BusinessInternational

Orbex Secures £40.4M in Series C Funding

Orbex announced earlier today that it had successfully closed a £40.4M ($46.3M) Series C funding round. This latest round of funding pushes the company’s total funding to date past $100 million, making it one of the most well-funded launch startups in Europe. Road to $100+ million July 2018: £30M (approximately $33.8M) funding round that included […]

BusinessCivilScience

SpaceX and NASA Explore Raising Hubble’s Orbit

Hubble needs a boost, and SpaceX has stepped up to provide it. Yesterday, NASA and SpaceX announced that they’ve teamed up through an unfunded Space Act agreement to conduct a feasibility study into whether a crewed commercial mission could boost Hubble’s orbit and extend its lifetime. Hubble: an abridged history When the Hubble space telescope […]

BroadbandBusinessSatcom

Starlink Passes Two Million Downloads in 2022

The Starlink mobile app has 2M+ downloads in 2022, per third-party estimates from 42matters, a Swiss mobile intelligence provider. The tally includes both installs on Android’s Google Play marketplace and the iOS App Store.  Starlink saw ~90,000 downloads over the weekend, 42matters’ Alexander Braelow told Payload. The spike occurred shortly after SpaceX activated Starlink in […]

BusinessDebris

Slingshot Offers Beacon SSA Platform Free of Charge

In an attempt to get as many space operators communicating on the same platform as possible to lower collision risks in space, Slingshot Aerospace today announced that it plans to offer a version of its Beacon space situational awareness (SSA) platform for free. “We just feel a grand responsibility here, since we do have the […]

BusinessStartupsVC/PE

TechStars LA Announces September Cohort

TechStars LA has announced its September cohort. This year, seven of the twelve total companies joining the startup accelerator hail from aerospace. TechStars: The startup accelerator began in 2019 with the vision of connecting the innovative technology developing as part of the growing new aerospace industry in LA with the DoD. “I saw an opportunity […]

Business

Ursa Major Wins USAF TACFI Contract

The US Air Force is tapping Ursa Major for rocket engines. The Colorado-based propulsion company has signed a $3.6M contract under USAF’s TACFI (Tactical Funding Increase) program to supply a flight-qualified, oxygen-rich staged combustion (ORSC) Hadley engine.  The contract, Ursa Major CEO Joe Laurienti told Payload, is the first of its kind in propulsion.  “More […]

Business

Space in Africa Releases Industry Report

Earlier this week, Space in Africa published its report on the state of the African space industry. Between 2019 and 2021, the “new space” industry in Africa has reportedly seen major growth, and is valued at $19.5B as of the end of 2021. Africa’s space: The space industry in Africa is currently dominated by global […]

BusinessDebrisTechnology

Benchmark Announces Last-Minute Collision Avoidance Kit

Benchmark Space Systems is ready to bring a last-minute collision avoidance kit to market, the Vermont startup said this morning. Dubbed COLA, the tiny thruster system is designed compactly so it can be retrofitted onto satellites that already have finalized designs, Benchmark EVP Chris Carella told Payload. All that junk out there: The orbital environment […]

BroadbandBusinessEquitiesInternational

Report: SES, Intelsat in Merger Talks

Consolidation is the order of the day in the legacy satellite world.  The latest: Luxembourg-based SES and American satellite operator Intelsat are in talks to tie the knot, the FT reports. The GEO operators are long-standing competitors, and in recent memory, duked it out in bankruptcy court. Is it time to let bygones be bygones?  […]

BusinessVC/PE

Xona Space Systems Announces ~$15M Fundraise

Xona Space Systems, a San Mateo, CA-based startup building a GPS alternative in LEO, has raised an funding round. First Spark Ventures led the round, with participation from a range of new and existing investors, including Lockheed Martin Ventures.  Xona now raised $25M+ to date, putting this round somewhere around $15M based on previous fundraising […]

BusinessStartups

Slingshot Acquires Numerica SDA and Seradata

Slingshot Aerospace has its sights set on being the industry leader in space situational awareness (SSA). This morning, the company announced that it has acquired Numerica’s Space Domain Awareness (SDA) division and UK-based Seradata. “These acquisitions bring a single, unified space intelligence platform to the market that the market needs, and hasn’t seen,” said Melanie […]

BroadbandBusinessInternational

Eutelsat and OneWeb in Merger Talks

Yesterday, Eutelsat confirmed Bloomberg reporting that it is officially in talks to merge with OneWeb. Refresher: OneWeb is building a LEO broadband megaconstellation to rival the likes of Starlink and Kuiper. The UK company has launched 428 satellites (~66% of its planned constellation). France’s Eutelsat, founded in 1977, operates a fleet of 36 GEO satellites […]