Voyager Technologies completes Astrobotic acquisition and secures $298 million NASA contract

Firefly Aerospace shares rose about 6% Wednesday morning after the space technology company announced a commercial agreement with Starcloud to test advanced artificial intelligence computing in lunar orbit. Under the deal, Starcloud's computing payload will fly aboard Firefly's Elytra orbital vehicle as part of a mission targeted for no earlier than 2028, with Starcloud's SC-1L processor receiving data from Firefly's Solux vision system, performing AI computing in orbit and sending the processed information back to Earth. The Starcloud payload is scheduled to join Firefly's third lunar mission, in which Elytra will initially serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for the company's Blue Ghost lander, expected to touch down at the Moon's Gruithuisen Domes under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. After that portion of the mission is completed, Firefly plans to keep Elytra in lunar orbit for five years to support commercial and government payloads as well as imaging operations, including the Starcloud computing demonstration. Firefly is also developing its Ocula lunar imaging service and recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to process Ocula data aboard Elytra before transmitting results to Earth, while the company plans to send its first Elytra vehicle into lunar orbit with Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than 2027.

SpaceX's fully reusable rocket Starship, which the company is developing, succeeded for the first time in reaching Earth orbit on its 14th flight test on September 28, 2026. A vehicle combining the upper-stage spacecraft Ship 41 with the first-stage booster Booster 21 was launched, and although one of the six Raptor engines on the upper stage shut down earlier than planned during ascent, it achieved orbital insertion and released all 26 next-generation communications satellites, Starlink V3, into orbit. The original plan called for roughly six orbits of low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 275 kilometers over about 10 hours, followed by a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, but the flight time was shortened to about three hours following the upper-stage engine malfunction. Previous flight tests of Starship and Super Heavy had deliberately remained on suborbital trajectories with safety as the priority, and the shift to true orbital flight and the demonstration of its capability as a means of transporting operational satellites mark a turning point. SpaceX has won a 2.89 billion dollar HLS development contract from NASA and aims for a crewed lunar landing on Artemis 4 in 2028 and the construction of a long-term activity base on the lunar surface.

Firefly Aerospace signed a multi-launch agreement with SSC Space for two Alpha rocket launches from Sweden's Esrange Space Center, marking the company's first planned orbital launch site on mainland Europe. Under the deal, signed September 9, SSC Space purchased the full payload capacity across both flights to distribute among its own government and commercial clients, with the missions targeted for no earlier than 2028 to carry Swedish national security and commercial payloads. CEO Jason Kim described the arrangement as a "launch as a franchise" model that gives NATO allies flexible orbital access while granting Firefly pricing power and operational leverage. The win builds on completed groundwork at Esrange, including a launch control center, payload processing facility, integration building, and tracking systems, with the launch pad now in its final construction stages. The agreement adds to a diversified pipeline that includes a $144 million NASA award for a Blue Ghost lunar lander, an extended Lockheed Martin deal covering up to 25 Alpha launches through 2031, a $94 million Space Force radar contract, and a spot on the $981 million NITE-STAR test and training program, alongside a 659% year-over-year Q2 revenue surge to $117.7 million and full-year guidance of $420 million to $450 million. Because the Esrange missions are not scheduled to lift off before 2028 and depend on a pad still under construction, the deal enriches forward backlog rather than near-term income statements.

Blue Origin has raised $10 billion in its first-ever outside funding round, with Jeff Bezos personally contributing a fresh $2 billion, according to details reported by the Wall Street Journal. The Amazon founder's total investment in the space company now stands at $32 billion since its founding in 2000, funded through strategic sell-offs of his Amazon stock. Valued at $140 billion, Blue Origin has opened its doors to outside investors for the first time, and additional commitments may still push the round's total higher. CEO Dave Limp is restructuring the 15,000-person workforce, enacting targeted layoffs and grounding the suborbital tourism flights to prioritize core technical advancements and critical NASA contracts. After generating $800 million in 2025, Blue Origin expects to hit $1.4 billion this year, and internally projects topping $30 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

Teledyne Energy Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, has been selected to participate in NASA's Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity, establishing a collaborative effort with NASA's Glenn Research Center and Johnson Space Center to advance next-generation space power technology. Under the Space Act Agreement, Teledyne Energy Systems and NASA will work together to mature the company's Hydrogen Electrical Power System, known as HEPS, advancing the technology from Technology Readiness Level 5 to Technology Readiness Level 7 for space environments. The collaboration supports NASA's ongoing efforts to develop reliable, efficient power systems for future lunar and deep-space exploration missions. Barbara Stachowiak, Vice President and General Manager of Teledyne Energy Systems, called the selection an important milestone for the company's hydrogen fuel cell technology and said advancing HEPS to a higher technology readiness level will further demonstrate its potential to provide reliable, scalable energy for future exploration architectures and long-duration surface operations. HEPS is an advanced hydrogen fuel cell system designed to deliver efficient, air-independent power for demanding space applications, and the collaboration will leverage the technical expertise and facilities of NASA Glenn and NASA Johnson to help validate HEPS performance in relevant space environments.