Rocket failures, delays, funding rounds and more
And is it time to Find a Space Job? Big things ahead!
Welcome to Aerospace Insider 🚀
Hope you are off to a good week. Let’s get to the news of the week.
Today’s summary:
🚀 Aerospace News: new funding rounds, rocket delays… and more
🔍 Deep Dive: if you’re looking for a space job, look no further
Aerospace Weekly Roundup
Catch the latest European & global space industry highlights you don’t want to miss!
🛰️ Indian radar imaging satellite launch fails
An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (commonly known as PSLV) failed to put the EOS-09 radar imaging satellite into orbit. The issue occurred during the third stage burn, about six minutes after lift-off, when the rocket's velocity slowed. This was caused by a drop in chamber pressure in the third stage. This marks the first PSLV failure since 2017. The EOS-09, weighing nearly 1700 kg, was designed to provide remote sensing data for various applications.
💰 Space Forge funding boost
Space Forge has secured £22.6 million in Series A funding, led by the NATO Innovation Fund. This investment will advance their ForgeStar in orbit manufacturing platform, with a focus on developing the upgraded ForgeStar 2 and preparing for their upcoming demonstration mission, 'The Forge Awakens', set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 later this year. The company aims to make space manufacturing more accessible and practical.
🚀 ESA reusable upper stage project
ESA has launched Phase 2 of its Reusable Upper Stage Demonstrator project, part of the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. This phase, following initial technology identification, focuses on activities leading to a critical design milestone and early maturation. The project aims to develop crucial technologies for future European rockets, with potential applications for existing launch systems like Ariane 6 still under consideration.
🚀 Australian rocket delayed
Australia's first national orbital rocket, Eris, built by Gilmour Space Technologies, has faced an indefinite delay for its debut launch. A problem with the payload fairing, which unexpectedly triggered, caused the postponement. No injuries or damage occurred, and a replacement fairing is being sent. A new launch date for TestFlight1 will be announced after a full investigation and fix.
👀 AndroMach signs a contract with CNES
French spaceplane startup AndroMach has secured a contract from CNES to begin testing an early prototype of its Banger v1 rocket engine. This funding from CNES's will support evaluating the LOX/propane engine's thermodynamic performance to optimise its design. AndroMach is developing the ENVOL spaceplane for suborbital and ÉTOILE for orbital missions, with test flights planned from 2027.
🔍 What caught your eye this week? I (try to) cover the best stories but there’s always more happening. Reply and let me know what space news you found most interesting or what I should cover next! I read all replies.
Find a Space Job got an upgrade
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while, you might remember we started with three sections: Aerospace Weekly Roundup, Space Jobs Spotlight and the Deep Dive section.
After some time, the jobs section, which started as a simple jobs digest, grew and became it’s own dedicated newsletter: Find a Space Job. Well, fast forward today, that small side project has now grown into its own dedicated platform: findaspacejob.com.
The site is live, simple, and already active - with new roles posted and more features in the works. Whether you're job hunting or hiring, it’s built to make the process straightforward.
Companies can list roles directly, feature them, or connect their careers page for automated posting. And for professionals in the sector, there’s still a weekly roundup of new jobs landing straight in your inbox, so the Find a Space Job newsletter (and this one, for that matter!) isn’t going anywhere.
It’s still early days, so if you take a look around the site and have thoughts, suggestions, or spot something that could be better, just reach out. We’d love your feedback.
Excited to see where this goes. As usual, I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks for reading Aerospace Insider.
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See you next week.
Jaime