Show Notes
Main Topics Communications * Northwood, a next-generation phased array ground station provider, has raised $100M in Series B funding led by Washington Harbour Partners LP and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, this was announced alongside the closing of a $49 million Space Force deal. [source] * Eutelsat said a planned sale of its passive ground infrastructure to a private equity firm announced in August 2024 will not proceed, eliminating roughly $658 million in expected proceeds. [source] * Apolink has partnered with ground segment provider RBC Signals to resell the startup’s proposed in-orbit relay services, aiming to fill connectivity gaps when satellites are out of view of terrestrial command-and-control links. [source] * Airbus announced an agreement with Skynopy to leverage the startup’s software-defined ground station tech, which aims to decrease latency on Airbus’ Pléiades Neo high-resolution (30cm) Earth observation constellation. [source] * SpaceX submitted a revision to their BEAD (broadband equity, access, and deployment) filing to relax service requirements to low income households, making it easier for them to receive their $733m grant. NTIA has prompted states not to sign the petition. [source] * Globalstar is planning on launching a new constellation, doubling its current fleet to 54 satellites, including 6 in-orbit spares, and operating in the same 1,414-kilometer orbit by 2026. Globalstar is vague about what services its new C-3 constellation will offer, but will likely be a high power S-band D2D service primarily funded by Apple’s $1.1B investment, and built by MDA Space and Rocket Lab. [source] * Hanwha is exploring a South Korean defense constellation with MDA Space and Telesat, using the Aurora platform to make a lightspeed compatible LEO broadband network. [source] * Astranis is partnering with the MB Group to deliver a small GEO satellite to Oman, part of a $200M investment in sovereign connectivity and Oman’s Vision 2040 program. [source] * Luxembourg-based EmTroniX and France’s Anywaves have agreed to merge into a single industrial group spanning Europe and the United States, aiming to offer integrated radio frequency and payload subsystem technologies to commercial, institutional and defence space customers. [source] * Tokyo-based satellite company ArkEdge Space Inc. has signed letters of intent with three international organizations to develop a PNT satellite network in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The agreements with TrustPoint Inc., the Royal Institute of Navigation in the United Kingdom and FrontierSI aim to strengthen satellite-based PNT capabilities for civil, commercial and security applications. [source] * Terran Orbital to deliver Nebula bus for Mitsubishi Electric LEO demo mission. The Mitsubishi Electric LEO demo mission will feature Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Optical Terminal payloads, provided by a Japanese team composed of members from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Mitsubishi Electric, and other Japanese partners. [source] Space Mobility * Blue Origin is halting New Shepherd launches for their space tourism business for at least 2 years to focus on lunar missions. They’ve completed 38 launches with 98 humans flown to space, and numerous science experiments. [source] * Rocket Lab has announced that during qualification testing of Neutron’s stage 1 tank, they encountered a rupture during a hydrostatic pressure trial. [source] * Atlas Cup announces the first satellite racing league to stage competitions between high mobility spacecraft on-orbit. [source] * Exotrail, a French company specializing in multi-orbit satellite mobility and focused on LEO service vehicles, together with Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of the Japan-based on-orbit servicing company, announced Jan. 28 a partnership aimed at testing deorbiting capabilities in low Earth orbit. [source] * UARX Space, a European leader in satellite deployment and in-space transportatio
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Main Topics Comms * Golbriak raised a $4.5M seed round led by Join Capital and Phonton Ventures for production of laser communication terminals. [source] * Astrolight operationalized their space to ground laser communications between ATLAS-1 satellite and a station in Greece. [source] * Durri Space ordered 3 optical ground stations from Cailabs for installation in Oman. [source] * Viasat ordered Hydra MAX satellite communication terminals from ALL.SPACE for defense customers. [source] Defense * SES selected Lyntris to provide secure RF and pointing payload integration for PTS-G. [source] * Russian Kosmos 2612 performed a proximity operation to within 2.4 km of US owned ICEYE-X36. [source] * Starlink reduced operation in Ukraine. [source] Infrastructure * Clearspace won an $80M award from the UK Space Agency to deliver a satellite for Active Debris Removal mission. [source] * Momentus added Arcspace to its Vigoride 9 manifest to fly in-orbit autonomous welding technology. [source] * iSpace partnered with ALTEC to develop lunar rover technologies. [source] Business Moves * CSG bought a 9.5% stake in MDA, making it the largest shareholder. [source] * SpaceIQ Q3 2026 report dropped and claimed $92.5B invested in space year-to-date, with total for the year likely to exceed $100B. [source] Tech Advances * Trustpoint successfully demonstrated their ability to provide GNSS through interference under a US Navy contract. [source]
Main Topics Defense * Voyager Technologies awarded a $22.4M Pentagon contract for satellite deployment prototypes. [source] * Los Angeles based startup Fortastra closed a $30m Series A round led by First In to scale maneuverable spacecraft for on-orbit security. [source] * US Army awarded $67M in Electromagnetic Warfare to hide forces from orbital surveillance through five Other Transaction Authority Agreements. [source] Sensing * Seattle based startup Kapta raised $24M in their Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners. [source] * Bay Area SAR startup Array Labs won a $4.47M contract from US Army Devcom to develop distributed 3D Radar satellite technology. [source] * Hawkeye 360 released the results of their 2024 AFRL SBIR Phase II award to demo RF-sensing SDA satellites in a whitepaper. [source] Comms * SpaceX acquired nationwide low-band spectrum license in a deal for Starlink Mobile. [source] * The FCC announced plans to vote on a proposal to auction off 25 MHz of prime spectrum for D2D applications and to make an additional 482 MHz of spectrum available to supplemental coverage for D2D services in said spectrum range. [source] * AnySignal announced a new partnership with Andrenam to develop and bring to market underwater acoustic communications modems. [source] Business Moves * New York based commercial exchange infrastructure firm Nebex and Mexican Earth Observation company Thrusters Unlimited announce a partnership focused on providing sovereign space programs to Mexico and Latin America. [source] * Balerion Space Ventures closed the raise of an oversubscribed $200M Fund II. [source] * SpaceX seeking a $40B debt raise led by Apollo Global Management to finance the purchase of NVIDIA GPUs. [source] * Blue Origin claimed the $10B round of private funding will support an IPO ‘in the future’. [source] Tech Advances * NASA announced a partnership with Axiom Space to develop a ‘Sortie Suit’ on an accelerated timeline to deliver the variant of Axiom’s planned lunar surface suit sooner for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. [source]
Main Topics Launch * SpaceX’s Starship 14 deployed the first 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites to orbit. [source] * SpaceX’s Transporter 18 successfully deployed 130 payloads to orbit on the first stage booster’s 25th launch, including: [source] * Starcatcher’s first space-to-space power beaming satellite Protostar [source] * Cowboy Space’s space-to-earth power beaming satellite Reason-1 [source] * TWO Varda in-space manufacturing satellites [source] * Google’s first on-orbit TPU aboard Planet’s satellite [source] * Starfish’s first Otter RPO satellite [source] * Cesium Astro’s first Element-1 communication satellite [source] * Meridian Space’s first reflectenna customer link [source] * Deep Blue Aerospace raised $300M to further develop their Nebula-1 and Nebula-2 rockets. [source] * Z-trak raised an undisclosed amount of funding to facilitate a 2027 inaugural launch of their electric pump rocket. [source] * Hop Aerospace raised an $11M seed round led by Initialize Capital to further develop and advance rocket-based point-to-point delivery solutions. [source] * Meridian officially established themselves as a separate business entity from kinetic launch provider Spinlaunch. [source] * Portuguese startup Omnidea acquired former Scottish launch provider Orbex’s assets, announcing plans for their PrimeNEO rocket. [source] Infrastructure * Overview Energy awarded an OECIF contract to develop a homing beacon/targeting beacon solution for orbital solar power transmission to terrestrial targets. [source], * Momentus demonstrated an AI-enabled LiDAR and imaging suite during a successful RPO maneuver with NASA satellite. [source] * Lithuanian startup Blackswan raised a $2.9m seed round to advance their product lines’ commercialization and expand to the US markets. [source] * Italian startup NaviGate verified their 5cm accuracy GPS orbital determination software on-orbit. [source] * Foundational exited stealth with a £8.2M pre-seed raise for satellite laser ranging. [source] Compute * Virtus Solis signed a 100MW 20 year power purchase agreement, extendable to 250MWs of power purchase, with marine data center operator Brae Systems. [source] * Firefly announced plan to host Starcloud’s data center on their Elytra Moon mission.[source] * Satlyt raised an $8M Seed round to develop virtual orbital data centers. [source] * STAR.VISION announced a 1,080+ orbital compute constellation with ~$1.5B in credit backing. [source] Business Moves * Voyager Technologies closed $400M+ in convertible senior notes set to mature in October 2032 at a ~$40 price per share representing a ~30% premium on current share prices. [source] * Astro Digital announced the intent to go public through a SPAC merger at a $587M valuation, raising $180M in the process. [source] * Varda raised a $251M Series D, bringing total financing to date to $598M. [source] * Astranis secured a $468M credit facility from the US Export Import Bank. [source] * ICEYE announced plans to expand product offerings and build sovereign communications constellations with Nokia. [source] * Parsons wins $85M to build Space Command HQ. [source] * Charter Space raised $5M seed for space insurance. [source] Tech Advances * Viridian awarded a $225k NASA contract to develop VLEO control systems using aerosurfaces. [source]
Main Topics Imaging * HEO raised a $25M Series B led by Beaten Zone Venture Partners to further develop their space-based space domain awareness technology. [source] * Impulse Space awarded a $28M contract from the USSF to fly a Mira spacecraft for GEO based space domain awareness. [source] * Momentus received a NASA task order contract in support of the FALCON mission to use LIDAR to study Earth’s atmosphere. [source] * TRL11 selected to supply the imaging system on NASA’s Space Reactor 1 flying to Mars in 2028. [source] * Hydrosat unveiled their next-generation Osiris constellation to provide higher resolution and coverage area in near infrared and long wave infrared. [source] Launch * Space Epoch raised a Series B extension, bringing the total capital raised to $343M USD to launch their reusable medium lift rocket. [source] * RSAT Space signed a Canadian launch distribution deal with INNOSPACE to manifest customers for their Hanbit Nano, Micro, and Mini launch vehicles.. [source] * Exolaunch contracted a dedicated SpaceX Starfall mission for in-space manufacturing under their 2029 Return to Earth Program. [source] Infrastructure * Katalyst won an OECIF award for their robotic spacecraft to assemble tiles on-orbit into a space based solar power satellite.. [source] * Vast announced their Lunar Programs Division, applying Haven flight heritage to power, communications, and habitats for Lunar programs. [source]. * Italy committed over $5B to the development of a lunar habitat for NASA’s Moon Base program. [source] * ClearSpace signed an ESA ARTES contract to advance their Phoenix GEO life-extension mission. [source] Business Moves * Hubble Network raised a $200m round Series C round of financing led by Smith Point Capital to expand the deployment of their bluetooth connectivity satellites. [source] * The Toronto Stock Exchange approved MDA for a share repurchase program totalling 5% of their public float. [source] * Redwire selected for Space Systems Command’s $980M NITE-STAR IDIQ to provide training solutions. [source] * ICEYE opened a new operational and laboratory facility in Warsaw, Poland. [source] Tech Advances * GHGSat announced their second generation methane imager, boasting twice the resolution and coverage over their first generation satellites. [source]
Main Topics This week we had the privilege of speaking with Robert Sproles, CEO of Exolaunch, about their announcement of procuring two more launches as part of their expansion into managed rideshare services. If you need to get to space, be sure to check out Exolaunch! Space Access * Exolaunch purchased two more dedicated launches for their rideshare program including a Japanese launch aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H3. [source] * SEOPS signed a multiple launch service agreement with ISAR for five launches on Spectrum as part of their rideshare program between 2028 and 2030. [source] * Maverick Space Systems secured capacity for 10 Kepler sats as part of their rideshare program on Portal’s Motus Via Sol mission. [source] * Impulse Space announced a $308M Series D extension from existing investors to further their development of in-orbit transportation. [source] Proliferation * EnduroSat raised $205M in a round led by Riot Ventures and Atreides Management Funds to expand production capacity. [source] * Vantor selected both Endurosat and CACI to build their 40cm resolution, high-revisit Pulse satellite fleet. [source] * Elveo Mobile announced a partnership with Apex to scale manufacturing of their D2D satellite constellation. [source] * Amazon Leo ordered 6 additional launches of Ariane 64 for constellation deployment. [source] Defense * US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink confirmed the existence of an ‘on-orbit’ weapon at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference. [source] * The Defense Innovation Unit and Space Systems Command awarded GHOST-R prototype contracts to Northrop and True Anomaly to deploy GEO recon capabilities. [source] * Sedaro awarded up to $45M to expand the USSF’s mission analysis software. [source] Business Moves * Open Cosmos raised $348M led by Lightrock, ETF Partners, Institut Catala de Finances, and Entrepreneurs First to expand manufacturing and government services in Europe. [source] * Thales won contract to build NigComSat-2a geocommunications satellite for Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited. [source] Tech Advances * Exotrail qualified a 1KW hall thruster with Safran. [source] * Space Cargo booked a Starfall mission with SpaceX for on-orbit manufacturing. [source]