News

What has SpinLaunch been up to lately?

SpinLaunch, the California-based space startup once best known for trying to fling satellites into orbit with a giant centrifuge, has entered a new phase. The company announced in August that it closed a $30 million Series C funding round, bringing its total raised to about $203 million. Investors include ATW Partners and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, which has also committed satellite manufacturing resources to the project. 

Expand Expanding Close

NASA to launch IMAP, Carruthers, and SWFO with support from Astrotech’s commercial facility

NASA is gearing up for a landmark late-September launch featuring three pivotal spacecraft: the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow-On (SWFO-L1). The missions are being prepared at Astrotech Space Operations, a Lockheed Martin subsidiary in Titusville that has become one of the nation’s premier spacecraft processing hubs.

Expand Expanding Close

JPL vs. APL: Two powerhouses propelling us through the Solar System

When a spacecraft lands on Mars or slams into an asteroid millions of miles away, chances are it came from one of two labs: the Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory or the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. NASA may be the face of American space exploration, but behind that iconic logo are world-class research centers shaping how we reach, explore, and understand the cosmos. JPL and APL are two of the most influential.

Expand Expanding Close

Starship Flight 10: Testing returns to Starbase with successful Ship 37 static fire

SpaceX Starship Ship 37 completes static fire on Pad A at Starbase, Texas.

Last week, SpaceX got back to moving forward with a successful static fire of Ship 37, the upper stage segment for Starship Flight 10. This took a while to put together due to the loss of Massey’s post Ship 36 explosion, but now that it’s complete, it finally feels like there is life again at Starbase.

Expand Expanding Close

The company laying the foundation for life beyond Earth

Austin, Texas’ ICON is quietly transforming how humanity builds – on Earth and beyond. The construction technology company, known for its innovative 3D‑printed homes, has begun applying its expertise to space. Its advanced robotic systems and signature material, Lavacrete, are being adapted to construct off‑world habitats and infrastructure using local planetary materials.

Expand Expanding Close

Movies of Black Holes are on the (Event) Horizon

Today marks the last day of meetings for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration in Berlin, Germany. The collaborative effort shared on X (formerly Twitter) last week that a meeting would be held in Berlin from July 14-18. “120 international scientists will gather to discuss the next big goals for black hole science – publishing new, better images using recent data and creating “movies” of M87*,” EHT shared on X.

Expand Expanding Close

NASA’s budget proposal: A reprioritization

In the wake of the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, a wave of headlines has described NASA’s future in stark, often dire terms. Phrases like “extinction-level event” and “gutting science” have circulated widely, creating the impression the agency is on the verge of collapse. The proposed cuts are indeed significant – but from a reporting standpoint, the broader picture appears more layered than many early reactions suggest.

Expand Expanding Close