Three commas (2/23/23)

Good morning. Later today, Payload’s very own Rachael Zisk will be moderating a panel at a Space Prize event celebrating women in the space industry. If you’re in NYC, register here to attend.

Another programming note: Payload will be attending Satellite 2023 this year in DC. Don't miss out by signing up with our discount code: PAYLOAD4SAT23.

In today's edition...🛰️ Terran’s $2.4B award🤘🏼 Lone Star Space 📝 The contract report

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Live Long and Prosper

Another day, another three-comma space contract.

Terran Orbital said Wednesday that it won a $2.4B contract to design, build, and deploy a 300-bird constellation for Rivada Space Networks. The Rivada constellation will consist of 288 LEO satellites and 12 spares. They’ll be linked by lasers, packing on-board data routers, and tasked with providing high-speed wholesale connectivity to terrestrial network operators.

The customer: Rivada plans to launch two fleets of 300 satellites, for a grand total of 600, and owns a valuable Ka-band spectrum license. The regulatory deadline to launch the first constellation falls in 2026, so the clock’s a-tickin. In addition to the spectrum rights, Rivada has a stash of valuable IP, with patents for systems such as “dynamic spectrum arbitrage” and “open access” platforms.”

The job: Tyvak, Terran’s wholly owned subsidiary, is the formal prime contractor for the Rivada job. Tyvak will assemble, integrate payloads, and test the ~500 kg satellites (at the top end of Terran’s manufacturing sweet spot). Terran will also develop portions of the ground segment for the Rivada constellation.

The response: “This is a tremendous validation of everything that we've been talking about and doing here at Terran,” CEO Marc Bell told Payload. “It shows that we can mass produce satellites at an affordable cost and provide a high-quality product at the same time,” and “is one of, if not the largest smallsat contracts ever awarded.”

The site: Terran has a new facility “coming online in four weeks, which is where we will build the bulk of Rivada,” Bell said. The satellite manufacturer, which primarily sells into the government market, recently opted to expand its Irvine, CA digs, rather than move forward with an even bigger factory on Florida’s Space Coast.

The strategy: Terran’s production process is highly automated, Bell said, which means it can work around the clock. He also noted that the company controls 85% of its supply chain, with the big exception being semiconductors. The Rivada job will put Terran’s manufacturing lines “in a constant mode” for the next few years, as opposed to the “start-and-stop” nature of government procurement.

Execution is key, given the deadline for satellite deployment. Rivada said that it plans to start deployment in 2025, with full deployment of fleet #1 by mid-2026.

The reaction: Shares of Terran Orbital ($LLAP) finished Wednesday up 71%. $LLAP is a reference to “live long and prosper” and the inspiration for this story’s title.

Texas Plans Historic Investment in Space

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is requesting a staggering $350M from state legislators to form a Texas Space Commission, as first reported by Ars Technica.

While details on specific allocations have yet to be determined, the overall goal of the funding will be to further establish Texas as a space hub.

“With companies seeking to expand space travel in coming years, continued development of the space industry in the state will ensure Texas remains at the forefront not only in the United States, but the entire world,” stated Governor Abbott in his office’s official budget report.

Lots of space in Texas: The Lone Star state is home to a growing space business community, with major space companies such as Firefly, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Payload either HQ’d or maintaining a significant presence in the area.

The proposed $350M investment would boost Texas' competitiveness in the launch market, while also providing support for the rest of the state’s space ecosystem.

In Other News

• Relativity secured an FAA launch license for Good Luck, Have Fun and has penciled in a date: March 8.

• George Whitesides, former NASA chief of staff and Virgin Galactic boss, is running for Congress as a Democrat in California’s 27th congressional district.

• Capella Space launched an analytics partner program to increase access to its SAR imagery.

• LeoLabs says its radar data indicates that a Chinese test spacecraft deployed a payload on orbit.

• Intuitive Machines ($LUNR) traded up by as much as 260% yesterday before settling back down at a much more muted +116% for the day.

• Starlink is adjusting prices based on limited and excess capacity areas. The Starlink for RVs monthly subscription fee was also hiked from $135 to $150.

• Russia is planning to launch its Luna-25 lunar lander mission on July 13.

The View from Space + Near-Space

Using Planet imagery, a group of students and researchers at Middlebury Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies identified a site on China’s Hainan Island that is suspected of being a launchpad for spy balloons (and received a writeup in Rolling Stone for their work).

The team also worked with WSJ reporters to identify a concrete slab in Inner Mongolia that is suspected to be the launch site of the balloon that infamously flew across the mainland US earlier this month.

If that was the shot, here’s the chaser:

The Pentagon yesterday released the above image, which shows a US Air Force U-2 pilot looking down at the Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 3. It may not technically be from space, but hey, we’ll take it.