TechCrunch Space: Building (and testing) for the future

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. It's becoming a habit to open each TechCrunch Space newsletter with a short update on Boeing's Starliner mission, so bear with me. According to NASA officials, the spacecraft will now return to Earth with its two-person crew no earlier than June 26, instead of the originally planned date of June 14. In other words, they will spend at least 20 days aboard International Space. station instead of only eight.

Read my story from last week about what caused the additional delay and what it could mean for Boeing's Starliner program.

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The space industry is abuzz about how SpaceX's Starship, Blue Origin's New Glenn and other heavy-lift rockets will change almost everything. One likely consequence is that spacecraft will get bigger (much bigger) as engineers work outside the limitations of low-mass requirements.

There's one problem: The current testing regime for spacecraft focuses on payloads four meters wide or less. Gravitics and NASA are looking to change that, with a new agreement aimed at addressing this shortage of testing and qualification methods for larger spacecraft.

Image credits: Gravitic

Like many highly valued startups, SpaceX sometimes allows its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling them to outside investors authorized by the company.

TechCrunch has taken a look at an internal SpaceX document regarding the May 2022 public offering. Musk twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1793783558609252451″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener nofollow”>published in x Last month, SpaceX held such sales for employees approximately every six months.

These documents offer interesting information about the investors allowed to buy these secondary stocks and the good deals they get. Click the link above to take a look.

South African businessman Elon Musk arrives at the 10th Breakthrough Award ceremony at the Academy Film Museum in Los Angeles, California, on April 13, 2024. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images) — South African businessman Elon Musk arrives at the 10th Breakthrough Award ceremony at the Academy of Motion Picture Museum in Los Angeles, California, on April 13, 2024.

Release of the week

Congratulations to Rocket Lab on performing its 50th Electron rocket launch! To commemorate the huge milestone, the company posted this rather touching video on x that summarizes how far Rocket Lab has come.

When we looked at all the obstacles we had to overcome, reaching our first pitch seemed highly unlikely.

As we approach our 50th release, twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Peter_J_Beck reflects on the magnitude of the task we had before us to bring Electron to life. Fortunately, we have never shied away from a… pic.twitter.com/MnZChovpDY

– Rocket Laboratory (@RocketLab) twitter.com/RocketLab/status/1802817467238216065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>June 17, 2024

Did you know… that we published the agenda for this year's space programming at TechCrunch Disrupt? Are incredibly excited about this year's lineup, which includes some of the top founders and investors operating in the space industry. Plus fireside chats with none other than Peter Beck from Rocket Lab and Bridgit Mendler from Northwood Space. Click the link above for more information.

This week in space history.

In last week's 'This Week in Space History' column, we detailed the flight of Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space. This week we commemorate her return. On June 24, 1983, her historic journey concluded when the space shuttle Challenger landed in California.