Hello and welcome back to JS Space. Let's jump in!
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While there are few details about the mission profile, I can't help but be very intrigued by this news from space station developer Gravitics, which was selected to develop orbital platforms to enable rapid response space missions.
Gravitics co-founder and CMO Mike DeRosa clarified in an email that the company is not putting a module on a rocket for a tactically responsive launch. Instead, the mission is about developing “platforms to enable a new kind of tactically responsive space mission,” he said.
Defense and aerospace startup True Anomaly has laid off about 25% of its workforce and canceled its summer internship program, JS learned.
While JS could not confirm the total workforce prior to these layoffs, True Anomaly had more than 100 employees as of December 2023, the company said. Business Journal of Denver. Nearly 30 people were dismissed from the workforce, according to a message on LinkedIn from one of the people who let go.
I learned a lot from this deep dive from SpaceNews' Sandra Erwin and Debra Werner, who examined how the Space Force's push for an ever-expanding constellation of satellites exposes weaknesses in America's industrial base.
On May 1, 1961, the great Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space when he piloted his capsule on a 15-minute suborbital flight. (If his name sounds familiar, it's because Blue Origin's suborbital rocket is named after him!)