Space Times

Major News Earth Observation * Array Labs raises $20M Series A to scale production of radar satellites for 3D Earth mapping. The startup aims to mass-produce radar hardware and deploy formation-flying satellites. They’re making great progress out of Palo Alto on proprietary SAR capabilities, formation-flying, and 3D SAR mapping technology. [ source ] * Japan’s Ministry of Defense selected seven Ja...

This week Harrison and Paul break the news of Space Phoenix’s $7.5m seed raise and new customer Flawless Photonics during an exclusive interview with CEO Andrew Parlock. They discuss Space Phoenix in the context of other developments with in-space manufacturing, highlighting Space Forge’s plasma generation for on-orbit furnaces and Ombra’s $180,000 contract for an anaerobic bioreactor. They also a...

On this special episode of Space Times Podcast Paul and Harrison share their predictions for the space industry in 2026. They summarize the patterns that have happened in 2025 and extrapolate into the new year to share opinions on progress that will be made in the sectors of GEO, Space Defense, Direct-to-Device, Lunar Exploration, National Competition, and the Overall Market. Thank you for listeni...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss several recent space launch updates and failures, including Innospace's Handbit Nano rocket failure, Japan's H3 rocket failing to deliver a satellite to orbit, and China's third reusable spacecraft failure this year. Also covered is the successful launch of Space Mobile's Bluebird satellites on an ISRO LVM3 rocket, Tori Bruno's resignation as...

This week Harrison and Paul welcome special guest Tjorven Delabie, CEO of Arcsec to discuss their advances in space situational awareness in the context of broader market growth, particularly this week with EraDrive's $5.3 million seed round and Starfish Space's Remora RPO demonstration. Large deals covered include the Rheinmetall and IceEye joint venture's €1.7 billion contract, Hawkeye 360’s $15...

This week Paul and Harrison discuss SpaceX's $800 billion valuation and $1.5 trillion IPO target, driven by the Starlink direct-to-device market and the orbital data center play, an area seeing increasing competition from companies like Blue Origin, Relativity Space, Star Cloud, and Aetherflux. They also covered significant funding for K2 Space, the growing importance of Space Domain Awareness...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss major updates in the launch and Earth observation markets. In the launch industry Northrup Grumman's signals growth in solid rocket motor production, Castelion raises $350 million for hypersonic missile production and solid rocket manufacturing, Moonshot Space raises $12 million for a kinetic electromagnetic launch system, Isar Aerospace secures a launch contrac...

This week Paul and Harrison discuss NASA revising the Starliner contract to cargo-only missions due to quality issues and propulsion leaks, contrasting this with the quick astronaut recovery of the Chinese Shenzhou 22 mission, while also addressing the significant setback to human spaceflight capacity caused by damage to the Russian Soyuz MS-28 mission pad. They cover the successful launches of th...

This week Paul and Harrison discuss Ursa Major securing $100 million in Series E funding to scale hypersonics and solid rocket motors, reflecting a growing market demand driven by wartime production and new use cases like on-orbit interceptors. They also examined Voyager Space's strategic acquisition of Estes Energetics as part of its post-IPO growth, Rocket Lab's impressive launch cadence, a $44...

This week Harrison and Paul discussed the successful New Glenn launch of the ESCAPADE mission and the successful launch of the Sentinel 1D satellite by Ariane-6, Avio's significant $460 million investment for growth in solid motor manufacturing, the Chinese space program’s 70 launches despite a setback with Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1 failure, and maturation of in-space manufacturing with Varda...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss Intuitive Machine’s acquisition of Lanteris Space Systems, the strategic implications of the SpaceX and EchoStar spectrum deal’s expansion, and SpaceX possibly acquiring Globalstar and its implications on Rocket Lab’s constellation contract. They assess the potential impact on Rocket Lab's acquisition of Mynaric, and broader implications for the EU space ind...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss the changes to lunar missions, specifically citing the US Artemis mission involving SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mk-1, and the related challenges of on-orbit refueling being tackled by companies like Rocket Lab and iSpace working on related technologies, and noted that Intuitive Machines contract extension for nuclear power in space. The...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss the European merger of Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales Alenia Space for Europe’s communications constellation, the advancements in launch vehicle technology with HyImpulse's funding and China's reusable rocket initiatives, and the newly announced development of space-based interceptors by Apex and Lockheed Martin in anticipation of Golden Shield. Get full a...

This week Harrison and Paul discuss significant developments in military networks including the competition between Terran Space and York Space for SDA Tranche 1, Viasat's entry into maneuverable GEO satellites, Firefly’s acquisition of missile defense company SciTec, Starshield's use of S-band for data downlink, Firefly's acquisition of SciTec Missile Defense for missile defense, and...

Harrison and Paul welcome you to their corner of the universe today to discuss all the exciting times in space this week for a special edition of the Space Times podcast! This week we discuss the Commercial Space Federation's Redshift report, which details China's structured and rapidly advancing space program, emphasizing scientific improvement and global influence through soft power. We...

Harrison and Paul welcome you to their corner of the universe today to discuss all the exciting times in space this week for a special edition of the Space Times podcast! This week we discuss launch industry setbacks with SpaceX and Firefly, ESA's reusable upper stage contract for Vega-C, Blue Origin's New Shepard cadence plans, the impact of a government shutdown on the aerospace industry, space...

Harrison and Paul welcome you to their corner of the universe today to discuss all the exciting times in space this week for the "Space Times" podcast! This week we discuss significant advancements in space domain awareness, the increasing military investment in space, including the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), the defense pivot of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser, the sur...

Harrison and Paul welcome you to their corner of the universe today to discuss all the exciting times in space this week for the "Space Times" podcast! And there’s plenty to talk about in our first week, there’s news about next-generation communication networks, spectrum acquisition, challenges in the direct-to-device market, space sovereignty, the resurgence of small GEO satellites, the...