<p>When Baiju Bhatt stepped away from his role as chief creative officer at Robinhood last year, only those close to him could have predicted his next move: launching a space company built around tech that the aerospace industry has largely dismissed, and which might be more groundbreaking than anyone realizes.</p>

<p>It&#8217;s the latest in a string of setbacks for the mega-rocket, which SpaceX hopes to use to build Starlink and one day go to Mars.</p>

<p>Rising-star defense tech Mach Industries has announced a new $100 million round from Khosla, Bedrock and Sequoia.</p>

<p>It&#8217;s a slight delay from the previous target of &#8220;late spring.&#8221; New Glenn&#8217;s first mission happened in January. </p>

<p>Axiom Space plans to launch its fourth mission on Tuesday, June 10 — a mission that CEO Tejpaul Bhatia described as “a little bit of a victory lap.”</p>

<p>Tenacious was set to become the first European-made rover to land on the Moon, but communications were lost with the lander that carried it.</p>

<p>Elon Musk’s interview with CBS Sunday Morning seemed to get off to an awkward start, as reporter David Pogue asked the SpaceX CEO about his thoughts on his ally Donald Trump’s policies.</p>

<p>Space Forge, a U.K. startup headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, recently raised a £22.6 million (approximately $30 million) Series A to make wafer materials in space, where unique conditions unlock new possibilities. </p>

<p>We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to our call for speakers at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. After a careful selection process, we’ve narrowed it down to 20 impressive finalists — 10 breakout sessions and 10 roundtables. Now it’s your turn to help shape the agenda. Audience [&hellip;]</p>

<p>SpaceX&#8217;s Starship successfully separated from its Super Heavy rocket booster and reached orbit Tuesday evening, but later began spinning and made an uncontrolled reentry into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX had cleared the surrounding airspace where Starship was coming down, according to the company. The ninth test flight provided a mix of successes and failures for [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mark your calendars: June 18 just became a can&#8217;t-miss event. We&#8217;re thrilled that Ali Partovi and Russell Kaplan will be joining us for what&#8217;s shaping up to be a fantastic night of ideas and conversation in the heart of Silicon Valley at our next StrictlyVC evening, taking place in Menlo Park. Partovi, the longtime investor [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Elon Musk&#8217;s Starlink has received anticipated state approval in India, opening the door to enter the world&#8217;s second-biggest internet market after China —&nbsp;over three years after SpaceX&#8217;s previous attempt to launch its satellite-based broadband in the country eventually failed. On Wednesday, India&#8217;s Department of Telecommunications gave its nod to Starlink to start working toward its [&hellip;]</p>

<p>SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is directly benefiting from the Trump administration&#8217;s tariff trade war, according to leaked State Department memos obtained by the Washington Post.   The memos show the U.S. pushing countries to adopt Starlink. Some show that countries believe that doing so could help lubricate their U.S. trade and tariff negotiations. One memo [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Elon Musk’s SpaceX is getting its own official company town. Residents of an area around SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in southern Texas voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to incorporate as a city — also named Starbase. According to results posted online by the Cameron County Elections Department, there were 212 votes in favor and only six [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The first 27 satellites in Amazon&#8217;s effort to create a space-based internet network have finally made it to orbit, paving the way for the company to attempt to compete with Elon Musk&#8217;s well-established Starlink service. A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off late Monday from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When it comes to creating images of Earth from above, satellites, drones, planes, and spacecraft are what tend to come to mind. But a startup called Near Space Labs has a very different approach to taking high-resolution photos from up high. Near Space Labs is building aircraft, called Swift, that are raised by helium balloons [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We’re thrilled to announce that Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of Robinhood and founder and CEO of Aetherflux, will be joining us for a rare, intimate fireside chat as part of TechCrunch&#8217;s StrictlyVC evening series on June 18 on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. As with all of our StrictlyVC evenings, the event will feature just [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Amazon&#8217;s Project Kuiper, the company&#8217;s initiative to launch a fleet of satellites into low-Earth orbit and beam internet connection to users, is struggling to ramp up production, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The competitor to Elon Musk&#8217;s Starlink has completed only a few dozen satellites, according to the report. The venture reportedly needs to quadruple its [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Jeff Bezos&#8217; space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its New Shepard rocket at around 9:30 a.m. ET on Monday, as it seeks to challenge Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX in the space tourism industry.&nbsp; What stands out most about this mission is that it featured the first all-female space crew since 1963, when Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Aetherflux, the space solar startup founded by Baiju Bhatt, the billionaire co-founder of Robinhood, has raised $50 million in a Series A round as it works to launch its first low Earth orbit demonstration in 2026.  The San Carlos, California-based startup, which came out of stealth last October, aims to eventually launch a constellation of [&hellip;]</p>