Top Reads
VC/PE

Sierra Space Closes $550M Series C

LuminArx Capital led the round, which valued the company at $8B.

LaunchTechnology

What to Expect from Starship V3

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the first launch of Starship V3 was “about 4 weeks” away.

EOMilitary

Planet Labs Extends Middle East Space Imagery Restrictions

Planet Labs just proved that dual use doesn’t necessarily mean equal priority.

TechnologyVC/PE

Advanced Navigation Raises $110M Series C

Not many space companies want to reduce the world’s reliance on satellite infrastructure, but that’s the pitch that landed Australia-based Advanced Navigation a $110M Series C.

StartupsTechnologyVC/PE

Mantis Space Emerges from Stealth with $10M Seed

Mantis Space is aiming to bring power into the light—and now it has the money to do so. 

EuropeVC/PE

AIRMO Raises €5M For Methane Monitoring Sats

European space startup AIRMO closed a €5M ($5.8M) seed round to launch its first greenhouse-gas-monitoring satellite no earlier than next year, and to expand its drone and airplane monitoring into the Middle East market.

StartupsTechnologyVC/PE

Lux Aeterna Closes $10M Seed to Build Reusable Sats

Everybody loves a reusable rocket—so why has the rest of space hardware remained stubbornly single-use?

EuropeStartups

Inside Austria’s Small But Mighty Space Ecosystem

Austria’s space industry is in the midst of a renaissance, with bigger funding deals and more startup activity.

EuropeLaunch

HyImpulse Signs Launch Agreement with SaxaVord

The second suborbital flight of HyImpulse’s SR75 is expected to lift off from SaxaVord no earlier than Q3 2026.

BusinessEuropeInternational

NanoAvionics Lands Korean National Security Deal

For NanoAvionics, the deal represents the latest win in a strategy of global expansion— which has found an eager and willing partner in the South Korean space industry.

EuropeMilitary

Leonardo’s Missile-Defense Demo in Ukraine Aims To Be a Blueprint for Other Nations

Leonardo is positioning itself to become a mass distributor of space-enabled missile defense shields.

Latest Stories
Pro

Inside Starcloud and SpaceX’s Orbital Data Centers FCC Filings

After only a two months of 2026, this year is already shaping up to be the year of space data centers. In January, SpaceX filed with the FCC for up to 1M satellites (wild). A few days later, Starcloud followed with plans for 88,000 satellites of its own.
The post Inside Starcloud and SpaceX’s Orbital Data Centers FCC Filings appeared first on Payload Pro.

CivilLunar

NASA Pushes Crewed Moon Landing to Artemis IV

The US path to the Moon shifted significantly on Friday, in what NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called the “only way forward” for the American lunar program. Hit the gas: Isaacman announced multiple changes to the program, including: Timeline: In light of these structural changes, Isaacman announced a new timeline for the American return to the…

EquitiesLaunch

Neutron’s First Launch Slips to Q4

Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket won’t fly until the end of the year, the New Zealand launcher announced Thursday in its 2025 earnings. 

EuropeStartupsVC/PE

ISPTech Raises €5.5M to Scale Green Propulsion Tech

Green energy is all the rage in Europe, and the trend is beginning to reach beyond the stratosphere.

EuropeSatcomTechnology

Mynaric Demos QKD Comms With COTS Tech

German engineering just entered the quantum realm.

Business

CesiumAstro Acquires AI Firm Vidrovr

CesiumAstro is the second company this month to rely on M&A to boost AI tech, after SpaceX acquired xAI (both owned by Elon Musk). 

BusinessLaunchStartups

Phantom Space Acquires Vector Launch Assets

Phantom Space just got a boatload of pre-owned toys to play with.

InternationalVC/PE

Canada’s NordSpace Opens VC Arm for Sovereign Space Investments

The company today launched NordSpace Ventures, which will make investments in “Canadian space, defense, and dual-use technologies”—starting with Wyvern, an EO company based in Edmonton, AB.

VC/PE

Intuitive Machines, Seraphim Announce Fundraising Wins

The space industry is well into its nine-figure funding era. 

BusinessLEOStartups

Exclusive: Charter Space Launches an Insurance Brokerage

Charter Space is done dipping its toes in the insurance market—opting instead to cannonball in.

EuropeSatcomVC/PE

OQ Technology Lands €25M in EIB Venture Debt Financing

Europe is driving hard on direct-to-device (D2D).

StartupsTechnologyVC/PE

Sophia Space Raises $10M for Build Orbital Data Center Tech

Orbital data centers are closer to reality than you might think.