DTN 049: Intuitive Machines Becomes First Private Company to Land on Moon

Moon landing: US clinches first touchdown in 50 years

“A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the moon’s south pole on Thursday, the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector. NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the landing as a major achievement in its goal of sending a squad of commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts there later this decade.” (Reuters)

The hard tech renaissance accelerates as YC spotlights space, manufacturing and defense

“Y Combinator is putting hard tech in the spotlight. On Wednesday, the accelerator released an updated list of ideas it would like to see in applications — with categories like space, manufacturing and defense featured prominently.

YC has backed plenty of hard tech startups before. Launch companies Stoke Space and Relativity Space and satellite broadband provider Astranis are among its alumnus. The accelerator’s biggest exit is still General Motors’ $1 billion purchase of autonomous vehicle company Cruise Automation in 2016.

But overall, hard tech comprises a very small fraction of the companies that have passed through its program. The accelerator is better known for nurturing breakout software startups in sectors like consumer and fintech. So the spotlight on hard tech suggests that YC sees hard tech as underinvested, and more likely to generate the massive valuation spikes required for a successful venture portfolio.” (TechCrunch)