Rocket Report: SpaceX’s next-gen booster fails; Pegasus will fly again
The Big Dipper brings more money. Aerospace and defense startup Ursa Major Technologies has secured a $600 million valuation in a new fundraising round, the latest sign that investors are willing to back companies developing new rocket technologies, Bloomberg reports. Colorado-based Ursa Major closed its Series E fundraising round with investments from venture capital firms Eclipse, Woodline Partners, Principia Growth, XN and Alsop Louie Partners. The company also secured $50 million in debt financing. Ursa Major is best known as a supplier of liquid-fueled rocket engines and solid-state rocket engines to power a range of commercial and government vehicles.
Hypersonic tailwinds …Ursa Major claims to be able to supply the U.S. industrial base with propulsion systems more quickly and more affordably than traditional contractors can provide. “The company will rapidly implement its liquid-fueled and storable hypersonic and space defense solution, as well as its solid-state rocket engine manufacturing and sustained space mobility capability,” Ursa Major said in a press release. Its customers include BAE Systems, which will use Ursa Major’s solid-state rocket engines to power military-grade tactical rockets, and Stratolaunch, which uses Ursa Major’s liquid-fueled Hadley engine for its Talon-A hypersonic spaceplane.
Rocket Lab celebrates two launches in 48 hours. Rocket Lab launched a payload for an undisclosed commercial customer on Thursday, just hours after the company announced its launch plans, Space News reports. The launch from Rocket Lab’s main spaceport in New Zealand used the company’s Electron rocket, but officials have released little additional information about the mission other than its nickname: “Follow My Speed.” An artist’s illustration on the mission patch indicated that the payload could have been the next in a line of Earth-imaging satellites from remote sensing company BlackSky, although the company’s previous satellites were not launched in such secrecy.
Two hemispheres …Thursday’s launch from the Southern Hemisphere came just two days after Rocket Lab’s previous mission took off from Wallops Island, Virginia. This flight was a suborbital launch intended to support a demonstration of hypersonic technology for the Defense Innovation Unit and the Missile Defense Agency. In total, Rocket Lab launched 18 Electron rockets this year with a 100% mission success rate, a record for the company.
