The Porsche dynasty is taking on Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in space
Porsche SE, the family holding company that controls Volkswagen Group, is the latest big investor to bet on space's crucial role in developing future technologies.
The company, controlled by the related Porsche and Piëch families that turned Volkswagen into a global powerhouse, on Wednesday unveiled an investment into Germany's Isar Aerospace, a space startup attempting to rival Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX with rocket production and satellite launch services.
While Blue Origin and SpaceX are backed by billionaires and already racing ahead with manned space missions, Isar Aerospace believes it can compete in the growing market for launching small satellites into Earth's orbit. It's planning its first test flight for next year.
[....] "The funding will allow Isar Aerospace to further invest in its launch, testing, and manufacturing infrastructure for its largely automated rocket production and commercial operations," Isar Aerospace said in a statement on Wednesday.
[....] Commercial demand for the launch of small satellites is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, as companies in traditional and emerging industries come to rely more heavily on satellite technology to run software applications.
[....] Although a relatively small deal for Porsche SE, it's a notable move for a business that's invested overwhelmingly in automotive businesses and is the latest example of the space race taking hold between private companies and their billionaire backers.
Will space become the next gold rush?
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:33PM (2 children)
CNN: The Porsche dynasty is taking on Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in space
Musk and Bezos Have a New Rival. Porsche Just Joined the Space Race [interestingengineering.com]
Beware, Musk and Bezos — Porsche is joining the space race [thenextweb.com]
Porsche just threw in $75 million to this startup alongside other investors, but many of the articles say "Porsche is going to space!".
Isar Aerospace's [wikipedia.org] Spectrum rocket will lift about 1 ton to low Earth orbit. That's more than some smallsat launchers, but they will face stiff competition [wikipedia.org] in that segment and will be sandwiched by Rocket Lab's Electron [wikipedia.org] (0.2 ton) and Neutron [wikipedia.org] (8 tons). There's also Firefly Aerospace at 1 ton, Relativity Space at 1.25 tons, and many other rockets. Too many.
Spectrum isn't even close to a medium-lift launch vehicle like Falcon 9, although they could compete with SpaceX's Starlink rideshares, or missions like Transporter-1 which launched 143 satellites using a single Falcon 9. If fully reuable Starship starts sending payloads to orbit, many smallsat launch companies will face death.
Blue Origin's New Shepard is suborbital so it has nothing to do with smallsats. New Glenn is intended to be a Falcon Heavy competitor with 45 tons to LEO capability.
If the "Porsche rocket" is good for anything, it will be good at getting bucks from the European Union.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:50PM
:)
Most of these startups invest in IP before they're floated on the market and later bought out by larger companies consolidating their dominance with patent thickets. Big Tech has run it's course, Big Space could just be that ever inflating bubble investors want.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 30 2021, @06:42PM
Are you overlooking the lucrative possibility of
patent trollingintellectual property enforcement and patent licensing?The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @11:10PM
Instead of boring studies about the mating habits of frogs, we get superstars in rockets. Best tax cut ever.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @12:44AM (1 child)
what does it feel like the 1st time?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 30 2021, @06:46PM
There can be significant differences in your experience. Among various factors that will affect your experience, the most significant factor should be what type of instrument you are using for your experimentation.
Rather than using a heavy lift rocket such as starship or falcon heavy for your first try, or even medium lifter such as falcon 9, you might start with a small satellite launch vehicle such as electron, or even a suborbital joyride rocket such as new shepard.
Please call technical support if you have further questions or problems.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Friday July 30 2021, @12:55AM (6 children)
I can understand why they would want to pursue SpaceX, but why Blue Origin? It’s just a toy. It’s not a serious contender. The only way Bezos thinks he can interest NASA is by bribing them with 2 billion $. That giant penis that took Bezos up 50 miles to drink champagne is a billionaire toy. SpaceX actually builds rockets and puts people and things into space on a fairly regular basis.
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Friday July 30 2021, @01:19AM
I'm pretty sure Blue Origin will fly a New Glenn rocket by 2023 at the latest, which should have better performance than Falcon Heavy (non-expended). But it looks like Bezos created a skunkworks within his slow company to get things done faster:
Blue Origin has a secret project named “Jarvis” to compete with SpaceX [arstechnica.com]
Blue Origin is a serious contender if only because Bezos can dump several billion dollars into it. Whereas Isar Aerospace is getting $165 million here.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by GreatScott2001 on Friday July 30 2021, @01:43AM
First, they conquer Bezos molehill. Then they look at Musk's Mt. Olympus. Everything in it's proper order, you see.
Snark aside, they're going to need orders of magnitude more money to challenge anyone already in the game, even the minor league players.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Acabatag on Friday July 30 2021, @02:12AM (3 children)
Unfortunately, a big part of what SpaceX is doing is pushing space junk up there that is then oriented to face back down at us. A constellation of satellites so that nobody anywhere on the planet can evade Facebook and Google surveillance.
Sure, there are initiatives to send a few people to live in Winnebagos on Mars. The novelty will wear off for that quickly.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 30 2021, @03:26AM (2 children)
Want to evade surveillance? Don't connect to the Internet.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @06:00PM
Your banking information is all online and done online. Your medical history is at your, the states', and hackers fingertips. Anything you once got a paper bill for is 3-10 dollars 'processing fee' to get a paper bill or receipt.
I'm a far bigger luddite than most of you here, and I've got the dwindling financial resources to prove it. Having recently had to get back into the health system after having been uninsured since right when digital records started, I can tell you: Unless you have the money to use all illegal services, there is no way left to avoid the internet. It pervades every aspect of our lives and is only going to continue getting more invasive short of an effort at secession somewhere inside your respective nation, or starting a new territory outside of current national borders. Given how often the latter has been laughed at, I don't see it happenening, and unlike the various revolutionary wars, few modern people seem to have the wherewithal to secede from their current overseeing government short of genocide or extremely bad conditions. Bad conditions that when finally reached in the US, EU, etc will no longer have a chance at successful rebellion because far too much data will be available to find and purge the dissidents.
Enjoy Dystopia, because that is all we have left, unless our ecological damage catches up to us first.
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:27AM
Yes, that was my point. Also, part of not connecting to the Internet might soon involve being in a region on the planet where a connection is not available. Except said areas soon will not exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @04:13PM (1 child)
In the gold rush, the one that overpopulated California, any schmuck who could get out west had a chance at getting rich. And the investment - getting out west - was something anyone desperate enough could do. This space rush requires millions or billions of dollars - we're not going to see people leaving their McJobs to head into space to strike it rich, it will never be within their means.
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:29AM
The "gold rush" wasn't about gold. The gold was hype. When the Mexican-American war ended, Mexico was forced to sell California to the United States. Big problem: not enough US citizens populating that big chunk of land. Solution: hype the place up and get a frenzied rush of US citizens to go West.