05/06/2026

In our May issue: Artemis 2 returned. The next missions are underway. What comes next as the United States races back to the moon? Read the magazine.

By Jeff Foust

In this today's edition: Astranis raises $450 million, Loft Orbital shifts from condosats to constellations, Voyager's optimism about commercial space stations and more.

If someone forwarded you this edition, sign up to receive it in your inbox every weekday. Have thoughts or feedback? You can hit reply to let me know.

Top Stories

Astranis has raised more than $450 million in equity and debt to expand its production of small GEO communications satellites. The funding, announced Wednesday, includes a $300 million Series E round co-led by Snowpoint Ventures and Franklin Templeton, with participation from several other investors, along with $155 million in loan commitments from Trinity Capital. According to a source close to the deal, the latest funding values Astranis at $2.8 billion. Astranis said the new funding will be used to accelerate production of its small GEO satellites, which weigh a few hundred kilograms each, for commercial customers and to scale manufacturing to support U.S. military satellite procurements. [SpaceNews]

Space domain awareness company Scout Space has raised $18 million. The company announced Wednesday a Series A round led by Washington Harbour Partners. The funding will support upcoming missions and expand the company's manufacturing capacity, including the buildout of a 2,600-square-foot facility in Northern Virginia. Scout Space develops sensors and software designed to detect, track and characterize objects in orbit. The company's business model centers on supplying space domain awareness sensors and software that can be integrated onto a range of spacecraft, rather than building standalone satellites. [SpaceNews]

The new head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will make her industry debut at the GEOINT Symposium today. Army Lt. Gen. Michele Bredenkamp took over as director of NGA last November during the government shutdown, and her speech closing the conference Wednesday will serve as an opportunity for industry to learn about the agency leader's new priorities. While industry executives applauded her appointment, what remains to be seen is whether Bredenkamp can effectively convey the needs of NGA's customers to NGA's partners. [SpaceNews]

Meanwhile, the head of the National Reconnaissance Office is preparing to retire. Chris Scolese has been director of the NRO since 2019, but will soon step down. The White House last month nominated Roger Mason, a defense industry executive with a background in intelligence, as Scolese's successor. His tenure has been marked by growing use of commercial capabilities, including a $1.8 billion contract with SpaceX for hundreds of reconnaissance satellites. [SpaceNews]

Ukrainian troops used handheld devices to order satellite imagery directly from the battlefield. In a test run by imaging company Vantor, Ukrainian forces used handheld devices to task commercial imaging satellites, bypassing centralized intelligence workflows that typically slow delivery to the battlefield. The imagery was also shared simultaneously with other units operating hundreds of kilometers away, allowing distributed teams to coordinate targeting decisions. A process that typically unfolds in a sequence over hours was compressed into a continuous loop, Vantor said. [SpaceNews]

Loft Orbital is moving into production of full satellite constellations. The company started with a "condosat" model where multiple customers flew payloads on a single satellite. Now, the company is pursuing development of constellations for government and commercial customers. That includes EarthDaily Analytics, which launched six satellites built by Loft Orbital on Sunday as part of a 10-satellite deal. Loft Orbital is also developing a 10-satellite Earth observation constellation known as Altair through Orbitworks, a joint venture based in Abu Dhabi with Marlan Space. [SpaceNews]

Voyager Technologies says it is optimistic about the prospects for its Starlab Space joint venture regardless of the path NASA takes on commercial space stations. Voyager is the majority partner on Starlab Space, which is developing the Starlab space station with support from NASA as a potential successor to the International Space Station. In March, NASA said it was reconsidering its plans for backing such stations, concerned about the slow development of commercial markets. In an earnings call Tuesday, Voyager executives said they felt ready no matter what direction NASA goes. They also did not rule out funding Starlab without NASA support, but added they didn't think it would be necessary. [SpaceNews]

Other News

SpaceX launched more Starlink satellites Tuesday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, putting 24 Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch was the third by SpaceX in five days. [Spaceflight Now]

A Chinese cargo spacecraft undocked from the Tiangong space station. The Tianzhou-9 undocked from the station at 4:34 a.m. Eastern Wednesday and will later reenter, Chinese officials said. The undocking clears the way for a new cargo mission, scheduled to launch this weekend. [Xinhua]

Ground stations and related infrastructure are increasingly becoming targets in military conflicts. That has included a March missile strike on a SES teleport in Israel and drone strikes on AWS data centers in Bahrain and the UAE. The incidents underscore a broader shift: In an era when commercial space and cloud networks are increasingly woven into military operations, the infrastructure that receives, processes and distributes satellite data is drawing new scrutiny as a vulnerable point of attack. Companies are looking to address those risks through more distributed ground station networks and use of in-space data relays. [SpaceNews]

Overview Energy won an Air Force contract to study delivering space-based solar power to remote military bases. Overview said Wednesday the contract will examine how its planned satellites, which generate solar power and transmit it to Earth through infrared lasers, could support military bases, reducing reliance on fuel deliveries that can be disrupted. A Pentagon study two decades ago identified powering remote bases as an initial market for space-based solar power, but launch costs prevented the business cases for the concept to close. Reduced launch costs and other advances now make space-based solar power viable, Overview argues. [SpaceNews]

A startup has developed software to make it easier for military users to access commercial imagery. Divergent Space Technologies, a startup founded by a former NRO official, says its software platform anticipates when satellites will pass over areas of interest and automatically places orders across multiple vendors, aiming to replace a largely manual, fragmented process with something closer to real-time coordination. The system is still in development but is already being used by some U.S. and allied military organizations. [SpaceNews]

Polish space company Eycore has launched its first radar imaging satellite. Eycore-1 was among the dozens of payloads launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission Sunday. The company is the second in Europe to own its own synthetic aperture radar satellite. The launch advances the development of the POLSARIS military radar constellation, which is intended to provide the country's armed forces with Earth monitoring capabilities. [SpaceNews]

A British startup plans to use space technology to help monitor activities under the sea. Online Oceans announced April 29 it had secured 4 million British pounds ($5.4 million) in seed funding to ramp up deployments for Scout, a solar-powered vessel it recently began delivering to customers. Scout will use satellite connectivity to relay data from a wide variety of payloads, including cameras, weather instruments, acoustic sensors that listen for underwater activity. Scout relies on Iridium satellites for core communications and uses a modified Starlink terminal for high-bandwidth data. [SpaceNews]

$80 Billion for Mars

"He said he needed the money for Mars. He said he needed $80 billion to create a city there."

– Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, recalling a 2017 conversation with Elon Musk about the future of the organization in testimony Tuesday as part of a lawsuit Musk filed challenging the for-profit status of OpenAI. [New York Post]

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