On February 2, 2026 Blue Origin posted on X that the Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander arrived in Houston.

The transfer of Blue Moon MK1 to NASA Johnson Space Center moves the program from integration to systematic testing in controlled conditions.

The Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander was transferred to NASA Johnson Space Center for ground testing.

The Blue Moon MK1 will be tested in a thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC) at NASA Johnson Space Center to simulate lunar environmental conditions.

The TVAC tests expose the Blue Moon MK1 to extreme temperature cycles and an atmosphere-free environment to evaluate structural, thermal, and electronic system responses.

Data collected during TVAC and lunar environmental tests will be used to confirm the Blue Moon MK1’s compatibility with its expected operational environment.

Fundraising surface activities such as meetings, pitches, persuasion, and follow-ups resemble selling to customers.

The posture of entreaty by founders emerges when founders internalize the idea that capital is scarce or that investors are doing them a service.

Mutual need for fit between investor thesis, timing, and risk envelope and a founder’s company is the source of leverage in negotiations.

Investors offer capital that must be deployed within a fund life under specific constraints to satisfy limited partners.

Founders are commonly told that fundraising is a form of selling to customers.

Founders are usually at their most adaptable, optimistic, and responsive during a raise, producing a courtship dynamic.

When raising capital, a transaction is executed in order to create a long-term relationship rather than to generate repeated transactions.

Founders and investors often enter the fundraising process with fundamentally different mental models of what is happening.

Capital provided by investors carries obligations and is not passive.

Fundraising negotiations commonly feel unbalanced because investors often set the tempo, frame the terms, control the process, and ask most questions.

Pitching the wrong investors repeatedly is demoralizing for founders and can erode founder confidence.

Founders frequently optimize the pitch before they have thought carefully about the investor audience.

Courtship behavior during fundraising is not equivalent to operating behavior and can obscure how decisions are made when problems arise.

Success in a fundraising process should be defined by deliberate selection of investor relationships rather than by closing a transaction alone.

When selling to customers, the relationship is instrumental and exists to support ongoing exchange.

Founders offer a credible opportunity to turn capital into returns, which depends on timing, market structure, team capability, and execution risk.

Pitching the right investors and receiving a thoughtful, well-reasoned no can sharpen founder judgment.

Founders routinely present their pitch to as many investors as possible without considering investor fit on factors such as preferred stage, round size, ticket size, risk tolerance, expected returns, or fund maturity.

An investor who fails to deploy capital well does not remain an investor for long.

A funding round is a decision point about who will be the long-term governance partner, not merely a win condition.

Founders often assume investor interest implies alignment of expectations and objectives.

Founders give up leverage when they rush the process, broadcast indiscriminately, or interpret rejection as a referendum on their worth.

When investor fit is absent, fundraising processes tend to stretch, delays multiply, and delivered terms often become one-sided.

Many founders treat fundraising as a performance rather than as a selection process.

A great pitch delivered to the wrong investor audience can be exhausting rather than persuasive.

When investor fit is present, conversations between founders and investors become more balanced and can become collaborative.

Axiom Space missions were the first time astronauts from Saudi Arabia, India, Poland, and Hungary lived and worked onboard the International Space Station.

Axiom Space established the Axiom Space University Alliance last year to identify scientific opportunities and facilitate development of global research priorities.

Previous Axiom Space missions were commanded by Michael López-Alegría, Axiom Space Chief Astronaut, and Peggy Whitson, Axiom Space Vice President of Human Spaceflight.

Axiom Space’s four missions flew a total of 14 private and government astronauts.

Axiom Mission 5 (Ax-5) is expected to spend up to 14 days docked to the International Space Station.

Axiom Space missions enabled diabetes research demonstrating real-time glucose monitoring and insulin delivery in microgravity.

NASA signed a mission order with Axiom Space for the fifth private astronaut mission (PAM) to the International Space Station, marking the fifth consecutive PAM award granted by the agency.

Axiom Space missions included the first female Saudi astronaut and the first Turkish astronaut to launch to space.

Axiom Space executed four missions onboard the International Space Station over a four-year period.

Axiom Space is one of the companies with proven human spaceflight experience positioned to lead as the United States transitions from government-led to commercial-enabled space operations.

Ax-5 crew complement is pending final agreements and agency and international approvals.

As part of the NASA award for Ax-5, Axiom Space added Voyager Technologies as a teammate participating in payload integration.

Axiom Space’s four missions conducted more than 160 science and research activities on orbit.

Axiom Space missions tested a therapeutic drug that entered clinical trials last year.

Axiom Space’s four missions conducted more than 100 outreach and media engagements while on orbit.

Axiom Mission 5 (Ax-5) is targeted to launch no earlier than January 2027 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The planned satellites would use solar power to run onboard computing systems that support artificial intelligence applications.

A $1.25 trillion valuation for SpaceX would exceed Saudi Aramco’s 2019 initial public offering as the largest IPO on record.