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story of the week
This week I wanted to highlight a new startup targeting space-based solar power, a technology that has been studied for decades but never realized.
Aetherflux, which came out of stealth on Wednesday, said it was developing new designs for space-based solar to unlock this energy source for the first time. The startup was founded by Baiju Bhatt, co-founder of financial trading platform Robinhood, who said he became interested in the rapid commercialization of space. “My interest has always been how to bring more capitalism into space.”
scoop of the week
If you are bullish on hard technology as an investment category, this is very good news. I heard this week that Interlagos, a venture capital firm founded by former SpaceX leaders, plans to raise $550 million for its first venture fund. .
Prospective LPs will be drawn to the goodwill of the founding team, which includes Achal Upadhyaya, who was a senior engineer at SpaceX for a decade before leading space and defense investments at Cantos Ventures. Tom Ochinero, a former senior executive at SpaceX, left the company in March after a 10-year career. and Spencer Hemphill, CFO of Interlagos and former financial leader of Sequoia.
This week in space history
This week’s “Women Are Awesome” news: Five years ago on October 18, NASA astronauts performed the first all-female spacewalk! Astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch ventured outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty charge/discharge battery unit. This was Koch’s fourth spacewalk and Meir’s first.
Mayer dismissed the achievement at the time, telling then-President Donald Trump, “I don’t want to take too much credit because there were a lot of female spacewalkers before us,” Houston Public Media reported. “This is the first time there have been two women out there at the same time. For us, this is really about doing our thing.”
At that time, 15 women participated in 42 spacewalks, with cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya attempting the first spacewalk outside the station in 1984.
Here’s a great video from the agency that shows a spacewalk in action:
