Tag Archives: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Orbit is close to merging with a SPAC, valuing Richard Branson’s company at $3 billion, Sky News reported. Virgin Orbit is close to finalising a deal to combine with NextGen Acquisition II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up by George Mattson, a former Goldman Sachs banker, Sky News reported.

The International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) will send its bioastronautics researcher Kellie Gerardi to space on a dedicated research mission with Virgin Galactic, the institute said. “The contract marks the world’s first industry-sponsored, human-tended research spaceflight on a commercial vehicle”.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic completed the first human spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico, the company said. The flight of VSS Unity which was released from the mothership VMS Eve with CJ Sturckow, as pilot-in-command, and Dave Mackay on board, sees New Mexico become the third US state to launch humans into space, the company said.

$15.5 billion is the total initial valuation of nine space companies that went or are planning to go public via SPACs: Virgin Galactic, Momentus, AST & Science, Astra, BlackSky, Velo3D, Redwire, Rocket Lab, and Spire. Silvio Marenco, a former CEO of two SPACs (Glenalta and Glenalta Food), and current advisor of Galileo Acquisition Corporation, defines a SPAC as a listed investment vehicle

In the latest Space Café “Law Breakfast with Steven Freeland”, Steven Freeland and Torsten Kriening welcomed Prof Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Prof PJ Blount to the historic Café Barerra in Leiden. Over croissant and coffee, the panelists, along with a lively audience engaged in a revealing and insightful discussion

Virgin Orbit looks into SPAC merger listing, WSJ says

Branson's Virgin Orbit reaches space with LauncherOne

SpaceWatch.Global asked its friends, staff and contributors to review 2020 and provide an outlook into 2021. These personal reviews are being published during the holiday season. This is the review of Ken Hodgkins, former Director of the U.S Department of State’s Office for Space and Advanced Technology.

I have recently heard comments from a few colleagues that our Space industry is stagnating, that the general public does not care about Space, and that the persistent COVID-19 pandemic will put many of our companies out of business. I COULDN’T DISAGREE MORE!

Lately there has been a lot of attention paid to the heavens. Specifically, near-Earth space, between Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous. We recently pointed out in “Money! In! Space!” that there is a business renaissance in space businesses and the related infrastructures. Startups in the space (pun intended) have been expanding old applications, creating new ones, and promising ones over the horizon, from intraorbital satellite taxis to future honeymoon lunar “cruises”.