Business

Rocket Lab To Acquire Motiv Space Systems

Rocket Lab will acquire space robotics company Motiv Space Systems. The acquisition, announced Thursday evening in conjunction with Rocket Lab’s Q1 earnings, will achieve two goals: Motiv is expected to be rebranded as Rocket Lab Robotics when the acquisition closes, which is scheduled for Q2. Other news: Rocket Lab announced a few other pieces of…

BusinessEO

HawkEye 360 Raises $416M in IPO

The VA-based company priced its 16M shares at $26 per share—at the top of the $24-$26 range shared in the company’s S-1 filing on May 1. 

Military

Overview Energy Wins Air Force Contract

Fuel lines can be a strategic vulnerability—and fuel deliveries can become a target for enemies. Overview claims it can avoid those potential threats by ensuring military bases have continuous power with solar power harnessed in space, day or night. 

GEOVC/PE

Astranis Raises $450M+, Including $300M Series E

Snowpoint Ventures and Franklin Templeton co-led the round, which valued the company at $2.8B, according to a source close to the deal.

PolarisQ&A

Commerce Aiming to Open Novel Space Applications This Summer

In March, the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) unveiled its plan to serve as a one-stop shop for licensing novel space missions.

Business

Bridenstine Takes Over as Quantum Space CEO

Bridenstine, who was NASA chief between 2018 and 2021, told Payload that the new position allows him to get back into national security and defense—“That’s where my background is, and where my heart is,” he said. 

Military

Anduril Names Its SBI Team For Golden Dome

Anduril is one of 12 primes working on the SBI aspect of the Golden Dome missile defense architecture.

Military

Lt. Gen. Schiess Nominated to Lead Space Force

If confirmed, Schiess will be just the third person to serve as the chief of space operations since the Space Force was established in 2019.

Policy

House Subcommittee Approves $24.4B NASA Budget

Lawmakers have spent the past week telling NASA that they don’t support the administration’s FY27 budget request for the agency. Now, House appropriators have taken the first legislative step to formally reject the spending plan.

EO

CATALYST Unveils its Sat Product for City Skylines

“Now we can show a construction firm what was already moving before they broke ground, an insurer the risk they were underwriting blind, and a city authority the consequences of densification they had approved but were not monitoring,” PCI Geomatics CEO June McAlarey said in a statement. 

BusinessMilitary

Golden Dome Will Use COTS Parts, Space Execs Say

Asked what a Golden Dome satellite bus would have that a commercial satellite bus doesn’t, Apex Space CEO Ian Cinnamon’s answer was simple—”Hopefully, nothing.”

PolarisScience

Dems Slam Trump Over NSF Board Cuts

“This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said in a statement.

MilitaryVC/PE

True Anomaly Closes $650M Series D

True Anomaly has raised a $650M Series D, announced on the heels of its Golden Dome award for space-based interceptor tech—a new product for the four-year-old company.