Tech
Argo Space’s plan to power orbital tugs with Moon water pulls in $7.9M
There are many hypotheses about what capabilities will need to come online for the growing space industry to flourish, but two of the biggest concern in-space mobility and in-space refueling. To have a fully independent space economy, proponents argue, we’ll need to be able to move satellites around in space and we’ll need a way to refuel them.
Argo Space Corporation aims to contribute to both these capabilities with a reusable orbital transfer vehicle that can be refueled with water harvested from the moon. (Oh, and Argo Space wants to do the lunar water harvesting, too.)
The startup, which was founded by three brothers who all formerly worked at SpaceX, is developing an orbital transportation spacecraft called the Argonaut, named for the famous seafaring heroes of Greek mythology. Alongside this, Argo Space says it also developed a method to extract water from lunar regolith, which could then be used as part of an off-planet fuel-creation process.
Its long-term vision is to bring a true logistics vehicle to space: one that can take a customer payload to an intended orbit, refuel, then do it all over again.
“That’s more of a fundamental change in architecture,” Argo CEO Robert Carlisle said in a recent interview. “We’re not just building an expendable kick stage. Those have existed in some form for a long time. We’re really trying to say, let’s open up access to novel orbits for small and large spacecraft.”
The company closed a $2 million pre-seed round last April; even since then, competition on both the in-space mobility side and the lunar water extraction side has gotten hotter. But Carlisle said that it’s the integrated vision of a reusable, refuelable spacecraft that sets Argo apart from its peers.
Investors are behind this vision: Argo raised another $7.9 million led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from existing investors Stellar Ventures and Type One Ventures.
The ability to access different orbits and to have dynamic missions in space would be nothing less than revolutionary for spacecraft operations. Carlisle said the company has seen growing commercial demand for in-space mobility, so the bulk of the funding will go toward Argonaut development and fully fund a sub-scale demonstration mission that is planned to launch in the fourth quarter of next year. That mission is intended to demonstrate the Argonaut’s propulsion system and the high-delta V, or velocity change, capability operating beyond LEO.
“A differentiating capability for us is our unique propulsion system, and actually providing a lot of delta-V going out to MEO, GEO and cislunar space,” Carlisle said.
The Argonaut uses a water plasma thruster, a less common propulsion system that he said provides a “good balance” of thrust and efficiency. As the name suggests, the thruster uses water as a propellant; the water is then ionized into plasma to generate thrust. Using a system that is based around water is critical to the startup’s overall plan to refuel the Argonaut using water harvested on the moon.
Even after extracting the water, however, Argo Space will need to find a way to get it from the lunar surface to orbit. Carlisle admitted that exporting mass from the surface of the moon is a challenge: “Lunar export is definitely a challenging piece of the architecture for everyone right now, but several of the lander providers are talking about export capabilities. Blue Origin and SpaceX, they’re working primarily on human landing systems, so they have a much more intense and broad set of requirements related to that, but those guys and others are working on export capabilities as well.”
Although the Argonaut subscale demo mission is happening first, that doesn’t mean the lunar water extraction piece has been put on the back burner: Since closing its pre-seed round last April, the company has validated its novel lunar water extraction method using simulated regolith, showing it can extract water even when it is barely present: concentrations as low as 1 part per thousand.
In the nearer term, Carlisle said the company plans to refuel Argonauts using water launched from Earth, which would be retrieved by depots in low Earth orbit. These depots will look like a simpler, cheaper version of the Argonaut, he said.
Tech
Google makes an interesting choice with its new agent-building tool for enterprises
Google CEO Sundar Pichai opened the Google Cloud Next conference on Wednesday with a video in which he announced one of the company’s biggest new products: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.
Google’s tool is intended for building and managing agents at scale. This is Google’s answer to Amazon’s Bedrock AgentCore and to Microsoft Foundry.
Given that AI, and agents in particular, are furthest along for technical tasks like coding, and that the tech is so new to the enterprise that security remains a real concern, Google has made an interesting choice with this tool. Agent Platform is particularly geared at IT and technical teams.
The business folks, meanwhile, are directed toward what Google calls its Gemini Enterprise app, introduced in the fall. They can work with agents built by IT or build their own for tasks like scheduling meetings, performing trigger-based processes, creating shortcuts for repetitive tasks, or creating and editing files without needing to switch apps, Google says.
Google also underscored that the underlying models these tools tap into include Google’s own Gemini LLM and Nano Banana 2 image generator, as well as Anthropic’s Claude. The company announced support for Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku — in other words, flagship, reasoning, and lower-cost models, including the new Opus 4.7 that launched last week.
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Threads is adding Live Chats to boost real-time engagement
Threads is launching “Live Chats” to allow for real-time conversations during cultural events, the Meta-owned platform announced on Wednesday. The company says the idea behind the new feature is to help make the app feel more timely and relevant.
Live Chats are launching first within the NBA Threads community during the Playoffs. Media personalities, including Malika Andrews, Rachel Nichols, and Da Kid Gowie will host Live Chats during games.
The company told TechCrunch via email that it’s initially rolling out the feature to a small group of creators. Not all users will be able to start a Live Chat right away, but Meta plans to expand access over time.
Users can send messages, photos, videos, links, and emoji reactions. Up to 150 participants can actively send messages in a chat. Once this limit is reached, additional users can still view the conversation, react to messages, and participate in polls in “spectator” mode.
When Threads first launched, it lagged behind X when it came to relevance and timeliness; it was harder to follow what was currently happening in the world. X had already established itself as a global “town square” of sorts, and was known for real-time commentary and breaking news. Threads, on the other hand, was struggling because it lacked many of the features that X had, such as robust search, hashtags, and a chronological feed.
Over time, Threads has built out its platform with these tools, and now it’s looking to better compete with X through the addition of a feature that even the Elon Musk-owned app doesn’t have, one specifically designed for real-time engagement.
“It’s a new way to build community with others around shared interests like an album drop or a big game as it unfolds,” Meta explained in the blog post. “Live Chats are an extension of what’s already happening on Threads — and a new way for creators and fans to connect over what matters to them in real time. Live Chats are more dynamic than traditional group chats because they’re designed for real-time conversations around cultural moments as they’re happening.”
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Users can join Live Chats from the top of a Community feed, through a shared post in their main feed, or by tapping the red live ring around a host’s profile photo. Although Live Chats end after a certain time, they remain open and publicly discoverable after they end, Meta says.
Threads will automatically detect and take down messages that violate its policies, and anyone in a chat can report messages, the company told TechCrunch. Additionally, hosts have real-time moderation controls and can demote users to spectator mode or remove them from the chat.
As for the future, Meta says it is going to update Live Chats with several new features, including co-hosting, real-time play-by-play updates, lock-screen widgets that highlight live chat activity, and the ability to quote and share chat messages directly to Threads feeds.
While Meta noted that the feature could also be used for things like album drops, there’s potential for Live Chats to be used in numerous other settings — such as the upcoming FIFA World Cup games, awards shows, TV show finales, and more.
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Tech
Fusion power may not be sci-fi. Just ask the people who sunk $5B into it.
Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and the money is coming from places you wouldn’t expect.
Watch as Rebecca Bellan and guest host Tim De Chant sit down with Rachel Slaybaugh, general partner at DCVC on this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. The trio breaks down why serious investors are finally treating fusion as a real asset class, and what the return thesis actually looks like when no one expects a power plant in their fund lifetime.
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
Google makes an interesting choice with its new agent-building tool for enterprises
Threads is adding Live Chats to boost real-time engagement
