Starbridge News
Starbridge spent this week at the SALT conference in New York and held a small reception with existing and prospective LPs. Steven and Neil worked the event hard and ended up in the Top 10 in the number of meetings held:
Portfolio Company News
Lynk
BREAKING: Lynk received the world's first commercial satellite-direct-to-phone license from the FCC today...aka they are officially ahead of SpaceX's Starlink:
Umbra
Satellite radar startups spar over commercial market importance
Joe Morrison, Umbra’s VP of Commercial Product, spoke on the ‘SAR Market Update’ panel at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week today. He noted that Umbra is focused on using the same infrastructure currently in place to serve large customers to also support smaller, innovative companies that are seeking to grow market share. Capella CEO, Payam Banazadeh, and Synspective CEO, Motoyuki Arai, were also on the panel.
Axiom
NASA requests proposals for two ISS private astronaut missions
NASA is allowing up to 2 private astronaut missions (PAMs) to the ISS each year for up to 2 weeks to help the industry build up its experience for future commercial space stations to succeed the ISS. They are currently seeking proposals for the third and fourth PAM to the ISS and are requiring that each solicitation must include a former NASA astronaut to provide guidance for the private astronauts during pre-flight prep through to mission execution. Axiom completed PAM-1 in April and will be flying PAM-2 in the second quarter of 2023.
General Space News
New Shepard suffers in-flight abort on an uncrewed suborbital flight
Blue Origin had to abort their uncrewed suborbital vehicle, New Shepard NS-23, after an undisclosed anomaly occurred causing the vehicle to fire its abort motor. NS-23 was carrying 3 dozen payloads sponsored mainly by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program for suborbital research on commercial vehicles.
Artemis 1 launch plans slip again
NASA is now looking to attempt the Artemis I mission on Sept 23rd or 27th.
Intuitive Machines to go public in SPAC merger
Intuitive Machines announced today that it would go public through a merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp, a SPAC trading on the NASDAQ, which will have a pro forma enterprise value of $815M. Intuitive Machines is developing lunar landers and other related capabilities for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and other customers.
U.S. weighing options to compensate commercial companies if satellites are attacked
Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s Commercial and Business Operations Group, David Gauthier, said that ‘if private sector satellites become part of a hybrid public-private space architecture, “then we have some obligation to think about commercial protection. [...] We’re engaging with our industry partners to have that discussion more fully. And everything is still on the table.”’
Senators Cantwell, Hickenlooper, Lummis, and Wicker introduced the Orbital Sustainability Act of 2022 (ORBITS Act) that would “establish a demonstration program for the active remediation of orbital debris” and “require the development of uniform orbital debris standard practices in order to support a safe and sustainable orbital environment.” This demonstration attempts to move ADR (Active Debris Removal) forward even though it still does not solve any of the business model issues for commercial ADR providers.
The Executive Branch began flexing its muscle this week when it asked federal agencies for proposals for regulating "novel" commercial space activities, the FAA and NTSB signed an agreement outlining their roles in investigating commercial space accidents, and Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas) asked for details ahead of a possible hearing from the FAA on its investigation into the New Shepard launch accident. There is a real risk that enthusiasm for the industry is translating into various parts of the US Government becoming overzealous in order to catch some of that limelight. All of the National Space Council meetings spend half of their schedule with every single agency outlining how they are “here to help” with new "regulatory clarity".
Axios has a good overview of the interaction between antisatellite tests and international law that shows how the US is leading the way among nations that would have never done an antisatellite weapon's test to begin with. The two greatest threats, Russia and China, have no intention of signing any treaty so it's not clear how much of an impact this will have. The argument is that if no one overtly objects, then it becomes customary international law and countries are bound by that regardless. But from the actual behavior of both China and Russia, it appears that the idea of customary international law stops at their borders.
Other Space News