Skyrocket (7/26/23)

Good morning. Get your popcorn ready for this morning’s House Oversight hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, where we’ll maybe learn if aliens really exist. 👽

Today’s newsletter:
🌕 NASA’s tipping point awards
🚀 Space economy Q2 update
📄 Space opportunities
💸 The term sheet

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NASA Funds 11 Next-Gen Space Projects

NASA awarded 11 companies a combined $150M to support a next-gen lunar base camp and broader space exploration tech, the agency announced yesterday.

The grants, which were awarded under NASA’s Tipping Point program, fund an array of sci-fi-like projects including lunar nuclear fuel, in-situ resource utilization, LiDAR navigation, inflatable heat shielding, and lunar power transmission. The selected companies will have skin in the game by ponying up at least 10-25% of each project’s price tag.

"The technologies that NASA is investing in today have the potential to be the foundation of future exploration," said NASA chief Bill Nelson.

Blue Origin ($34.7M): The company will continue developing its Blue Alchemist solution, which uses electrolysis to manufacture solar cells from lunar regolith. The process also produces oxygen as a byproduct.

• “First, we return humans to the Moon, then we start to ‘live off the land,’” said Blue VP Pat Remias.

Astrobotic ($34.6M): The lunar logistics startup will test its LunaGrid-Lite tech, which involves an Astrobotic lunar lander transmitting power to a small rover one km away via a tethered cable. The demo paves the way for a lunar power grid. The 6U CubeRover may fly as early as 2026.

ULA ($25M): The launch giant will advance its inflatable heat shield, which spacecraft could use to nail a Mars landing. ULA could also use the tech for terrestrial Vulcan engine recovery.

Zeno Power ($15M): Zeno will develop an americium-241 radioisotope Stirling generator for long-duration lunar missions. In non-mumbo-jumbo language, the tech turns nuclear fuel into electricity, creating a highly-efficient power source for lunar infrastructure and rovers.

Redwire ($12.9M): The company will prototype its lunar processing tech, which solidifies lunar regolith to create a foundation for lunar habitats, roads, or landing pads.

• “Developing the technology to create infrastructure on the Moon to support landing, habitation, and commercial operations will enable the robust future that America and its international partners are creating,” said Redwire EVP John Vellinger.

Other contracts include:

• Lockheed Martin ($9.1M): Demonstrate in-space material joining and inspection.

• Protoinnovations ($6.2M): Advance mobility control software for landers and rovers.

• Big Metal Additive ($5.4M): Develop additive manufacturing.

• Psionic ($3.2M): Flight demo of its LiDAR navigation and landing system.

• Varda ($1.9M): Flight test C-PICA, a thermal protection material.

• Freedom Photonics ($1.6M): Build lidar tech.

Sponsored

The Secret Sauce to Satellite Manufacturing

Over the last five years, the demand for small satellite manufacturing has skyrocketed, fueled by their cost-effectiveness and versatility across a broad range of applications, including EO, defense, communications, and scientific research.

However, meeting demand in a timely and reliable manner is a challenge for the industry.

As a prime contractor operating within this burgeoning sector, Millennium Space Systems leverages decades of experience and a streamlined production system to help meet the ever-growing customer demand. The synergistic approach has enabled Millennium’s small satellite manufacturing to hit its stride, increasing its speed of production to a trajectory resembling Moore’s Millennium’s Law.

Millennium’s law: 

• 2011 Rapid Pathfinder: 24 months

• 2019 Tetra-1: 13 months

• 2023 Victus Nox: 8 months

The Space Economy Reaches $546B

It’s that time again—the Space Foundation has released its report on the state of the space economy through Q2 2023, and it’s reporting big numbers for the past year. According to the authors, the space economy reached $546B in 2022 despite turbulent global markets, and they’re only predicting more growth in the coming years.

The Space Foundation believes the space industry is poised to ring in upwards of $800B by 2028, in part because of the surge in launch activity in 2023 compared to the prior year.

Business is booming: The commercial space sector accounts for the largest portion of the current space economy right now—78%, by the Space Foundation’s tally.

In 2022, commercial space companies pulled in $426.6B, up nearly 8% from the year prior. Breaking that down even further, space products and services accounted for about two thirds of 2022 commercial revenue, and infrastructure initiatives made up the remaining third.

Notable year-over-year increases:

• Position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services brought in an additional $16B in revenue

• Ground stations banked an additional $7B

• Launch earned 33% more

A few areas also saw decreases:

• On-orbit servicing, a still-new industry, saw revenues drop from $211M in 2021 to $91M in 2022

• Space situational awareness also saw a drop, down 21% YoY

Civil and military: Government space spending was $9B higher in 2022 than the year before, totaling $119B. The number of nations getting in on the spacefaring game just keeps bumping up, too—in 2022, 51 nations invested in space technology.

On the defense side, the US leads the pack in spending, putting $43B toward national security space programs. The rest of the world spent $11B total (though it’s worth noting that China, the US’s greatest adversary in the space domain, does not make its defense spending public, and the Space Foundation is going off of estimates).

The budget for civil space (mostly NASA, plus a few billion in five other civil agencies) brings the total US government spend on space to $69.5B, nearly 60% of the world’s government spending on space.

The upshot: The long timelines for space projects as well as the space industry’s heavy reliance on government defense agencies as primary customers keeps the sector resilient in the face of changing public markets. Despite lows in the 2022 global economy, the space industry kept on truckin’, and the Space Foundation analysts see mostly upside from here.

Space Opportunities

Here are the top government opportunities for space companies this week, as compiled by our partner TZero.

🛰️ USSF Space RCO has released a request for advanced capabilities that increase space awareness, advance autonomy, and increase lifespan and maneuverability. Interested companies can sign up for info at the challenge website.

🚀 NASA has released an onramp solicitation for the Suborbital/Hosted Orbital Flight and Integration Services IDIQ 4, an opportunity to fly multiple classes of missions and payloads. Responses are due July 28.

🌊 NASA GSFC has released a presolicitation notice for the GeoXO Ocean Color (OCX) instrument, a planned hyperspectral UV through infrared passive radiometer. The RFP is expected in mid-August.

Additional opportunities and details can be found in the TZero Space Tracker, which is now offering new lower pricing and a one-month free trial.

In Other News

• NASA temporarily lost comms with the ISS due to a power outage at JSC.

• Atomos Space will launch its in-orbit refueling demo mission in Q1 2024.

• The Space Force released a draft plan for a space civil reserve that could be activated in times of conflict.

• The House rejected the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act after lawmakers argued it would grant the FCC too much authority.

The View from Space

This European Southern Observatory image shows a young star, V960 Mon, that is 5,000+ light-years away (though it doesn’t look a day over 4,000 light years, if you ask us).