TechCrunch Newsletters - Max Q - Virgin Galactic ground-bound

Monday, September 13, 2021 • By Darrell Etherington

Virgin Galactic is running into a few hiccups as it looks to ramp up its commercial human spaceflight business, while startups raise for new parts of the space economy and Rocket Lab reports its first results as a public company. It’s been a couple weeks thanks to Labor Day, so there’s a lot to catch up on.

Also, coming up this week is the big SpaceX Inspiration4 flight, which will see an all-civilian crew go to space on a Crew Dragon for the first time. Check back next week for more on that.

Virgin Galactic grounded

Virgin Galactic has been in the news a bunch recently, of course with most of the attention focused on the company’s flight with Sir Richard Branson. But that same flight is proving a problem now, since it prompted an FAA investigation, and a resulting grounding while the U.S. airspace regulator continues to look into what didn’t go according to plan on that flight.

The problem is mainly that the Virgin Galactic spacecraft deviated from its intended flight zone on the return trip — and while that didn’t cause any problems either for the Virgin crew or its passengers, or for anyone else, the FAA takes those fly zones very, very seriously.

Meanwhile, the company revealed this past weekend that a potential component defect will push back its next flight, which had been planned for late this month or early next, to at least “mid-October.” That’s assuming the FAA investigation has resolved and the company is cleared to fly again by then anyway.

Image Credits: Virgin Galactic

Rocket Lab reports first results

Rocket Lab reported its first quarterly results as a public company last week, with some promising numbers including a big boost in its committed backlog of launches queued. The rocket maker also announced a new customer and series of launches, and while it didn’t have a lot of concrete news on the subject of Neutron, its bigger rocket in development to share, it did suggest it’s coming along nicely.

Just prior to its earnings coming out, founder and CEO Peter Beck shared details about the company’s further investments into other aspects of the space industry beyond launch, expressing an intent to become a true “end-to-end space company.” That will be aided by a new production facility dedicated to producing satellite components at scale.

Image Credits: Rocket Lab

3D-printed lunar parts and gas stations on orbit raise funding

Some significant rounds of funding for new space companies this week: AON3D raised $11.5 million for its 3D printing tech, which actually aims to make more material that hasn’t typically worked for 3D printing a viable option. This could have huge impact for the space business, and one of the first companies they’re working with is Astrobotic, which will employ parts printed by AON3D in the lunar lander it’s sending to the Moon in 2022 (if all goes to plan).

Meanwhile, Orbit Fab got some big name endorsement — in the form of strategic investments — in its mission to create a more or less universal system for refuelling satellites on orbit. The company picked up a new $10 million round of investment from a host of funders including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. Considering that it will eventually be asking satellite makers to use its connectors for orbital refuelling, those are two very good friends to have.

3D-printed lunar parts and gas stations on orbit raise funding image

Image Credits: Astrobotic

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.