Plus: Criticism of the EU's draft space law
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Ursa Major and Eutelsat raise more money, Isaacman to make a second visit to the Senate, the EU's draft space law faces American criticism and more.
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Top Stories
Ursa Major raised $150 million to advance work on propulsion systems as it moves further into the defense market. The company announced Tuesday it raised $100 million in a Series E capital round led by Eclipse. It also secured $50 million in debt commitment and reported more than $115 million in bookings through the first three quarters of 2025. Most of the demand comes from U.S. defense agencies along with Stratolaunch and BAE Systems. The company now counts liquid engines for hypersonic vehicles and solid rocket motors as its core lines of business, a clear pivot from its origins offering engines for commercial launch vehicles. Ursa Major CEO Dan Jablonsky said the company sees itself primarily as a defense contractor, noting a lack of commercial uses for hypersonic vehicles and missiles. [SpaceNews]
The board of satellite operator Eutelsat has approved a proposal to raise nearly $1 billion from existing shareholders. The 828 million euro ($959 million) capital raise, approved by the board Tuesday, was priced at 4 euros per share, a 32% premium to their average price over the 30 days before it was announced June 19. Alongside plans to sell passive ground segment infrastructure, the operator said the extra capital will enable it to take out loans on more favorable terms to invest in OneWeb and contribute to IRIS², Europe's proposed sovereign broadband constellation. Eutelsat expects to invest up to 2.2 billion euros for the 440 LEO satellites needed to sustain OneWeb over the coming years and has also committed about 2 billion euros for its share of the IRIS² public-private partnership. [SpaceNews]
A draft of a European space law is facing criticism from the United States and other nations outside the European Union. Speaking at Space Tech Expo Europe on Tuesday, Scott Woodard, consul general at the U.S. Consulate in Hamburg, said the draft of the EU Space Act, intended to harmonize European space regulations, could "stifle innovation" and put financial burdens on U.S. companies operating in Europe. The speech echoed formal comments made by the State Department on the draft earlier this month as well as those from U.S. companies and trade groups. The impact of the act is also being considered in other countries who are not part of the EU, such as Liechtenstein and the United Kingdom. A European Commission official defended the draft act at the conference but welcomed the comments from the U.S. and elsewhere, noting that an updated draft of the bill could be ready by the end of the year. [SpaceNews]
European officials at the conference emphasized the need for strategic autonomy in space but are still relying on capabilities outside the continent. In a panel Tuesday at Space Tech Expo Europe, officials emphasized the need for European independence and autonomy in space services, citing shifting geopolitics. That includes programs up for funding at next week's ESA ministerial focused on space security and strengthening Europe's overall competitiveness in the global space sector. However, an Italian official acknowledged that launch issues forced the government to move the launch of the next Cosmo-Skymed Second Generation radar-imaging satellite from Vega C to Falcon 9. That satellite will launch by the end of the year from California. A contract previously signed to launch it on Vega C will instead be used for another Cosmo-Skymed satellite in 2027. [SpaceNews]
The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a second confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman next month. The committee said Tuesday that it will hold a Dec. 3 hearing on Isaacman's renomination to be NASA administrator. Isaacman appeared before the committee in April for his original nomination, which the White House withdrew at the end of May. Some had hoped that the committee could skip a second hearing, but committee members reportedly have questions on events since April, such as the NASA budget proposal in May that sought steep cuts to NASA and Isaacman's "Project Athena" policy document. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Tuesday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off at 7:12 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral, Florida, placing 29 Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX moved up the launch from later in the evening after the FAA lifted restrictions Sunday on commercial launches that allowed them to occur only between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. during part of the government shutdown. [Spaceflight Now]
China launched three experimental satellites Tuesday night. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:01 p.m. Eastern and put into orbit three Shijian-30 satellites. Chinese media described the satellites only as carrying out space environment exploration and related technology verification. [Xinhua]
Rocket Lab conducted a suborbital Electron launch for the Missile Defense Agency Tuesday. The suborbital version of Electron, called HASTE, lifted off from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 8 a.m. Eastern. Rocket Lab said the rocket carried a Missile Defense Agency payload built by the Applied Physics Lab as well as several secondary payloads intended to test key technologies for missile defense applications. This was the sixth launch overall of HASTE and the third in the last two months. [Rocket Lab]
Canada plans to significantly increase contributions to the European Space Agency. Canada's industry minister, Mélanie Joly, announced at a conference Tuesday that Canada would increase its ESA contributions by $528 million Canadian ($377 million) to ESA programs over the next three to five years, ten times more than previous Canadian contributions to the agency. She did not discuss specific ESA programs Canada would back but said the money would come from a much larger increase in Canadian defense spending. Canada is not a full member of the ESA but works with the agency under a cooperation agreement for several decades. [Reuters]
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Take the Bad News First
| "I prefer a position where the first page is rather negative and 12 others are manageable than the contrary: a very good idea but not feasible."
| – Rodolphe Muñoz, team leader for space situational awareness and space traffic management in the European Commission's directorate responsible for space, discussing comments the commission received critical of the proposed EU Space Act during a panel at Space Tech Expo Europe on Tuesday.
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