TOP STORIES: August 2018

31 August 2018

Each month we round up some of the top stories in space, entrepreneurship, innovation, finance and technology.

Here’s our round-up for August:

NASA Announces The First Commercial Astronauts to Pilot The Next Generation of Spacecraft

“We’re working to have astronauts on the moon by the mid-2020s–probably the 2025-to-2026 time frame,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations. Read more here.

Featured image source: Boeing

The European seed landscape: 2018 so far

Venture Beat published a data intensive analysis of seed investment rounds in Europe. “There’s never been a better time to start a company and raise early stage venture funding in Europe”

Image credit: NASA images / Shutterstock

Landspace of China to launch first rocket in Q4 2018

Emerging private Chinese company Landspace is set to launch its first rocket into orbit in the final quarter of 2018, carrying a small satellite for a state television company. See more at SpaceNews.

Render of the Landspace Zhuque-1 three-stage solid rocket. Credit: Landspace

SPACE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

“Entrepreneurs are flocking to the final frontier, where Moore’s Law has unleashed massive, enduring opportunities. This is how humanity will colonize cis-lunar, the moon, asteroids, Mars and beyond — through the emergence of a distributed, commercial ecosystem infinitely more powerful than any single company or government.” Read more at TechCrunch.

Space Tech Stack. Credit: Quilty Analytics. Click here for a PDF version.

Small Rockets Will Power the Next Stage of the Nanosat Revolution.

Space Angels Network CEO, Chad Anderson and Jessica Holland write about the economic benefits of small launch. Read more on the Space Angels Network blog.

3D-printed injector and the Vector-R first-stage engine. Credit: Vector Space.

Morgan Stanley sees ‘a pattern forming’ of the space industry developing like self-driving cars

Morgan Stanley is telling its clients to pay attention to a space market that could grow very quickly, as the firm said it expects “significant development” from related ventures. Read more at CNBC.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off on its first test launch Feb. 6, 2018; shortly afterward, its two first-stage side boosters separated and landed back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX/Flickr