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Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space . Happy South by Southwest workweek for all who celebrate . On to the news program .
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Story of the week
Astra has officially become the first space SPAC tear of the twelvemonth , with the company announcing last calendar week that it had accepted a take - private sight from co - father Chris Kemp and Adam London .
The company go public in the summer of 2021 via a smash hit $ 2.1 billion SPAC deal . The banker’s acceptance of the tidy sum — which will see Kemp and London purchase all remaining Astra breed for $ 0.50 per share — stand for that the troupe has lost more than 99 % of its economic value .
Launch highlights
We ’re looking frontward in time for this calendar week ’s launching highlights — specifically , to March 14 , which is when SpaceX could conduct the third orbital tryout of the massive Starship rocket . One very important caution : That appointment is pendant upon the favorable reception of the Federal Aviation Administration and the regulator issuing a modified launch license to SpaceX for the psychometric test .
It should be an exciting test , though , with the party plan to examine a handful of new , very ambitious capabilities , include a propellent transfer demonstration during the Starship upper level ’s coasting stage and the first - ever relight of a Raptor locomotive in space .
What we’re reading
I really savour poke into this report on the dual - use startup landscape painting from AIN Ventures . The business firm analyzed 123 dual - usance company that raised $ 5 million or more last class . It also allow some interesting reflection on where dual - use investment is channelise :
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The presence of significant unallocated upper-case letter in both public and secret sector is atypical . The geological era of inexpensive capital has passed , prompting startups to recalibrate to more realistic valuation . This fiscal landscape painting is poised to create a active and potentially remunerative clime for speculation upper-case letter investing in 2024 .
This week in space history
I do n’t think of to be impolite , but this week in blank history we ’re revisiting … URANUS .
Its find , that is . That ’s right-hand : On March 13 , 1781 , a German - born , British uranologist named Sir William Herschel noticed a faint object through his scope . He initially think it might be a comet , but after right identified it as our solar system ’s 7th major planet . Six years later , Herschel also get word Uranus ’ two heavy synodic month , Titania and Oberon ( the other three moons would n’t be attain until the nineteenth and twentieth hundred ) .
