Startups
Stories about the new players changing the space game.
Albedo (YC W21) Raises $48 Million
Albedo has announced a $48M Series A raise, in a round co-led by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Silicon Valley-based Shield Capital. The Austin- and Denver-HQ’d satellite startup has now raised $58M, less than two years since its founding. Complementing Albedo’s big ol’ round is a padded out cap table. The startup is a…
Skyroot Aerospace Raises $51M Series B
Skyroot Aerospace has raised $51M in a Series B round led by GIC, a global investment firm based in Singapore. This is the largest funding round in the Indian private space sector to date. The company raised an $11M Series A in 2021. The launch startup is developing India’s first private launch vehicle and was…
Orbit Fab Announces In-Space Refueling Prices
Prices at the pump may have cooled off and started coming down here on Earth, but topping off the tank in geostationary (GEO) orbit will still cost you a pretty penny. How much? Orbit Fab has announced a flat rate price of $20M for hydrazine fill-ups in GEO, which it aims to start in 2025.…
Yuri Hitches a Ride on Dream Chaser
yuri’s ScienceTaxi will fly to the ISS on Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser in 2024, the companies recently announced. Confused? OK, OK…we’ll break it down piece by piece. Founded in 2019, yuri (the lower-case Y being the company’s preference) is developing the ScienceTaxi incubator for cost-effective access to microgravity research opportunities. The German space biotech startup…
Starlink Mobile Play “Validates” Lynk’s Strategy, Says CEO
If you thought that T-Mobile and SpaceX’s Thursday announcement would scare the H-E-🏒🏒 out of other players working on direct-to-phone connectivity from space, think again. AST SpaceMobile ($ASTS) execs welcomed the extra attention on their business brought by the T-Mobile/SpaceX technology partnership. So too did Lynk Global, a Virginia startup putting “cell towers in space”…
DARPA Awards SpaceLink Phase 1 Space-BACN Contract
DARPA, the Pentagon’s high-risk, high-reward R&D arm, has its mind on laser links. The agency is specifically working to develop an interconnected network of links for speedy and secure communications between military, civilian, and commercial space assets. The DARPA program, known as the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node (Space-BACN), recently announced 11 Phase 1 awardees. Space-BACN:…
Kayhan Unveils Pathfinder Pro STM Platform
Earlier this week, space safety company Kayhan Space launched the next tier of its space traffic management (STM) platform, Pathfinder Pro. Kayhan’s ultimate goal is to fully automate all collision avoidance maneuvers in orbit, cofounder and CTO Araz Feyzi told Payload. LEO, in particular, is poised to get a lot more crowded over the coming…
Capella Space Unveils Next-Gen “Acadia” SAR Satellite
San Francisco-based Capella Space has announced Acadia, its next generation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. Capella’s SAR satellites can see through clouds and provide all-weather, 24/7 imaging. The startup primarily serves defense and intelligence customers. Backstory: Capella launched Denali, a backpack-sized SAR satellite, in late 2018. Next came the 100-kg. Sequoia in Aug. 2020.…
TransAstra (YC S21) and Slooh Partner on Student-Focused Telescope Initiative
Students across the globe could soon have the ability to identify near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) for a grade, thanks to a collaboration between TransAstra and Slooh. The two companies have announced a partnership that will ultimately let K-12 students book time on a telescope. TransAstra is a space startup that graduated from Y Combinator in Summer 2021.…
Benchmark Acquires AASC’s Plasma Thruster Tech
Benchmark has agreed to acquire plasma thruster technology from AASC, the two announced this morning. Benchmark is short for Benchmark Space Systems, a chemical propulsion provider based in Burlington, VT. Benchmark’s Starling and Halcyon satellite propulsion systems are its bread and butter. AASC is short for Alameda Applied Sciences Corporation. The Oakland-based entity keeps a…
A Q+A with Integrate Space Corp’s John Conafay and Andrew Sloan
Integrate Space Corp. aims to modernize how you launch your payload through its new software stack. The newly hatched startup is creating a collaborative tool for spacecraft manufacturers, rideshare aggregators, and launch providers to organize missions digitally. The basics: Launched by space industry veteran John Conafay and technical lead Paul Reesman earlier this year, Integrate…
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…
Exclusive: Austin-Based Firefly Aerospace Bolsters Senior Leadership
Ahead of its second orbital launch attempt, Firefly Aerospace tells Payload it’s made a slew of new executive leadership hires. Though the Cedar Park, TX launch unicorn has been through the ringer in recent months, its Alpha rocket is vertical at Vandenberg and liftoff is seemingly weeks away. Moreover, Firefly is sounding a confident note…
