“If you’re thinking about investing in OneWeb, I would recommend strongly against it," Shotwell said in October. "They fooled some people who are going to be pretty disappointed in the near term."

Bigelow Aerospace has yet to confirm this, but I've heard from several people that the company is temporarily closing due to Covid-19 rules issued by the Nevada governor.

To be clear, I have heard that this "temporary" closure at Bigelow may in fact be permanent. But so far the company has not commented.

Small launch vehicle startup Astra has postponed its next launch attempt after the rocket was damaged in what local officials say was an “anomaly” during a prelaunch test.
 
Astra had been preparing for a launch of its “Rocket 3.0” vehicle as soon as March 24 from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska. A previous launch attempt March 2, part of the now-completed DARPA Launch Challenge, was scrubbed less than a minute before liftoff after sensors reported anomalous data.

Report that a #SpaceX #CrewDragon test article was destroyed today during a parachute test. Report is the helicopter pilot dropped it prematurely at lower than planned altitude due to oscillations. Chutes did not open because they were not armed at time of the drop.

Engineers continue to work through troubleshooting steps to better understand the hydraulics issue that stopped the countdown.

OneWeb collapses after SoftBank funding talks fall through

OneWeb, the satellite internet start-up, is preparing for bankruptcy and to lay off most of its staff, after failing to secure new funding from investors including its biggest backer SoftBank, according to people familiar with the situation. 

The company could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US as soon as Friday, according to people involved in the preparations, putting most of its more than 500 employees at risk of losing their jobs. 

OneWeb had been in talks with Softbank to raise as much as $2bn in fresh funding before the coronavirus outbreak roiled financial markets, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

As markets plunged, OneWeb and SoftBank could not agree terms for a potential bridge loan to give the start-up time to secure new investors. One person close to the discussions said that those talks collapsed on Saturday, just hours before OneWeb launched more than 30 “micro satellites” from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to a constellation that it had originally envisaged would total around 640. 

The aborted deal with SoftBank comes as the Japanese group is also threatening to pull out of a previously agreed $3bn purchase of stock in WeWork. 

But after Friday’s job losses, only a few dozen people will still be working at OneWeb to manage around 70 satellites already in orbit, thereby allowing it to keep its spectrum licence. However, the constellation is currently too small to offer telecoms services or generate revenues and the potential value of its radio spectrum to any acquirers is unclear.