Plus: Verizon's deal with AST SpaceMobile
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Stoke Space raises more than half of a billion dollars for its reusable rocket, Verizon signs a deal with AST SpaceMobile, Blue Origin doesn't want to be told the odds and more.
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Top Stories
Launch vehicle developer Stoke Space announced Wednesday it raised $510 million, bringing the total it raised to nearly $1 billion. The Series D round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, which invests in companies developing "critical technologies relevant to the national interest," with other new and existing investors participating. The company had closed a $260 million Series C round nine months ago. Stoke said it will use the funding to accelerate development of Nova, a medium-lift vehicle whose first and second stages are intended to be reused. Stoke secured a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 contract for Nova earlier this year, but the company has not announced a date for the vehicle's first launch. [SpaceNews]
AST SpaceMobile said Wednesday that Verizon had signed a definitive agreement to use its planned space-based cellular network. The deal enables Verizon to provide direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity to its customers from some point in 2026, building on a strategic partnership announced in May 2024 that included plans for a $100 million investment in AST. AST signed a similar definitive revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T last year. Shares in AST closed up 8% Wednesday as investors' concerns about the competitive threat posed by SpaceX's D2D ambitions eased. [SpaceNews]
A wave of defense spending in Europe and renewed military investment in the United States are reshaping the commercial space industry. Investors and executives said in a SpaceNews webinar Wednesday that those two trends, both linked to policies by the Trump administration, have changed the outlook for space companies this year. European investments are focused on surveillance, communications infrastructure and military space projects designed to ensure strategic autonomy, while the U.S. trends are linked to the Golden Dome missile defense system. Executives say there are now more investors interested in space companies as a result. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force has established a working capital fund with a projected value of more than $1 billion to help facilitate military agencies' access to commercial space services. Space Systems Command said Wednesday that the Enterprise Space Activity Group (ESAG) was established at the start of the month under the Air Force Working Capital Fund. ESAG will help military users purchase services such as commercial satellite communications outside of annual appropriations cycles. The new fund began operations with an initial $120 million deposit and is expected to handle more than $1.2 billion annually. [SpaceNews]
The U.S. Space Force awarded a contract to Muon Space to demonstrate how its satellites can be used in weather forecasting. Space Systems Command announced Wednesday it awarded Muon Space a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) fixed price Other Transaction Authority agreement, a type of public-private partnership deal used by the government to tap commercially available technologies, valued at $44.6 million. The award covers in-orbit demonstrations of the company's environmental monitoring technology in support of military applications such as weather forecasting. Muon will launch three satellites for the Space Systems Command's prototype demonstration. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
Blue Origin launched six people on a suborbital spaceflight Wednesday. The company's New Shepard vehicle lifted off at 9:40 a.m. Eastern from its West Texas site on the NS-36 flight, landing 10 minutes later. The six people on board included one repeat customer, Clint Kelly III, who previously flew on New Shepard in 2022. This was the eighth flight of New Shepard this year, and a company executive said last month that Blue Origin plans to move to weekly flights over the next two years as it introduces additional vehicles capable of higher flight rates. [SpaceNews]
Blue Origin also made progress Wednesday toward the next New Glenn launch. The company rolled out the booster for the NG-2 mission, sending it to the launch pad for a static-fire test. The booster, which the company calls "Never Tell Me the Odds," is scheduled to launch NASA's ESCAPADE smallsat Mars mission late this month or early next month. [Spaceflight Now]
Arianespace set an early November date for the next Ariane 6 launch. The company said this week the launch of the Sentinel-1D radar imaging satellite is planned for Nov. 4 from French Guiana. The launch will be the third for the Ariane 6 this year and fourth overall for the vehicle. Arianespace said last month it plans four Ariane 6 launches this year, down from earlier projections of five. [Arianespace]
The CEO of the prime contractor for the Ariane 6 plans to step down to take a job outside the space industry. ArianeGroup announced Wednesday that Martin Sion had informed the company he would not seek to extend his contract as CEO, which is scheduled to expire in March 2026. Neither the company nor Sion provided further explanation, but French train manufacturer Alstom announced Thursday that Sion would join the company as CEO in April. [Alstom]
Mars missions will need a wide range of personality types, a new study argues. Researchers, in a paper published Wednesday, used computer simulations to learn how people with different personality traits would work together on a long-duration mission to Mars. The simulation used "agents" with different personality traits to simulate astronauts on the mission. Researchers said crews with different combinations of traits did better than those who were all similar to one another. [Space.com]
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Not Competitive, But Yet…
| "That's an astonishing increase, 53%. It outpaces the global space sector's growth of 40.6% over the same period. It's not that I'm competitive, but it's really good when we're beating everyone else."
| – Judith Collins, New Zealand's minister for space, discussing the growth of the country's space industry over the last five years during a speech this week at the New Zealand Aerospace Summit.
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