-3 satellite to a sun-synchronous orbit for JAXA. ALOS-3, which stands for Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3, carries a sensor with 0.8m resolution to scan regions up to 70 km in width.

A path forward? The commercial launch landscape has changed considerably since Mitsubishi kicked off the H3 program. Falcon 9 has been building flight heritage since 2016, and it’s now the world’s most reliable, frequently flown and reflown rocket. It’s unlikely H3 can outcompete Falcon 9 on price out of the gate, and it’ll be a long time before it can demonstrate comparable reliability.

Latest Space SPAC Does Typical Space SPAC Thing

Yes, shares of newly public Intuitive Machines ($LUNR) closed at $44.77 a pop, up a staggering 251% on the day.

Trading of the lunar exploration company’s stock was briefly halted midday as volatility triggered the NASDAQ circuit breaker. The surge comes just three days after Intuitive Machines completed its reverse merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp ($IPAX), a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Redeem team: Intuitive Machines originally anticipated that its SPAC transaction could generate $301M. However, a recent filing with the SEC revealed that SPAC shareholders opted to redeem a whopping $279.9M (or 27.5M shares) prior to the transaction, which closed on Valentine’s Day. The high redemption rate leaves Intuitive Machines with far less cash than expected.

$LUNR 101… Intuitive Machines specializes in building products and technologies serving the lunar economy. Capital raised from the IPO will be used to fund lunar lander missions, along with various Moon-focused R&D projects.

Is the SPAC back? The high redemption rate—and bonkers trading patterns for Intuitive Machines’s first week of trading—comes at a time in which SPACs have crashed back down to Earth. Rising interest rates, and a general shift from vibe-based to fundamentals-based investing, have led to a sharp decline in new SPAC transactions, from a record high of 613 in 2022 to just 86 in 2022.

However, this week investors shrugged off any SPAC weariness and sent the stock soaring.

+ Let’s hear from you: Can the hype hold? Cast your vote below on what Intuitive Machines’s stock price will be one week from today.

Sponsored

Meet ITA at SpaceCom

The Italian Trade Agency, in collaboration with ASI, Italian Space Agency, is proud to announce its participation at the latest edition of SpaceCom in Orlando, Florida from February 21 to February 23.

The Italian pavilion will be spotlighting a world-class delegation (Booth #513) of 10 Italian companies including:

Altec | Delta Space | DTM Technologies | Lamiflex | Leaf Space | Nurjana Technologies |

Plyform | Roboticom | Roboze | TekRevolution

This will be the ITA's first aerospace exhibiting event of the year, continuing to build on the momentum from last year's launch of our "There's a Lot of Space in Italy" campaign to further promote the Italian Space sector in the US.

To schedule a meeting with any of the exhibiting companies, please write to: [email protected].

In Other News

• China slapped sanctions on Lockheed Martin ($LMT) and Raytheon ($RTX) for selling weapons to Taiwan. The sanctions will be absolutely devastating to the American defense contractors’ bottom lines…

• SpaceX raised Transporter rideshare rates by 18% from $5,500/kg to $6,500/kg (h/t Euroconsult’s Alexandre Najjar for the find).

• Crew training for Starliner and Orion has kicked into high gear down at KSC.

• NASA chief Bill Nelson told Nikkei that the free world is locked in a competition with China to explore the Moon and exploit its resources.

• Iridium ($IRDM) reported $193.8M in Q4 revenue (+24% YoY) and a net loss of $800,000 for the quarter. $IRDM traded up 3.9% Thursday and the stock is +12.3% YTD.

• The UFO downed by a US fighter jet over Canada may no longer be unidentified. In fact, the downed object was likely K9YO-15, a tiny amateur radio pico balloon.

• Airbus reported 2022 revenues of €58.8B ($62.8B) and Q4 sales of €20.6B ($22B), which represents a 21% annual jump. Airbus Defense and Space Q4 sales were ~€3.7B ($4B), which represents a 11% YoY increase.

• Space Pioneer, a private Chinese rocket developer, is preparing to launch a kerosene-liquid oxygen medium-lift launch vehicle from Jiuquan.

The View from Space

This image first appeared in Parallax, our weekly space and science newsletter penned by Rachael Zisk. Get the science alpha and unlock the Parallax archives by signing up below.