Max Q is a weekly newsletter from TechCrunch all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Mondays in your inbox. Another public launch company is coming soon, while a still-private launch had to push off their planned first flight date. Still another launcher got the go-ahead for its big debut. It’s a […]
Hubble Captures a Stunning ‘Einstein Ring’ Magnifying The Depths of The Universe
Michelle Starr writes via ScienceAlert: Gravity is the weird, mysterious glue that binds the Universe together, but that’s not the limit of its charms. We can also leverage the way it warps space-time to see distant objects that would be otherwise much…
SpaceX ships 100,000 Starlink terminals to customers, eyes future launches using Starship
Elon Musk’s Starlink project, which aims to provide global broadband connectivity via a constellation of satellites, has shipped 100,000 terminals to customers. 100k terminals shipped!https://t.co/Q1VvqVmJ2i — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2021 It’s a jaw-dropping pace for the capital-intensive service, which began satellite launches in November 2019 and opened its $99/month beta program for select […]
Rocket Lab’s Mars mission gets green light from NASA
Rocket Lab is one step closer to going to Mars with NASA’s approval of the company’s Photon spacecraft for an upcoming science mission. If all continues according to plan the two craft will launch in 2024 and arrive on the red planet 11 months later to study its magnetosphere. The mission is known as the […]
Taiwan Innovative Space will conduct a test launch of its Hapith I rocket in Australia later this year
Australian regulators have given Taiwan Innovative Space, a five-year-old launch company that goes by Tispace, the green light to conduct a commercial launch at a newly licensed facility in southern Australia later this year. Tispace will conduct a test flight of its two-stage, suborbital rocket Hapith I from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in […]
Equity Monday: Stocks up, cryptos up, regulation up
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You […]
Virgin Orbit to go public via $3.2B SPAC deal
Virgin Orbit is set to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisitions company (SPAC), the company has confirmed. The deal values the combined enterprise at $3.2 billion, and will provide Virgin Orbit with $483 million in cash at close, including a $100 million PIPE. The combined company will trade under the ticker […]
August full moon 2021: how to photograph the blue moon on your phone or camera with the right settings
Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of taking pictures of this month’s blue moon, also known as a sturgeon moonWith a blue moon rising on Sunday night, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an…
Relativity is pushing back the demo launch of its Terran 1 rocket to early 2022
3D rocket printing company Relativity Space has pushed back the date of the demonstration launch of its lightweight Terran 1 rocket from winter 2021 to early 2022. The company announced the updated schedule on Twitter, while also confirming that the launch will take place out of Cape Canaveral in Florida. A few updates on #Terran1: […]
Astra given regulatory green light for its first commercial orbital launch at the end of the month
Rocket launch startup Astra has received a key license from the Federal Aviation Administration, giving the green light for the company’s first commercial orbital launch at the end of the month. Astra CEO Chris Kemp tweeted the news on Thursday, adding that the launch operator license through the FAA is valid through 2026. The new […]