Aria Alamalhodaei, Author at TechCrunch

SpaceX to launch Starship for the sixth time this month

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 22:37:53 +0000

SpaceX will conduct the sixth flight test of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, as soon as November 18, following the smooth success of the previous mission less than a month ago. The high flight cadence is thanks, in part, to that success, which included the first-ever return of the Super Heavy booster to the […]

What Trump’s win might mean for Elon Musk

Rebecca Bellan, Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:51:03 +0000

Elon Musk — the billionaire CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and the owner of The Boring Company, Neuralink, and X — took a sharp swing to the right this election to support President-elect Donald Trump, using his vast wealth, influence, and megaphone on X to influence the outcome of the election. Musk’s support came […]

SpaceX wants to test refueling Starships in space early next year

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 22:16:30 +0000

SpaceX will attempt to transfer propellant from one orbiting Starship to another as early as next March, a technical milestone that will pave the way for an uncrewed landing demonstration of a Starship on the moon, a NASA official said this week. Much has been made of Starship’s potential to transform the commercial space industry, […]

TechCrunch Space: Disrupt 2024 wrap-up

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 23:06:34 +0000

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is a wrap, and I’m more than thrilled by the amazing space industry programming we had on offer this year. We covered everything from building a dual-use business to orbital re-entry, we caught up with Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck, and heard about the ground station […]

US drone maker Skydio faces battery squeeze after Chinese sanctions

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:32:08 +0000

America’s supply chain vulnerabilities were on full display Thursday after drone manufacturer Skydio told customers it was facing a battery squeeze after being hit with sanctions from China. “This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers,” Skydio CEO Adam Bry said in a […]

Three investors talk the highs and lows of space investing

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:17:00 +0000

The space industry operates in waves: There are massive highs and big lows, but it’s always exhilarating. Three venture capitalists who invest in space joined us onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about what’s coming next for this dynamic area. Much of the current investing is shadowed by the SPAC boom in 2021 […]

Space CEOs talk about the challenges and opportunities of selling defense tech

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:37:00 +0000

Space executives took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to talk about the challenges and opportunities of building out dual-use technology, or tech that has both a defense and a commercial use case. The dual-use strategy can be tricky for young startups to manage, however, because they run the risk of diluting their focus […]

ForestGuard is building the ‘Internet of Trees’ to detect fires even earlier

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:11:56 +0000

Many startups have taken aim at the problem of early wildfire detection and prevention, but Turkey-based ForestGuard’s space-based system could give it an edge over competitors. ForestGuard, which presented onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, was founded by trained architects Muhammed Ali Örnek and Suat Batuhan Esirger, who witnessed the need for early […]

‘Yikes’: While gaming, Musk inadvertently broadcasts ‘scary’ near-abort of Starship booster landing

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:24:37 +0000

Elon Musk occasionally posts clips of his video game plays to his social media platform X — but a recent clip includes background audio of a SpaceX engineer telling Musk how the most recent Starship flight test was “one second away” from an abort. The clip, posted on Friday, was caught by Reuters’ Joey Roulette on […]

Blue Origin certifies second capsule for suborbital space tourism flights

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:44:33 +0000

Blue Origin has carried out a successful uncrewed certification mission of its second New Shepard ship on Wednesday, as the company looks to effectively double the number of tourists it can fly to suborbital space and back. The RSS Kármán Line capsule is named for the imaginary boundary at 100 kilometers of altitude separating the […]

Embattled Astra scores DOD contract to develop point-to-point cargo delivery from space

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:01:46 +0000

Don’t count out Astra Space just yet. The company, which was taken private again earlier this year for a sliver of its former value, has landed a new contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to support the development of a next-gen launch system for time-sensitive space missions. The contract, which the DIU awarded under […]

The Space Development Agency taps 19 companies for future defense demo missions

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 22:46:33 +0000

The Space Development Agency (SDA) has selected 19 companies to compete for future contracts under a new program designed to rapidly onboard new contractors for defense demonstration missions. Each company will receive an initial $20,000 to cover administrative expenses. These companies have essentially been preapproved to bid on future prototype missions to support the SDA’s Proliferated […]

TechCrunch Space: Inverted

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:00:00 +0000

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We are insanely close to TechCrunch Disrupt — have you checked out the final agenda for the Space Stage yet!? Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors. NB: If you’re wondering why last week’s TechCrunch Space didn’t include a single mention of […]

SpaceX wins $733M Space Force launch contract

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 22:38:58 +0000

SpaceX was awarded an eight-launch, $733 million contract by the U.S. Space Force on Friday, as part of an ongoing program intended to foster competition among launch providers. The award includes seven launches for the Space Development Agency and one for the National Reconnaissance Office, all anticipated to use Falcon 9s and occur no earlier […]

Hyperspectral imagery startup Wyvern looks to raise US presence with $6M raise

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Canadian remote sensing startup Wyvern is expanding south of the border. The Alberta-based company, which collects what it says is the highest-resolution hyperspectral imagery on the market, has raised $6 million to, among other things, expand into U.S. commercial and defense markets. The new funding was led by Squadra Ventures, a firm squarely focused on […]

SpaceX sues California agency, alleging political bias against Musk and regulatory overreach

Aria Alamalhodaei — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 21:31:33 +0000

SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California agency this week after the body rejected a proposal to increase the company’s launches from the state’s coastline to 50 per year. The California Coastal Commission (CCC) made its decision at an October 10 meeting, despite the U.S. Air Force (USAF) endorsing the plan on the grounds […]

Inversion Space gets reentry license for orbital cargo delivery capsule demo

Aria Alamalhodaei — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Inversion Space has become the third company to receive a spacecraft reentry license from the Federal Aviation Administration, paving the way for the startup to launch and return its tech pathfinder mission for orbital delivery later this year. The three-year-old startup has ambitions of transforming space into a new “transportation layer for Earth” using ultra-fast, […]

TechCrunch Space: SpaceX alums raising a massive new fund for deep tech and more

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. The final agenda for the Space Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt is live and we’d love to see you there. Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors! Want to reach out with a tip? Email Aria at aria.techcrunch@gmail.com or send a message on […]

Constellation Technologies & Operations wants to work with telecom operators to deliver 5G internet from space

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The telecom industry is undergoing its greatest period of disruption since the telegraph, as companies work to open up space as the next frontier for communications. French startup Constellation hopes to take part by repurposing 5G tech to provide a Starlink-like satellite broadband that uses telecoms’ existing assets. Constellation Technologies & Operations, to call it […]

SpaceX successfully catches returning Starship booster

Aria Alamalhodaei — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 17:35:00 +0000

For the first time, SpaceX not only launched its mammoth Starship, but also returned the booster to the launch site and caught it with a pair of oversized “chopsticks.” This test flight — the fifth in the Starship development program — took place Sunday morning at the company’s Starbase site in southeast Texas. The nearly […]