Tim Fernholz

“As the NASA administrator, I had a lot of challenges with traditional Hall thrusters,” Bridenstine told Payload. “When I came across this company that's doing electric propulsion, they can provide as much thrust and as much efficiency as a traditional hull thruster, but do it with a variety of different fuels, I got excited about it.”

There's opportunity aplenty in the Pentagon's race to prepare for conflict in space, but companies are facing challenges aligning their technology, scale, and business model to take advantage.

Firefly Aerospace announced a $175M fundraising round on Tuesday as the space transportation company looks to regain traction ahead of a series of make-or-break missions under new CEO Jason Kim.

The sale will allow the Spire to pay off more than $118M in debt and leave it with another $100M on its balance sheet. The company's stock rose 15% on the news, closing yesterday at $13.45 a share.

ABL Space Systems began a round of layoffs ahead of a plan to shift the company's focus from launch to missile defense, president Dan Piemont told Payload.

The company is now managing instruments on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“The FCC has made real progress to modernize its space policies to ensure U.S. leadership,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement on Friday. “Today's update to our satellite spectrum sharing rules allows first movers to enjoy the advantage they've earned by daring to think big and take on risk, while also opening our skies to more competition.”

The Exploration Company got a little more free ranging yesterday, announcing a $160M Series B that puts the European firm on track to send a cargo space capsule to the ISS by 2028.

We value your privacy Hot on the heels of another productive test flight , two new lunar customers have been added to the flight manifest for SpaceX's Starship.

We value your privacy Maxar Intelligence shared the first imagery from its WorldView Legion 3 and 4 satellites this week.