Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Let's jump!
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While there are few details on 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 will not be putting a module on a rocket for a tactically responsive launch. Instead, the mission is about developing “platforms that enable a new type of tactically responsive space mission,” he said.
Image credits: Gravitic
Defense and space startup True Anomaly has laid off about 25% of its staff and canceled its summer internship program, TechCrunch has learned.
While TechCrunch could not confirm total headcount before these layoffs, True Anomaly had more than 100 employees as of December 2023, it told the Denver Business Journal. Nearly 30 people were laid off from the workforce, according to a post on LinkedIn of one of the released people.
I learned a lot from this deep dive from SpaceNews' Sandra Erwin and Debra Werner, who explored how the Space Force's push for a proliferated constellation of satellites is exposing weaknesses in the US industrial base.
Image credits: TechCrunch
On May 1, 1961, the great Alan Shepard became the first American in space by piloting 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.)
Image credits: POT (Opens in a new window)
