Max Q - How about I knock off $2 billion?

Monday, July 26, 2021 • By Darrell Etherington

The space industry is still abuzz with the aftermath of Jeff Bezos’ brief jaunt, and the billionaire’s dedicated penchant for wearing a cowboy hat while essentially embodying all the negative associations one would have for a modern-day billionaire space cowboy. Meanwhile, we’ve got fundings, and trouble in SPAC paradise.

Bezos sweetens the pot

In a bizarrely public and direct twist in the ongoing NASA lunar lander contract saga (the agency awarded SpaceX the contract for Starship, but it’s now on hold as Blue Origin and the other bidding party Dynetics protested the choice), Jeff Bezos posted an open letter to Blue Origin’s website offering to basically subsidize the cost of their bid by $2 billion.

Bezos is basically offering to make a deal that would put the lander contract within the bounds of what NASA has received approval for by the congressional committee charged with overseeing its spending, and it also offers a number of other incentives to help NASA out with cost cutting.

This is highly unconventional and way outside the typical procurement process followed by NASA and other government agencies, but Blue Origin clearly wants to bring some traditional business negotiating tactics to bear in this stodgier and much more structured deal-making environment. It’ll be interesting to see if SpaceX makes any kind of similar public response or overtures.

Image Credits: Blue Origin

Funding to propel in-space propulsion

Electric propulsion technology company Accion raised a significant $42 million Series C this past week, in a deal made more interesting because the lead investor in the round, Tracker Capital, comes out of the transaction with a majority stake in the startup.

It’s not a standard path for funding, but the high-tech company is focused on deep investments and a long view that includes scaling its tiny thrusters up from serving small sats, to equipping larger geosynchronous spacecraft and even interplanetary research vehicles.

Funding to propel in-space propulsion image

Image Credits: Accion Systems

Momentus faces blowback from SEC

Most space SPACs currently in process or recently completed went more or less smoothly, but the same can’t be said for that of in-space propulsion company Momentus. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dinged it for not disclosing to potential investors that its tech didn’t work as designed, and that its founder was identified as a potential national security risk by the U.S. government.

SPACs offer a lot of potential advantages to startups and investors looking for a public market exit vs. the traditional IPO process, but one area where they’re a greater risk is that the SEC is looking much more closely at them in light of the fact that they don’t incur the same kind of scrutiny from bankers who would share the liability risk if it turns out they’re hiding stuff from the investing public.

Momentus is still looking to go through with the SPAC, with a vote on the merger set for next month, and it denies any wrongdoing.

Image Credits: Momentus

Cowboy Jeff and his space friends get excited

Jeff Bezos and his crew of private, brief space venturers sat down with reporters for a post-launch press conference. It was only kind of a press conference, because they ended up only taking questions from three top-tier national outlets during the actual Q+A, but we did get a lot more Jeff cowboy hat, and plenty of giddiness.

Also, Blue Origin is planning to do two more crewed launches before year’s end, which is fast ramp for a company that took a long time to get to its first human flight.

Cowboy Jeff and his space friends get excited image

Image Credits: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Join us at TC Sessions: Space in December

Last year we held our first dedicated space event, and it went so well that we decided to host it again in 2021. This year, it’s happening December 14 and 15, and it’s once again going to be an entirely virtual conference, so people from all over the world will be able to join — and you can, too.