In 2015, venture capital groups invested $1.8 billion in commercial space startups, which is more than the last 15 years combined, and when debt financing is included, the total is over $2.7 billion. A $1 billion round of financing went to SpaceX alone. The space industry has attracted some of the wealthiest people on Earth, including 21 names on the Forbes' billionaires list. Some of the names include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Paul Allen, Eric Schmidt, and Richard Branson. About 50 venture capital firms have now invested in space ventures including Bessemer, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, and Khosla. 

 

Virgin Galactic recently unveiled their newest spacecraft, the VSS Unity. Stephen Hawking was responsible for naming the craft, and he will be one of its first passengers. Although VSS Unity resembles past Virgin vehicles, this is the first spacecraft to be built entirely by The Spaceship Company, which is Virgin Galactic's manufacturing arm. VSS Unity also includes a number of new safety features, which were added after the 2014 accident. This unveiling marks the start of the vehicle's test program, including a number of captive carry, glide, and powered flights.

 

Boeing successfully drop-tested their CST-100 Starliner crew capsule at NASA's Langley Research Center. Although the vehicle is intended to land on terra firma, water landings are not out of the question in case of emergencies. The water-landing drop test marks an important qualification for the capsule before allowing its use as an astronaut taxi to the ISS. Boeing has thus far received two orders for crew transportation services under NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) Program.

 

Earlier this month, Planet Labs went global when Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, visited the company's San Francisco facility. PM Rutte met with the company to tour the lab and discuss the future of newspace in the Netherlands. This visit also comes as Planet Labs plans to open up an office in the Western European country. The Netherlands isn't the only country with newspace ambitions; Luxembourg has announced that it will set up a framework for commercial space mining operations. "As the future European hub in the space mining sector, we are definitely determined to become the first EU Member State with a dedicated legal and regulatory framework on using space resources," states Etienne Schneider, the vice-prime minister and minister for the Economy.

 

Although Australia has had an active space program for almost 70 years, the country's Satellite Utilization Policy "does not commit Australia to human spaceflight, domestic launch capabilities or to the exploration of other planets." Many people see this as a problem including Flavia Nardini, the CEO of Fleet and Launchbox. Fleet received $50,000 in grant awards from the the Australian government; however, Nardini still feels that the government has a long way to go in refining policies for newspace.

 

Every year, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) publishes the "Annual Compendium of Commercial Space Transportation" that consolidates the activities of the space transportation industry. The report estimated that the global space industry in 2014 (which includes both space, ground services, and equipment) is about $323 billion, with launch at about $6 billion. There were a total of 86 orbital launches in 2015 by 7 countries. The report highlighted the increase in the U.S.'s share of commercial launches due to SpaceX's entry into the market, while Russia's market share declined due to a myriad of issues. Space transportation activity has seemingly remained steady on the surface over recent years, but what is not immediately obvious in the numbers are the new vehicles and payloads that are being developed such as the small satellite constellations, small-payload orbital launchers and suborbital spacecraft.

 

NASA has issued a RFP to purchase as many as five 6U cubesat buses for its Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator project. The spacecraft should not weigh more than 12 kilograms, should be able to generate 45 watts of power, and one-third of the its volume must be available for NASA's technology payloads. The agency is planning to test a low-thrust propulsion system during the first mission, whereas the following missions will aim to validate novel laser communication and attitude control technologies. The deadline for the proposal submissions is March 30. The agency expects to award the contract in June, with the first cubesat bus to be delivered at the end of 2017.

 

Orbital ATK successfully returned its fourth cargo delivery mission (OA-4) from the International Space Station. The mission began Dec. 6, and delivered a record 7,700 lbs. of cargo to the ISS. It completed its mission on Feb. 19, carrying back to earth 3,000 lbs. of items for disposal. Orbital ATK is now preparing to launch OA-6 on March 23 for its fifth of ten cargo deliveries under CRS-1.  

- Commercial Spaceflight Training Opens in Japan  [Link]