{"id":37724,"date":"2025-08-01T08:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T08:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/37724\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T08:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T08:25:09","slug":"youre-in-or-youre-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/37724\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re in or you’re out"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter offers a\u00a0view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox.\u00a0Sign up to receive future editions.<\/a><\/p>\n

Portrait of astronaut in space suit and helmet.<\/p>\n

Nisian Hughes | Stone | Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overview: You’re in or you’re out<\/p>\n

There’s an air of ‘been there, done that’ about the Moon these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Increasingly, the great minds of the space industry seem to be thinking bigger \u2014 and, since the start of the year, redder.<\/p>\n

If you had doubts the Moon’s being eclipsed of late, they might be dismissed by the recent announcement<\/a>\u00a0that aerospace group Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency will develop the first human lunar habitat, in a key update for the NASA-led Artemis program.<\/p>\n

“Artemis’ purpose is to ensure a sustainable human presence on the Moon as a stepping stone for future missions to Mars,” the press release says. “Stepping stone” inevitably stands out.<\/p>\n

China and India have only landed spacecrafts on lunar soil since the late 2010s, with commercial companies achieving the feat since the start of last year. Yet Moon ventures have gradually come to be seen as a pitstop, rather than a standalone final destination \u2014 with attention pivoting to the bigger, juicier endgame of setting boots on Mars.<\/p>\n

Just check out U.S. President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s effusive enthusiasm for colonizing the red planet: the rhetoric’s shifted, even though lunar activity is set to dominate NASA’s social calendar through the Artemis initiative over the next few years. After debuting with an uncrewed test assignment back in 2022, the next three missions under the Artemis program’s umbrella target a manned flight around April next year, a South Pole human expedition in mid-2027 and delivering astronauts to live and work in the Gateway station \u2014 a NASA-led multi-agency venture \u2014 at some point in 2028. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the American space agency is still pressing ahead with its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS, colloquially called ‘Clips’), capitalizing on the lower costs of the private sector to deliver science and tech payloads to the Moon. NASA previously said it’s earmarked a combined maximum of $2.6 billion for contracts between the program’s premiere in 2024 through 2028. Just two missions took place last year, with four due in 2025, and a handful more scheduled over the next few years.<\/p>\n

The original space race kicked off in the 1950s as a largely two-nation exhibit of national pride, tech prowess and military firepower. It was the spiritual successor of the nuclear race between Russia and the U.S. during the Cold War \u2014 and began to wind down after Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon in 1969.<\/p>\n

The chase to reach Mars first is drawing a slightly bigger crowd. China’s put down establishing a research base on Mars on its wish list by 2038 and has\u00a0previously said<\/a>\u00a0it plans to send a manned mission to the red planet five years prior. The European Space Agency is setting sights on robotic exploration and sample returns off Mars in the short term and two years ago\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it plans to send Europeans to the planet by 2040. <\/p>\n

Russia, meanwhile, has been more guarded about disclosing its Mars plans. It has\u00a0signaled<\/a>\u00a0intentions to work toward such missions alone after the 2022 suspension of the joint 1 billion euro ExoMars mission with the European Space Agency, in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The appeal of Mars is inevitable, once you shrug off any Hollywood heebie-jeebies about the hostility of the possible alien life. It’s got more “Earth-like” environmental conditions than the Moon and decent potential for sustained hospitality (though some have made the case for one of Saturn’s moons, Titan). But it’ll be interesting to see whether national space agencies shift gears toward Mars \u2014 leaving Moon projects to increasingly become the province of private space companies that have been flocking to fill the gap.<\/p>\n

One of them has been making this past week’s headlines: building on the successful, upright landing of its Blue Ghost rover back in March, Northrop Grumman-backed Firefly Aerospace has now set sights on financial light-off and seeks a $5.5 billion valuation for its upcoming\u00a0initial public offering<\/a>. It boasts a backlog of roughly $1.1 billion and a sixfold jump in revenue to $55.9 million at the end of March. But it competes in a landscape of increasingly more advanced and cheaply-made satellites, orbital congestion and high developmental costs \u2014 with titan rivals ranging from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to SpaceX and national governments. Fitting to our theme,\u00a0it’s just been awarded<\/a>\u00a0its fifth CLPS contract worth $176.7 million to deliver five NASA-sponsored payloads to the Moon’s South Pole in 2029.<\/p>\n

What’s up<\/p>\n

NASA and Roscosmos chiefs to hold talks \u2014 Sean Duffy, the interim head of NASA, and Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov will hold discussions this week, when the SpaceX Crew-11 departs for the International Space Station. It will be the first meeting at the agencies’ bosses level since 2018. \u2014 Reuters <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. Space Command’s prep work for satellite combat \u2014 The Economist investigates the U.S. Space Command’s operations to make ready for satellite-to-satellite engagements. \u2014\u00a0The Economist<\/a><\/p>\n

China launches new cluster of Guowang satellites \u2014 Beijing has launched the sixth group of satellites for the Guowang megaconstellation, which it began to build in December 2024. \u2014\u00a0Space News<\/a><\/p>\n

How figuring out food for space can improve delivering it on Earth \u2014 Nature looks at food sourcing and storage problems rampant both in space and on Earth, including optimizing nutrition and figuring out alternative protein supplies. \u2014\u00a0Nature<\/a><\/p>\n

UK must protect its space interests, space commander says \u2014 Britain must ‘control space’ and position itself more assertively in the industry amid competition from other nations, Major General Paul Tedman said. \u2014\u00a0Orbital Today<\/a><\/p>\n

Industry maneuvers<\/p>\n

Russia seeks to develop reusable rocket within two years \u2014 Moscow is looking to develop a reusable rocket for more cost-effective launches within 18-24 months, after technical specifications were approved in June, according to national space agency Roscosmos. \u2014\u00a0The Moscow Times<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Space Force to launch 8th\u00a0X-37B mission \u2014 The U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Raid Capabilities Office will carry out the eighth X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission in late August aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. These demos typically feature next-gen tech such as laser communications and quantum inertial sensors. \u2014\u00a0U.S. Space Force<\/a><\/p>\n

NASA says 20% of workforce to leave \u2014 Around 3,870 employees \u2014 or roughly 20% of the existing staff \u2014 are set to depart NASA, an agency spokesperson said, leaving a remaining workforce of around 14,000 people.\u2014 Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

Market movers<\/p>\n

First Australia-made rocket crashes after take-off \u2014 The privately developed Australia-made Eris rocket failed to reach orbit amid engine failures during its test flight from the Bowen Orbital Spaceport in Queensland. \u2014\u00a0Ars Technica<\/a><\/p>\n

Firefly Aerospace seeks $5.5 billion valuation for upcoming IPO \u2014 Texas-based Firefly Aerospace has set a range of $35 to $39 per share for its upcoming listing, in which it plans to sell roughly 16.2 million stock. \u2014\u00a0CNBC<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. selects five firms for anti-jam satellite comms \u2014 The U.S. Space Force picked Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Intelsat, Viasat and Astranis a combined $37 million to develop communication satellites that defend against enemy jamming. \u2014\u00a0Defense News<\/a><\/p>\n

Thales Alenia Space and ASI to develop first lunar outpost \u2014 Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency inked a contract to develop the first human habitat on the Moon, in a key step for NASA’s Artemis program. \u2014\u00a0Thales Alenia Space<\/a><\/p>\n

On the horizon<\/p>\n

Aug. 3 \u2014 Amazon’s Blue Origin to take off on a crewed suborbital flight out of Texas<\/p>\n

Aug. 4 \u2014 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches with Starlink satellites out of Florida<\/p>\n

Aug. 4 \u2014 China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s Long March 12 to depart with SatNet communication satellites out of Wenchang<\/p>\n

Aug. 7 \u2014 SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to launch with Starlink satellites out of Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter offers a\u00a0view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7796,273,90,416,14348,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-37724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-breaking-news-technology","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space","12":"tag-space-industry","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}