Hello and welcome back to Max Q. Happy Halloween folks. Hope you\u2019re having a very spooky day. By the way\u2026 We are counting down to TC\u2019s Space event in December! Learn more here. In this issue:<\/p>\n
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- The satellite bus bottleneck<\/li>\n
- Starlink for GPS?<\/li>\n
- News from BryceTech, Quantum Space and more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Apex Space, a startup that aims to transform satellite bus manufacturing, emerged from stealth Monday with a $7.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles-based company has set its sights on the satellite bus \u2014 the part of the spacecraft that hosts the payload \u2014 which it says is the \u201cnew bottleneck\u201d hitting the space industry. Apex\u2019s two co-founders, Ian Cinnamon and Maximilian Benassi, said in a blog post that they independently observed core changes to the industry that convinced them that a new satellite bus manufacturing solution was needed.<\/p>\n
Cinnamon, a technology startup founder whose company, Synapse Technology, was acquired by Palantir in 2020, said he saw payload customers being \u201cheld back\u201d by the long and costly process associated with building custom satellite buses. Benassi, an engineer whose career includes a six-year tenure at SpaceX and nearly a year-and-a-half at Astra, observed changes to launch economics that make mass manufacturing \u2014 rather than the bespoke engineering process that\u2019s characterized satellite buses thus far \u2014 more sensible.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven this transformative change, we must begin to think about spacecraft differently and adapt to the new market conditions,\u201d\u00a0the pair said. \u201cWe cannot just build spacecraft. We must manufacture them at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nImage credit:\u00a0<\/strong>Apex Space<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
With some 3,000 satellites in orbit, the Starlink constellation is easily the largest in history and of course presents an immense opportunity for global connectivity. But its signals could also be analyzed and used as an alternative to traditional GPS, a new paper claims, with or without SpaceX\u2019s blessing. It would be a public service and wouldn\u2019t cost SpaceX much of anything to implement, but it\u2019s also a valuable service that no business in its right mind (especially one that just committed to a\u00a0deeply unprofitable connectivity deal in Ukraine) would just implement and provide for free. That said, it may be that the genie is out of the bottle \u2014 the data in the paper \u201cilluminates the path\u201d to this use, and someone might find a way to make it work no matter what anyone says.<\/p>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1667259103_314_GettyImages-1240408203.jpg\")
<\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> Rafael Henrique\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
TC\u2019s Darrell Etherington did a nice roundup of our coverage of Musk\u2019s purchase of Twitter, a months-long saga that came to an abrupt and tumultuous end last week. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, it\u2019s hard to imagine how Musk will find the time to dedicate to managing the social media site, but he dove in head first by firing top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal. In the coming weeks, Twitter will delist from the NYSE (ending an approximately nine-year tenure as a public company) and become a private company under Musk\u2019s X Holdings I, Inc.<\/p>\n
This is only the beginning. Speculation is running wild, but only time will tell how Twitter will transform under Musk\u2019s formidable leadership.<\/p>\n
![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1667018487_152_elon-sink-twitter2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nElon Musk carries a sink into Twitter HQ. Image Credits:<\/strong> Elon Musk \/ Twitter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
More news from TC and beyond<\/h2>\n
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- Amazon <\/strong>will build a 172,000-square-foot facility outside Seattle dedicated to making satellites for its Project Kuiper satellite internet initiative. (Amazon)<\/li>\n
- Array Labs<\/strong>, a YC \u201922 alum that wants to create a 3D map of the world, closed a $5 million seed round led by Seraphim Space and Agya Ventures. (YC)<\/li>\n
- Boeing\u00a0<\/strong>incurred another $195 million charge for costs related to the Starliner capsule, bringing the total losses to nearly $900 million, the company reported in its third-quarter financial results. (Boeing)<\/li>\n
- BryceTech\u00a0<\/strong>released its quarterly report on launch and satellites, finding once again that SpaceX leads for number of launches and number of spacecraft launched to orbit. (BryceTech)<\/li>\n
- Firefly Aerospace\u00a0<\/strong>is adding former NASA Administrator\u00a0James Bridenstine to its advisory board. Bridenstine was NASA administrator from 2018 to 2021, during which the agency launched the Artemis moon exploration program and set up the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program. (Firefly)<\/span><\/li>\n
- NanoAvionics\u00a0<\/strong>is now Kongsberg NanoAvionics, after the company was acquired by Norwegian technology conglomerate Kongsberg. In addition to the name change, the company said it will be increasing production capacity at its facilities in Lithuania to focus on \u201cserial manufacturing of satellite buses.\u201d (Kongsberg NanoAvionics)<\/li>\n
- NASA\u00a0<\/strong>generates economic returns three times the size of its annual budget, according to a new report published by\u2026NASA. (CNBC)<\/li>\n
- Orbit Fab\u00a0<\/strong>has lined up a new investor, 8090 Industries, in its quest to build \u201cgas stations\u201d in space. (Orbit Fab<\/a>)<\/li>\n
- The Polaris Program\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0first mission has slipped from late this year to March 2023, and that date could slip even further. Polaris is backed by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who flew on the Inspiration4 mission to the ISS. (SpaceNews)<\/li>\n
- Privateer<\/strong>, the orbital debris tracking startup founded by Alex Fielding, Steve Wozniak and Moriba Jah, is inviting amateur astronomers to help it collect space junk data through a new partnership with consumer telescope manufacturer Celestron. (Spacewatch)<\/li>\n
- Quantum Space\u00a0<\/strong>will launch its first cislunar pathfinder mission in late 2024. The mission will collect space domain and space situational awareness data. (SpaceNews)<\/li>\n
- Relativity Space\u00a0<\/strong>unveiled the fourth generation of its Stargate 3D printer, which the company says has improved print speeds, improved print capacity through a horizontal printing structure, and other updates. These printers will be put to work for Relativity\u2019s heavy-lift Terran R rocket. (Relativity)<\/li>\n
- Russia\u00a0<\/strong>suggested a military strike against Western satellites supporting Ukraine could be fair game in times of war, highlighting the precarious and uncharted territory of war in space. (Reuters)<\/li>\n
- Sierra Space\u00a0<\/strong>and IBM signed an MOU to collaborate on developing next-gen tech for Sierra\u2019s space vehicles and infrastructure, like the private space station Orbital Reef. (Sierra)<\/li>\n
- SpaceX\u00a0<\/strong>is now NASA\u2019s second-largest vendor, behind Caltech, which operates the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That second spot used to be held by Boeing. (Irene Klotz<\/a>)<\/li>\n
- Starlink\u00a0<\/strong>opened preorders for a new piece of hardware equipped for use on vehicles in motion, like moving vehicles. The antenna will cost $2,500 upfront. (SpaceX)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei<\/a>. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
- Array Labs<\/strong>, a YC \u201922 alum that wants to create a 3D map of the world, closed a $5 million seed round led by Seraphim Space and Agya Ventures. (YC)<\/li>\n
- Amazon <\/strong>will build a 172,000-square-foot facility outside Seattle dedicated to making satellites for its Project Kuiper satellite internet initiative. (Amazon)<\/li>\n