August 15, 2021

‘Orphaned’ by the Air Force, Florida Guard Boss Calls for Establishing Space National Guard (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Florida Guard members specializing in offensive space capabilities have “kind of been orphaned” by the transfer of Air Force assets to the Space Force without the corresponding creation of a Space National Guard, Adjunct General of the Florida National Guard USAF Maj. Gen. James O. Eifert said. Name change legislation recently passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee would not help those Guard members, who need a direct link to the Space Force, he said.

A study on creation of a Space Force Reserve and Guard component ordered in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act lingers with the Office of Management and Budget. In the meantime, highly qualified Air National Guard members working in Florida’s robust commercial space industry and deploying to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility have lost touch with military space leadership, Eifert said. “Our Space Force units in the National Guard have kind of been orphaned by their parent service,” he said of the Florida Air National Guard’s 114th Space Control Squadron. (8/13)

Spire Global CEO Says New Talent Was The Key To His Space Startup’s Billion-Dollar SPAC Deal (Source: Forbes)
Peter Platzer knew he wanted to take his company public. The CEO of Spire Global had spent the better part of a decade getting his satellite observation startup up and running. By 2019, Spire’s network of orbiting monitors was scanning the Earth dozens of times a day, culling terabytes of data to plug into its proprietary analytics tools. And customers across the private and public sectors were using those tools to plumb new insights about the way the world works, tracking everything from shifting wildfires to sustainable fisheries.

At first, Platzer assumed going public meant pursuing an IPO. Until one meeting changed everything. “We were going down what I consider a more traditional path,” Platzer told me this week. “We had the conversations with banks, we had the beauty contests, we talked to exchanges. And reasonably late in that process, we met Jack and Bob.” Jack and Bob would be Jack Pearlstein and Bob Coleman, respectively the CFO and CEO of NavSight Holdings, a SPAC that went public last September.

So this March, instead of filing for an IPO, Spire joined a long list of companies in the space sector that have lined up SPAC deals this year, agreeing to merge with NavSight at a $1.6 billion valuation. This Friday, shareholders voted to approve the combination. And next week, the stock that has until now been trading as NavSight will instead become Spire—and, with the proceeds from the deal, Spire will become $265 million richer. (8/15)

Musk Says Starship Orbital Stack to be Ready for Flight in Few Weeks (Source: Reuters)
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Saturday the first orbital stack of the Starship rocket should be ready for flight in the coming weeks, taking the unorthodox billionaire a step closer to his dream of orbital and then interplanetary travel. SpaceX in May successfully landed its Starship prototype, SN15, a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that could eventually carry astronauts and large cargo payloads to the moon and Mars.

"First orbital stack of Starship should be ready for flight in a few weeks, pending only regulatory approval," Musk tweeted. The complete Starship rocket, SpaceX's next-generation launch vehicle, stands 394 feet (120 meters) tall when coupled with its super-heavy first-stage booster. An orbital Starship flight is planned for year's end, and Musk has said he intends to fly Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa around the moon in the Starship in 2023. (8/15)

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Ready to Land Humans on Moon 'Probably Sooner' Than 2024 (Source: Newsweek)
SpaceX will likely be ready to shuttle humans to and from the moon before 2024, Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, has said. NASA is working with Musk's private spaceflight company on a program, called Artemis, to take humans back to the moon, where no one has stood since 1972. SpaceX is tasked with developing the first commercial landers, known as human landing systems (HLS), to be used in lunar missions, as part of a $2.89 billion deal.

The first will involve NASA's Space Launch System rocket launching four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit. Two crew members will transfer to the SpaceX lander to journey to the surface of the moon, which they will explore for about a week. SpaceX's HLS Starship would remain in space, to be used for multiple trips between lunar orbit and the moon's surface. It is hoped a form of the landing system could be designed for travel to Mars, and other destinations. Asked on Twitter, "Do you expect to have Lunar Starship ready to land humans in 2024 (despite other delays)?" Musk responded simply: "Probably sooner." (8/15)

Boeing’s Spaceship Problems Show Just How Amazing Musk’s SpaceX Is (Source: Barrons)
Everyone knows that getting to space is hard, and Starliner delays aren’t really affecting Boeing ‘s stock. Boeing, of course, has a much bigger business selling commercial airliners. What’s more, the delays aren’t all caused by Boeing. There has to be space to launch and everything has to be in the right orbit. Instead, the Starliner story shows just how impressive SpaceX is.

After the Space Shuttle was retired about a decade ago, America relied on foreign countries to take astronauts into space. But America can now launch astronauts into space again, thanks to SpaceX. Elon Musk’s space company has ferried astronauts to the ISS a few times—first in May 2020 on a certification flight and most recently in April. The SpaceX success seems even more impressive considering that SpaceX’s Dragon capsule sits atop SpaceX rockets with engines built by SpaceX.

The Boeing Starliner capsule sits atop a United Launch Alliance, or ULA, rocket. Some of the engines are made in Russia, while others come from suppliers such as Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD). ULA—a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin (LMT)—and Aerojet are established space players. SpaceX was founded in 2002. It’s a teenager. (8/14)