Hello and welcome back to Max Q. There is SO much news this week, so let’s dive in.
In this issue:
Astroforge’s asteroid mining ambitions
Boeing’s Starliner comes home
News from Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab and more
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Astroforge closes $13M seed plus round for asteroid mining plans
Although we’ve long understood that asteroids are not simply the rubble of the universe, but potentially profitable stores of precious minerals, humanity has never been able to unlock this value. Y Combinator startup Astroforge wants to succeed where other companies have failed, by becoming the first to mine an asteroid and bring the material back to Earth — and it’s aiming to do so as early as the end of the decade. (Yes, that is not a typo — end of the decade!)
To start, Astroforge will be conducting a tech demonstration mission sometime next year. The company’s already booked a spot on a SpaceX Falcon 9 ridesha …
