Business
Stories on space business, including company updates, funding announcements, and contract awards.
Starfish Breaks Otter Pup’s Death Spiral
Otter Pup is back, baby. The spacecraft from Starfish Space tumbled through space for about six weeks after an emergency deployment from Launcher’s Orbiter craft in June. Yesterday, the Seattle-based startup announced that the craft is finally stabilized. “Less than two months after being deployed with rotation rates 100 times greater than normal operating conditions,…
Viasat’s I6 F2 Satellite Malfunctions
A Viasat ($VSAT) communications satellite has malfunctioned, the company announced Thursday, marking the second such failure within the span of a month. This time, the issue is with a new member of the Inmarsat fleet, which Viasat acquired in May. The I6 F2 satellite launched in February as a backup, providing spare L-band and Ka-band…
SCOUT Acquires Space Security Company Free Space
SCOUT Space’s relationship with the DoD is about to get a boost. The space safety and observation company announced on Thursday it acquired space security startup Free Space Inc. The move will enable SCOUT Space to strengthen its relationship with the DoD as well as the intelligence industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. …
DOJ Sues SpaceX for Hiring Practices
The DOJ unveiled a lawsuit against SpaceX on Thursday, claiming the launch giant discriminated against refugees and asylees in its hiring practices. “Through this lawsuit, we will hold SpaceX accountable for its illegal employment practices and seek relief that allows asylees and refugees to fairly compete for job opportunities and contribute their talents to SpaceX’s…
Trive Capital Acquires Hypergiant Industries
Hypergiant Industries, a software company building an AI-powered decision-making product, announced this morning that it has been acquired by PE firm Trive Capital. Hypergiant 101: The Austin, TX-based company is built around using AI to solve data accessibility and usability issues for defense, space, and critical infrastructure. Its main offering is an AI-powered geospatial data…
SDA Awards Northrop and Lockheed $1.5B
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is going full steam ahead on its Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Yesterday, the agency announced that it has awarded the first two contracts to build and operate spacecraft for the second tranche of the network. The two contracts are worth a combined $1.5B and secure 72 satellites. The birds…
True Anomaly Opens New Colorado Manufacturing Facility
True Anomaly unveiled a flurry of announcements yesterday, including the opening of a 35,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Colorado and new authorization from the government to image other space assets and rendezvous with spacecraft in orbit. True Anomaly 101: The company emerged from stealth in April with $30M in funding. The startup builds spacecraft…
Integrate Space Raises $3.4M Seed Round
Seattle-based Integrate Space has closed a $3.4M seed round that will help expand its team and grow its customer roster, the company announced yesterday. The round for the program management software company was led by Hyperplane and included participation from Riot Ventures, Ravelin Capital, and John Capodilupo. Integrate 101: Space industry veteran John Conafay, formerly…
Telesat and MDA to Build Lightspeed
Telesat’s ($TSAT) LEO broadband plans are back on track. On Friday, the company announced a $2.1B CAD ($1.6B) contract with Canadian space tech company MDA ($MDA) to build 198 satellites. The deal puts an end to Telesat’s previous plan to build its constellation using slightly larger satellites from Thales Alenia Space, which has been beset…
York Opens a New Facility in Denver
York Space Systems is expanding. This morning, the Denver, CO-based satellite manufacturer announced that it will open the doors to a fourth production facility, dubbed Potomac, and start cranking out buses by Q4. “Our new Potomac facility represents a significant milestone in York’s growth trajectory, driven by steadily increasing demand from new and existing customers,”…
Collins Aerospace Wins $36M AFRL Contract to Build Aircraft Comms Pods
Collins Aerospace nabbed a $36M Air Force Research Laboratory contract last week to develop a comms terminal to feed military and commercial satellite data directly to cockpits. “This resilient communications terminal is designed for survivability in degraded environments to offer military leaders enhanced situational awareness to make better decisions, faster across the battlespace” Collins VP…
Quindar Wins $1.2M AFWERX Contract
Quindar, a startup building a software platform for satellite constellation mission analysis, testing, and operations, announced this morning that it has won a $1.2M Direct-to-Phase II contract from the US Air Force. Under the contract, granted through AFWERX, USAF’s innovation arm, Quindar will focus on automating constellation operations across multiple missions. Quindar 101 The startup’s…
Epsilon3 Unveils Three New Products
Space software company Epsilon3 is rolling out a suite of three additional products to help customers better manage their missions from clean room to orbit, the company’s COO told Payload. The backstory: The CA-based startup, which was founded in 2021, builds software that aims to make the complex operations and workflows typically associated with space…
