Category Archives: Spacex

SpaceX has accused its British rival OneWeb to seek to slow down the deployment of satellite Internet services developed to fill the gaps in global broadband coverage.

Elon Musks aerospace company has also told the Office of Communications (Ofcom) that the British regulators proposals to boost cooperation between competitors could cause delays in the arrival of super-fast Internet service from Starlink that would be available to even the most remote rural households, informs The Daily Telegraph.

Rivals Amazon and OneWeb accuse Space X of disrespecting competition rules and try to circumvent regulatory control.

OneWeb, rescued last year by London with $ 500 million in taxpayer funds, urges SpaceX to come to the negotiating table amid fears that the projects thousands of satellites will interfere with the service of the British firm, which demands priority in the sector for having a license from international regulators, provided by the International Telecommunications Union, before the US company.

Ofcom should ensure that any new process prevents operators from trying abuse the regulatory process, and that it does not impede or otherwise slow down the deployment of broadband services to consumers, said Musks company.

Starlink already provides a limited service in the UK, while OneWeb is testing theirs ahead of the planned launch later this year.

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SpaceX says its British rival is trying to slow down Starlinks super-fast internet access for consumers - Market Research Telecast

In a surprise decision, Jeff Bezos space venture Blue Origin lost a $2.9 billion contract to build a lunar lander for NASA to rival SpaceX in April. That's the bad news for Blue Origin, which had asked NASA to pay it $5.9 billion for the work.

The good news is that while Blue Origin might not get $5.9 billion, it might get $26.5 million instead.

(On second thought, that might also be pretty bad news.)

Image source: Getty Images.

NASA's consolation prize for Blue Origin -- funding to help the company develop new versions of a Human Landing System (HLS) for later visits to the moon -- amounts to less than 0.5%, or 1/200th, of what Blue Origin initially asked for to build the HLS prototype. It's a relative pittance.

It's also only one of five contracts that NASA handed out last month to space companies submitting plans for future iterations of HLS. In addition to Blue Origin, NASA awarded:

Even taken in total, the $146 million in contracts NASA awarded last month pale in comparison to the $2.9 billion SpaceX has already won. But that doesn't mean that these contracts are irrelevant.

There's no question SpaceX won a PR coup -- as well as a big payday -- when NASA passed over rival bids from Leidos and Blue Origin and chose SpaceX to conduct its "initial crewed demonstration mission" to the moon. That being said, SpaceX's first moon trip won't be NASA's last.

Far from it.

In fact, NASA says a "major goal" of the Artemis project is to establish "a long-term human presence on the Moon through recurring services using lunar landers." Over the years and decades to come, the space agency intends to set up a system "to provide regular astronaut transportation from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon" -- meaning multiple trips, multiple contracts, and probably multiple billions of dollars to be earned by the companies that help NASA accomplish its goals.

As the first company to win an HLS contract, SpaceX will surely be part of that future. Still, that doesn't mean that Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman -- and yes, Blue Origin too -- won't have roles to fill, whether that means building human landers or robotic landers designed to carry cargo, extracting raw materials from the moon for building base camps and fueling spaceships, or other missions yet to be thought up. Ultimately, NASA says it favors "partnering with [multiple] innovative U.S. companies [to] establish a robust lunar economy while exploring new areas of the Moon for generations to come."

Blue Origin could well be one of those companies.

The problem is that at the same time as NASA reassures its contractors that the April HLS award was not a "one and done" thing (so to speak), and that there will be plenty more business to go around in the future, Blue Origin seems intent on sabotaging its relationship with the space agency. Last month, Blue Origin sued NASA in federal court, demanding that SpaceX's HLS contract be rescinded, the awards process reopened, and Blue Origin given an opportunity to revise its bid.

Judges permitting, this lawsuit could perhaps result in a win for Blue Origin, and a contract worth the initial $5.9 billion it sought, or the $2.9 billion awarded to SpaceX, or something in between -- or it could not. Blue Origin could end up right back where it started, with no contract, and a now-annoyed NASA wondering whether it really wants to work with a bad loser in the future.

Worse than that, Blue Origin's lawsuit now makes SpaceX -- and Lockheed, Northrop, and Dynetics, too -- look like "the good guys" in any future competitions for lunar work, because they at least aren't suing the agency that hands out all the contracts. The better choice, it seems to me, would be for Blue Origin to accept the olive branch NASA has offered it, and live to bid another day.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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NASA Gives Blue Origin Another Shot at the Moon - The Motley Fool

Elon Musk is pulling away from the rest of the world with regard to individual riches. Musks total assets soared to $223 billion, as indicated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after concurrence with financial backers esteemed his SpaceX. The tech magnate has recaptured the best position as far as being the most extravagant man. A Bloomberg report recommended that the best 500 most extravagant individuals on the planet have added an enormous $742 billion of every 2021 regardless of the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Elon Musk Photographer: Pool/Getty Images Europe

The market value of Tesla boss Elon Musks private space exploring firm, SpaceX, has topped a $100 billion valuation. Reliant upon a private comprehension among new and existing monetary sponsors. CNBC detailed on Friday, addressing a huge spike in esteem. It outperformed other privately owned businesses on this entire planet.

ThecourseofactiongivesMuskanadditional $10.6billion,becauseofhisobligationregardingtherocketassociationthathesetupstillupintheairtocolonizeMars.Amazon.comIncs.JeffBezosisNo.2intheoverallsituatingwith$191.6billion.

Muskdecidesaround3/4ofhisplenitudefromTeslaInc.,whichheassistedwithbuildingupin2003ensuingtomakingafortunefromtheproposalofonlinebusinesspagePayPaltoeBayInc.for$1.5billion.

Image Source: AP

ThenewSpaceXvaluationcomesfairlyoverayearaftertheHawthorne,Californiabasedassociationcompleteditrecentlykeptupwith thetrialrunofroomexplorerstotheInternationalSpaceStationforNASA.Itisrightnowmorehugethan LockheedMartinCorp.,thebestpureplayinsuranceprojectlaborerintheworld.

Indeed,evenamongultra-investors,Musksfloodingindividualfortunelogicallyputshiminhisownpersonalcircle.BezoshasseenlittlechangetohisplenitudethisyearasAmazonsstockhasdisintegratedfollowingahiddenpostCovidflood.BillGatesfortunehascontractedashemovedassetsforexMelindaFrenchGates.EngravingZuckerbergsall-outresourcesdoveby$6billionshockinglyquicklyasoflateafterFacebookInc.experiencedbrutalanalysisamidsthurtingsourcereportsandanhourslongpoweroutage.

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Elon Musk Just Added $11 Billion in Wealth, as SpaceX valuation goes past $100 billion - Techstory

A Honda auto dealership in, Lewiston, Idaho. Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In a few years, the manufacturer of the Honda Civic and CR-V may be operating air taxis above cities and launching reusable rockets into Earths orbit like SpaceX and Rocket Lab.

Last week, Japanese auto giant Honda announced a grand ten-year plan that involves developing flying cars, robots and small reusable rockets that can carry satellites weighing less than 1 ton to low Earth orbit before 2030.

The carmaker, with a market cap of $55 billion, plans to invest $45 billion in the next six years on the research and development of these new projects and expects to create a rocket division as big as its electric vehicle unit.

This idea to build reusable rockets is initiated by young Honda engineers who wanted to utilize the companys core technologies, such as combustion and control technologies in new areas, Honda said in a press release on September 30.

Specifically, Honda says it will apply its combustion technology developed for gas cars to build a liquid fuel system for rockets and autonomous driving technology to rocket flight control and guidance. The company formed a team of combustion engineers in 2019 and has built a prototype rocket engine.

Technologies for rocket combustion and control and lower costs are already in the hands of automakers. We will just change the field where the technologies are applied, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Japans Nikkei Asia.

This is not surprising, and Honda is not the first auto company to enter the space industry recently, said Micah Walter-Range, President of Caelus Partners, a consulting firm specializing in the commercial space industry. Chinese automaker Geely is working on a satellite network to support self-driving cars.

The rationale offered by the company makes sense, Walter-Range added. They know how to produce highly reliable components at a large scale, and they have the engineering expertise to apply to the challenge of rocketry.

Hondas rocket initiative will put the 73-year-old automaker in a tough race against billionaire and SPAC-backed companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab.

All these companiesmany of which are unprofitableare betting on the booming business of small satellite launch. The demand for low Earth orbit imaging and communications satellites has soared in recent years. By one estimate, by the market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the small satellite launch industry is on track to grow from this years $4 billion to $7.2 billion by 2026.

But options for launching these satellites are still limited and largely dominated by a handful of companies. Competition to lower the cost of launch is intense. Delivering a full load of satellites to Earth orbit using a SpaceX Falcon 9 can cost as much as $70 million per launch, which is already much cheaper than traditional single-use rockets. SpaceX has made it less expensive for small satellite makers through its satellite ride-share program. And its competitors, such as Rocket Lab, have been able to significantly lower per-launch prices by making smaller reusable boosters.

Honda says its reusable rockets will be able to launch satellites for half what it costs today. Yet, its hard to say how competitive that proposition will be in ten year when its rockets are finally commercially ready.

Honda plans to build its first reusable rocket and test launch it with a satellite before the end of this decade.

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Forget the Honda CivicJapanese Auto Giant Aims for Space Industry in Grand 2030 Plan - Observer

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

About three years ago, Blue Origin officials knew they were behind, failing to deliver on their founder's grandiose vision.

With Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos had long talked about building a world-class space transportation company and had even gone so far as to trademark"Build a Road to Space." But despite being nearly two decades old, Blue Origin had not built a road to space, nor even launched an orbital rocket.

Meanwhile, the rocket company founded by Bezos' rival, Elon Musk, had established itself as the most dominant launch company in the world. By the fall of 2018, SpaceX was well on its way to launching a record 21 rockets in a single year, had debuted the Falcon Heavy, and was starting to seriously reuse first stage boosters.

"Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX," one Blue Origin executive admitted in an internal memo in late 2018.

These were not easy facts for Blue Origin's leadership to contemplate. But they realized that if Blue Origin was going to become a great launch company, it should learn from the best. So in the late summer of 2018, as Bob Smith marked his first anniversary as chief executive of Blue Origin, he hired a management consulting firm called Avascent to assess SpaceX's strengths and weaknesses.

After the firm completed its analysis, the senior leadership team at Blue Origin received a briefing. Those dozen or so senior managers took notes. And as part of the exercise, they wrote down takeaways from the meeting as well as ideas for Blue Origin to better compete with SpaceX. These nine pages of notes were then compiled and delivered to Smith on Nov. 1, 2018, under the heading: "Avascent Briefing Notes from Senior Team."Enlarge / First page of memo to Bob Smith in November, 2018.

Leaked Blue Origin memo

Ars recently obtained screenshots of these notes. They offer a frank, revealing portrait of Blue Origin's struggles to compete with SpaceX at the time, and the efforts executives considered undertaking to catch up. In hindsight, they also underscore Blue Origin's failure to address some of these deficiencies. Nearly three years later, SpaceX is a bigger market leader than it was in 2018, with Blue Origin lagging further behind, its road to space yet unpaved.

Each section of the story below describes an area that Avascent identified as a strength at SpaceX and highlights comments from senior leaders responding to that strengthor identifying ways Blue Origin could improve. (Material appearing in parentheses was added by Ars for clarification.) Because the comments are candid, and made in private, Ars will not publish the notes in full, nor attach names to individual comments.

The consultants identified SpaceX as having a strong emphasis on satisfying customers, seeking to provide desirable services at a lower cost.

"They have a customer focus," a Blue Origin executive wrote in response. "We should too. In many cases we view the customer as a nuisance. This is the case with LSA (Launch Services Agreement, or the US Space Force), satellite launch for NG (satellite customers for the New Glenn rocket), and astronauts for NS (New Shepard). We need to change this culture."

Avascent noted that the Falcon 9 rocket, during the 2010s, had captured a large share of the market to launch satellites to geostationary orbit. SpaceX did this by pricing its Falcon 9 rocket about 50 percent below the market leader in this area, the European launch company Arianespace and its Ariane 5 rocket.

One example demonstrated how important price was to customers. Before the mid-2010s, the Falcon 9 booster had significantly lower performance than the Ariane 5 rocket. In response to this, satellite companies increased the performance of their satellites' on-board propulsion to reach their desired orbits. This allowed satellite operators to book a cheaper launch on the Falcon 9 rocket and shift more responsibility to the satellite's electric propulsion for orbit raising.

Several Blue Origin executives wondered what this might mean for their own company's powerful New Glenn rocket and its potential satellite customers. Unlike the Falcon 9, New Glenn has significantly greater performance than the existing geostationary satellite market demands. Was this design decision, they asked, responsive to customer demand?

"SpaceX shifted the market to their payload capabilities and risk profile with their low-cost launches," one person wrote. "Blue has pushed to exceed the markets current capabilities for size and mass. While this enables us to give our potential customers more design freedom, will they really try to design to a size or mass that makes our vehicle the only vehicle that can launch their payload? How confident are we that the market will design to our capabilities?"

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Revealed: The secret notes of Blue Origin leaders trying to catch SpaceX - Ars Technica

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

A Blue Origin exec said in a 2018 memo that his company was "kind of lazy compared to SpaceX," reports say.

In the memo, executives also discussed rival SpaceX's "very long" working hours, according to The Verge and Ars Technica.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX are fierce rivals in the modern space race.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

A Blue Origin executive said in a 2018 internal memo that the spaceflight company was "kind of lazy" compared with its rival SpaceX, according to reports Monday.

A section of the Blue Origin memo noted the "very long hours" expected at SpaceX, saying that burnout was "part of their labor strategy" and "people are expected to work on vacations or not take them," according to The Verge.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX are the world's preeminent commercial spaceflight companies. The 2018 memo was compiled for Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith as part of an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of SpaceX, according to Ars Technica.

Another Blue Origin executive suggested in the memo that the company's standard 40-hour work week wouldn't be enough to meet its ambitions, according to The Verge and Ars Technica.

Per The Verge, a Blue Origin executive said in the memo: "Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX."

According to Ars Technica, another executive said in the memo: "We need to talk about the time and effort personnel are spending to achieve our mission," adding: "If we expect greater than 40 hours, let's clearly communicate that and evaluate personnel based on that guidance."

SpaceX's Musk has said that "nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week" and suggested that people would need to clock around 80 to more that 100 hours a week if they did.

Former SpaceX employee Josh Boehm wrote in a post on Quora in 2017 that his workday was frequently more than 12 hours long.

Story continues

Per Ars Technica, a different executive said in the 2018 Blue Origin memo: "We need to get more out of our employees. The lack of effort over weekends to meet deadlines is not a culture I am accustomed to in an operations outfit."

In an open letter to Blue Origin published September 30, 2021, some 21 current and former employees accused the company of sacrificing safety in an effort to win the billionaire space race and fostering a toxic and sexist work culture. Blue Origin said it had "no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind" and stood by its safety record.

Blue Origin and SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

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A Blue Origin executive described his company as 'kind of lazy compared to SpaceX' in a 2018 internal memo, reports say - Yahoo News

SpaceX Inspiration4's Jared Isaacman, the crew mission commander, flaunted an image of the Earth that he took from his iPhone while in orbit during their monumental spaceflight.

(Photo : by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)The recovered first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket stands at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) on February 2, 2021 in Hawthorne, California. - Inspiration4 mission commander Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive officer of Shift4 Payments all-civilian Inspiration4 mission will raise $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through a donation based sweepstakes to select a member of the crew.

After the successful space mission of the SpaceX Inspiration4 crew last month, mission commander and billionaire Isaacman shared another photo of the view from the first-ever all-civilian spaceflight.

Aside from achieving the milestone for being the first crew mission without any professional astronauts, Inspiration4 also carried out medical research studying humans during spaceflights.

It is worth noting that the all-civilian crew used Apple products, such as iPad, iPhone, and even Apple Watch to collect data for the health study.

The smart wearable was tasked to collect numerous data from the civilian space crew, including their blood oxygen level saturation, heart rate, and rhythm, movement, ECG activity, and sleep.

And now, Apple's iPhone took another spotlight after the Inspiration4 crew commander shared their amazing view from the orbit on his Twitter account, as per NDTV.

Isaacman, who is also the CEO of Shift4 Payments, praised the Apple device in his post, saying: "Amazing that an iPhone can take a shot like this."

The billionaire went on to mention that he "loves the nosecone in the picture."

The stunning photo of the Earth was taken from the massive glass dome feature of the Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX that goes by the name "cupola."

It is worth noting that Isaacman is not the only one from the all-civilian crew that took some time to photos and videos of the impressive views from outer space.

According to News18, one of the crews of Inspiration4, Arceneaux, also posted a 360-degree view of the Earth during their spaceflight, calling it "absolutely life-changing."

On top of that, Isaacman previously also shared a 17-second video featuring the view of Brazil from space during their first day in orbit.The billionaire and commander of the mission further noted that he took the stunning video from his iPhone.

However, he also said that images taken by his Nikon camera will also be out soon.

Read Also: Jared Isaacman Thanks SpaceX for Bringing Inspiration4 Back Safely, Elon Musk for $50 Million Donation

The Inspiration4 all-civilian crewcomposed of Isaacman, Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Sian Proctor, launched into orbit for their monumental spaceflight and came back to Earth after three days.

Aside from making history and conducting medical research, the space mission also raised $250 million to aid the ongoing study of childhood cancer in the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.

The CEO and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, capped out the fundraising after donating the remaining $50 million for the charitable project.

Related Article: SpaceX's Inspiration4 is Launching Next Week Aboard the Dragon, And the Mission is a Go

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Written by Teejay Boris

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SpaceX Inspiration4s Jared Isaacman Flaunts Stunning Earth Image from Space Shot on his iPhone - Tech Times

Jared Isaacman of SpaceX Inspiration4 released a shot and some videos taken more than 300 miles above Earth. These fantastic photographs he captured using his iPhone on Twitter.

While the team had more spectacular, specialized camera technology on hand, Isaacman spent time in orbit as part of the SpaceX mission. It was left to an iPhone to record stunning images. Even a xenomorphgot in on the action.

It's worth mentioning that the all-civilian team collected data for the health research using Apple devices: including the iPad, iPhone, and even the Apple Watch.

The smart wearable was charged with gathering information from the civilian space crew, including blood oxygen levels, heart rate, rhythm, movement, ECG activity, and sleep.

On September 15th, SpaceX launched the Inspiration4 missioninto space at the height of more than 350 miles (around 570 kilometers). That's more than twice the height of the International Space Station! This allowed the Inspiration4 crew to see the globe in a way that few others had.

According to NDTV, Apple's iPhone received new attention after the Inspiration4 crew commander revealed their spectacular view from orbit on his Twitter account. He even praised the Apple product in his tweet.

"Amazing that an iPhone can take a shot like this," Isaacman, who is also the CEO of Shift4 Payments, said in his post. He added that he "loves the nosecone in the picture."

He took the breathtaking view of the Earth from the enormous glass dome feature of SpaceX's Dragon spaceship known as the "cupola."

(Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is carrying the Inspiration4 crew launches from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 15, 2021. - The Inspiration4 mission, the first to send an all-civilian crew to orbit, will venture deeper into space than the International Space Station.

ALSO READ: SpaceX Gives Astronaut Wings to Its Inspiration4 Crew; Can You Guess What FAA Said?

It's worth mentioning that Isaacman isn't the only member of the all-civilian team that spent time photographing and filming the breathtaking vistas from orbit.

One of the Inspiration4 crews, Arceneaux, also uploaded a 360-degree image of the Earth during their trip, calling it "absolutely life-changing," according to News18.

As remarkable as Isaacman's tweets are, perhaps people should be more amazed by what they show rather than astonished by the quality of the job. He sent out another tweet, this time depicting calm Earth hundreds of miles below.

The millionaire and mission commander went on to say that he shot the amazing footage on his iPhone. He did say, though, that photos shot with his Nikon camera will be released soon.

Dr. Sian Proctor, the pilot of the Inspiration4 Mission, posted one of the most beautiful Inspiration4 Mission photos on Twitter, as Science Timespreviously reported.

The all-civilian Inspiration4 crew, including Isaacman, Arceneaux, Chris Sembroski, and Sian Proctor, flew into orbit for their historic voyage and returned to Earth three days later.

Aside from creating history and performing medical research, the space mission also generated $250 million for the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis' ongoing study of children's cancer.

Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, completed the fundraiser by contributing the remaining $50 millionto the charity.

RELATED ARTICLE: French Astronomer Thomas Pesquet Captures Stunning Aurora Glowing To Earth From ISS

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SpaceX Inspiration4 Jared Isaacman Shares Amazing Photo of Earth from Space Through His iPhone - Science Times

The four private space travelers who soared into orbit on SpaceX's historic Inspiration4 mission last month officially have their astronaut wings.

The civilian crew, which rode a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft into orbit on Sept. 15 and returned to Earth three days later, received their astronaut wings from the company on Friday (Oct. 1) in a presentation at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

"Yesterday we were presented with our SpaceX astronaut wings," Inspiration4 astronaut Hayley Arceneaux, the mission's medical officer, wrote in a Twitter post Saturday. "This beautiful symbol of our journey means everything to me! Also if it looks like I'm crying, mind your business."

Photos: SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission in pictures

I cried when I got my wings!"

Arceneaux wasn't alone in her jubilation.

"I cried when I got my wings!" Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and space communicator who served as the Inspiration4 crew's pilot on the mission, wrote on Twitter.

SpaceX's astronaut wings pin has a Crew Dragon capsule at its center from which emerge a dragon's head and wings. The back is inscribed with each crewmember's name, call sign and mission role.The wings are provided by the company itself and are different from the commercial astronaut wings provided by the Federal Aviation Administration. The private suborbital spaceflight companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic also have their own astronaut wings that also differ from the FAA's pins.

In July, the FAA changed its qualifications for commercial astronaut wings to require crewmembers to demonstrate "activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety" in addition to their flight training and flight above 50 miles (80 kilometers). FAA officials have said that the agency does reserve the right to issue honorary commercial astronaut wings "to individuals who demonstrated extraordinary contribution or beneficial service to the commercial human spaceflight industry."

Inspiration4 was a three-day commercial space mission financed by American entrepreneur and billionaire Jared Isaacman, who bought four seats to orbit on a SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. Isaacman donated three of the seats to raise funds and awareness for childhood cancer research by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Arceneaux, a St. Jude physician assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor, represented the hospital on the flight. Proctor and another civilian, aerospace data engineer Chris Sembroski, won their seats as part of public contests.They were the first all-civilian crew to fly in space without a professional astronaut, and Proctor became the first Black female spaceship pilot in history on the flight.

During their flight, the Inspiration4 astronauts spent three days circling the Earth, performing science experiments and gazing out the largest single window ever built for space, a dome-shaped cupola that SpaceX attached to the nose of the Dragon capsule for the mission. Their mission is the subject of a Netflix documentary series and raised over $200 million for St. Jude.

"Until we meet again, thank you to all the amazing people at @SpaceX who have done so much for me and @inspiration4x," Sembroski, Inspiration4's mission specialist, wrote on Twitter. "And most of all, thanks to my beautiful wife Erin who gave so much to support this dream on a most incredible journey."

According to SpaceX and the Inspiration4 teams, the private astronauts were invited to the company's headquarters Friday to share the experiences from their spaceflight. The astronaut wings presentation was apparently a surprise.

"Our Inspiration4 crew visited SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California yesterday, and was surprised with SpaceX Dragon wings," Inspiration4's outreach team wrote on Twitter.

Isaacman, who has not disclosed how much be paid for the Inspiration4 flight, thanked SpaceX on Saturday for the flight.

"It was great to see all our SpaceX friends and thank them for making this mission a success," Isaacman added on Twitter. "Incredible memories.

Editor's note: This story, originally posted on Oct. 3, was updated Oct. 4 to include details about the astronaut wings presented by Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Email Tariq Malik attmalik@space.comor follow him@tariqjmalik. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandInstagram.

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SpaceX's private Inspiration4 crew gets their astronaut wings - Space.com

EnduroSat andExolaunch have signed a launch agreements for sending two EnduroSat smallsats into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The 6U XL SharedSat smallsats, built by EnduroSat for customers, will be launched via Exolaunch in H1 2022 as part of SpaceXs SmallSat Rideshare Program.

The SharedSats are 6U XL smallsats with several multi-purpose payloads on a single bus. By simplifying access to space services through shared missions for a range of commercial, exploration and science customers, EnduroSat aims to significantly lower the entry barrier of operations in orbit.

The two SharedSats are part of the commercial EnduroSatsMissions. They foresee integration, validation, and testing, launch and operations of the satellite and hosted payloads. Direct access to the payload data will be made available in the cloud through EnduroSats Digital Mission Control. The software-centric smallsat architecture allows for multiple payloads to operate together reliably on a single platform with access to on-demand processing, power and pointing capability.

Exolaunch will ensure comprehensive rideshare mission management, satellite integration and deployment services for both EnduroSat missions. The launches are arranged by Exolaunch under its Multi-Launch Agreement with SpaceX. The new launch agreements mark the expansion of EnduroSats Shared Satellite Service and pave the way to the continued cooperation between the companies on future launches.

For both missions, Exolaunch will use their proprietary deployment technologies theEXOpod, a next-gen cubesat deployer with half a decade and 100+ of released satellites flight heritage, to deploy the EnduroSats satellites into their target SSO above 500 km, and the EXOport, a flexible, multi-satellite adapter designed to optimally accommodate several satellites on a single Falcon 9 port.

Were really pleased to have signed a launch agreement with Exolaunch, as it is another step in our mission to provide easy access to space. The Shared Satellite Service goal is to help drive innovation at the final frontier for visionary entrepreneurs, scientists, and technologists. At EnduroSat, we are eager to see the innovations that our customers willaccomplishin space and are happy to support them every step of the way, said EnduroSats Founder and CEO, Raycho Raychev.

Were proud to support EnduroSat with a variety of launch options and flexible mission management to address all their ongoing launch needs for the Shared Satellite Service program. Exolaunch has acquired outstanding flight heritage with Falcon 9 after signing a multi-launch agreement with SpaceX and is pleased to become a trusted launch partner for EnduroSat, said Jeanne Medvedeva, VP of Launch Services at Exolaunch. Its our common vision to make space accessible for everyone and we are honored to contribute to EnduroSats mission.

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Launch Agreement Signed By EnduroSat With Exolaunch For 2022 Mission Via SpaceX SatNews - SatNews Publishers