Lifeboat Foundation

Go big or go home. This Alabama-based start-up just unveiled the biggest drone in the world — and it looks sublime. The massive drone, called the Ravn X, is designed to launch small satellites into orbit while airborne.

Aevum — the space startup — has worked mainly in the background, until yesterday when they unveiled their gigantic autonomous drone.

They built the high-altitude aircraft and launch vehicle to ferry satellites to orbit and improve space access — similar goals to space-tech leaders like Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab, and SpaceX. But if you want to get ahead of the competition and can’t be the first, why not be the biggest?

This missile system is designed to reach up and smash enemy satellites in orbit.

Russia has carried out another test of its new PL19 Nudol anti-satellite weapon system, a ground-launched missile designed to destroy satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit in order to deny their use by Russia’s enemies.

Continue reading “It Sure Looks Like Russia Just Tested a Space Weapon” »

Circa 2019

Once a flight of fantasy, recent advances mean that satellites, astronauts and even tourists could soon get a quick lift into space.

Aevum’s RAVN-X targeting “smallsat” market with 2021 Space Force launch.

Given the possibility of orbital debris, space warfare will be different from what we imagine it to be (from Star Wars and Call of Duty). Watch this video to find out what it will look like!

*Note: I spelled the word “deficit” wrong in my subtitles. Guess I was too sleepy.

Continue reading “The Real Future of Space Warfare” »

NASA ability to launch cargo and humans into space has become much easier private companies got involved, and now another American company has been approved by the agency to handle its space deliveries.

This week, Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin was awarded a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. It means Blue Origin’s New Glenn reusable launch service can and will be used for a range of missions, including launches for planetary, Earth observation, exploration, and scientific satellites.

A startup with a new type of spacecraft propulsion system could make the interplanetary travel seen in Star Trek a reality. Magdrive has just closed a £1.4M seed round led by Founders Fund, an early investor in SpaceX, backed by Luminous Ventures, 7percent Ventures, and Entrepreneur First.

Magdrive is developing a next generation of spacecraft propulsion for small satellites. The startup says its engine’s thrust and efficiency are a “generational leap” ahead of any other electrical thrusters, opening up the space industry to completely new types of missions that were not possible before, without resorting to much larger, expensive and heavier chemical thrusters. It says its engine would make fast and affordable interplanetary space travel possible, as well as operations in Very Low Earth orbit. The engine would also make orbital manufacturing far more possible than previously.

Existing electrical solutions are very efficient but have very low thrust. Chemical thrusters have high thrust but lack efficiency and are hazardous and expensive to handle. Magdrive says its engine can deliver both high thrust and high efficiency in one system.

Cloud cover, and even in some cases walls, can’t block this ultra-precise satellite’s view.

The satellites Blue Canyon developed for DARPA’s Blackjack program — based on the company’s commercial X-SAT bus — passed a critical design review.

WASHINGTON — Small satellite manufacturer Blue Canyon Technologies has been cleared to produce its first two satellites for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackjack program, the company announced Dec. 14.

DARPA plans to deploy up to 20 spacecraft in low-Earth orbit that will be connected by optical inter-satellite links and provide communications, missile tracking and navigation services.

Continue reading “DARPA okays Blue Canyon’s satellites for Blackjack program” »