A Moon-Landing Milestone, and Making Millions Tracking Junk

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s newsletter is 700 words, a 5-minute read.

Table of Contents

• 1 Big Thing: First-Ever Private Moon Landing

• 2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

• 3. Making Millions Tracking Junk

• 4. Recycling Nuclear Waste to Power Spacecraft

• 5. An Awesome Book You Should Read

1 Big Thing: First-Ever Private Moon Landing

Private space company Intuitive Machines is launching the world’s first private lunar lander tomorrow, February 14th.

What’s Going On?: The private space company has completed all of its final checks and is ready for launch. The Nova-C lander, nicknamed Odysseus, will hitch a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 at 12:57 a.m. on February 14th.

Massive Milestone: If this mission is successful, it’ll mark the first time ever that a private company has landed on the moon. Astrobotic Technology attempted a lunar mission in January but failed.

Why Does it Matter?: For us to advance in space exploration, we’re going to need both governments and private companies to do it. Landing on the moon would be a huge milestone for a private company, and provides an invaluable learning experience for future missions.

Mission Details: Nova-C will carry 6 NASA payloads and 6 commercial payloads, with a landing attempt slated for February 22nd near the moon’s south pole. Some of the items Nova-C is bringing to the moon include a laser retroreflector, a camera for studying dust plumes, and a radio science instrument.

Timing the Market: This mission is also momentous because Intuitive Machines is a publicly-traded company. It trades with the symbol LUNR on the NASDAQ.

2. Cool Stuff You Might Have Missed

1. A group of satellite operators created the Mobile Satellite Services Association to standardize direct-to-smartphone satellite tech. (SpaceNews)

2. A remote surgical robot arrived at the International Space Station. It’ll be controlled from Nebraska. (NPR)

3. Three Private Astronauts returned safely to earth after a three-week mission to the ISS. (CBS)

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3. Making Millions Tracking Junk

A Company Called LeoLabs raised $29 million in a new funding round.

So Far, LeoLabs Has Raised over $120 million in Venture Capital funding.

What Does LeoLabs Do?: The company uses a global network of ground-based radars to track over 20,000 objects in low-earth orbit.

The San Francisco-Based Company then uses artificial intelligence to process all the data, and shares live tracking data and safety alerts with public and private space organizations.

Why Does It Matter?": There is a lot of junk orbiting the Earth, which threatens to jeopardize future rocket launches or prevent them entirely. Accurately tracking satellites and debris will be crucial in the future as the area around Earth becomes more and more cluttered with each passing week.

Paving The Way: The Office of Space Commerce is developing a civil space traffic coordination system, called the Traffic Coordination System for Space. To assist with this endeavor, the Office of Space Commerce placed an order with LeoLabs to provide its data on objects orbiting close to Earth.

4. Recycling Nuclear Waste to Power Spacecraft

TL;DR - A company in Seattle is looking to change the future of nuclear power in space.

I wrote an article last week on Medium about amazing new developments in space-based nuclear power. Check it out here:

5. An Awesome Book You Should Read

I just finished reading Shoot for the Moon by James Donovan, and I can’t recommend it enough.

It tells the story of the famous Apollo 11 mission, but not in the way that I expected. The book goes into great detail about how the astronauts were selected and trained, some drama at NASA leading up to the mission, and lots of extra bits of info that I had never heard before - and I’m a huge nerd for this stuff, so that’s really saying something.

It has 4.7 stars on Amazon and it’s on sale for $11 right now. Check it out here:

Thanks as always.

-Michael