Northwood Space has closed a $100M Series B to ensure its ground infrastructure is ready to support the anticipated wave of complex missions in orbit.
The round, which was announced today, was co-led by Washington Harbour Partners and a16z. It also included participation from Alpine Space Ventures, among other investors, according to a press release.
“It really reflects…a lot of activity and progress on the Northwood side that reflects the importance of ground as an enabler for pushing forward more capable missions on shorter timelines,” CEO Bridgit Mendler said at a virtual media roundtable.
The influx of cash—which comes less than a year after Northwood’s $30M Series A—will help scale production of its ground systems, including strengthening its supply chain and buying new sites to host infrastructure.
Business update: Northwood, which was founded in 2024, is now able to build eight of its Portal phased array ground systems a month. Portals are installed and working on two continents. As evidence of Northwood’s “go fast” ethos, Northwood installed and turned on the system at its latest site within 12 hours—and began operations the next day, according to a company blog post.
Contract report: Northwood also announced it won a $49.8M, three year Space Force contract to support the military’s Satellite Control Network (SCN), which helps track satellites—including those maneuvering to their final destination after launch, or those that are tumbling or lost after deployment.
After an October 2024 demo with Planet Labs, the Space Force’s SSC approached Northwood with a clear ask: While the SCN works for today’s space environment, the network needs to be more reactive as the number of satellites in LEO grows exponentially with the rise of megaconstellations. That’s where Northwood’s tech comes in.
“They have chosen to work with us so we can increase their capacity, and support this variety of important space missions in a new and evolving way,” Mendler said.
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As the ISS nears its retirement date at the end of the decade, companies are vying to build its commercial successor under NASA’s Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) program.
Context: The space agency announced it would invest in developing at least one commercial space station to succeed the ISS in 2021. However, unlike the ISS, CLDs would only be part funded by the government. That means future stations must have private dollars backing them, and be able to make a business case based on customers beyond NASA.
In December 2021, NASA awarded a combined $416M to three entities then working on stations:
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