Plus: Quinfan passes 200 satellites
By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Apex raises $200 million as its valuation reaches $2.3 billion, Axiom Space adds more than $175 million in funding, China's Qianfan constellation passes 200 satellites and more.
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Intuitive Machines Expands Integrated Space-to-Ground Network with Goonhilly Acquisition: Supporting long‑term lunar operations requires a resilient, secure space network that keeps missions connected in real time with ultra‑low‑latency access to communications, navigation, timing, and mission data. Intuitive Machines is building that network. Learn more from Co‑founder and CEO Steve Altemus about how the Company’s planned acquisition of Goonhilly Earth Station and COMSAT is expanding it. |
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Top Stories
The House Armed Services Committee moved to save a Space Force missile warning satellite program planned for cancellation. The committee approved its 2027 National Defense Authorization Act after a markup Thursday, sending the bill to the full House. The bill includes language preserving Next-Gen OPIR Polar, a Northrop Grumman program under development since 2018 to provide missile-warning coverage over polar regions. The Space Force proposed canceling the program in its 2027 budget request because satellite constellations in low and medium Earth orbits could carry out the work of Next-Gen OPIR Polar, but the committee concluded it remains a critical capability and authorized $415 million for it. The committee also raised questions about the Space Force's recent procurement contract awards for the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global secure communications program while expressing frustration with the Pentagon's management of its positioning, navigation and timing enterprise. [SpaceNews]
Satellite manufacturer Apex raised an additional $200 million. The company announced Friday a new funding round led by investment firms Glade Brook Capital Partners and Washington Harbour Partners. The new round values Apex at $2.3 billion, nearly double its previous valuation. The company, which has now raised more than $700 million, said its new round was not driven by an immediate need for capital but was instead based on interest in the company and its line of satellite buses. The funds will allow Apex to expand office space at its Los Angeles factory. [SpaceNews]
Axiom Space has added more than $175 million to a funding round from earlier this year. The company said Thursday it made a final close of that funding round at more than $525 million, up from the $350 million it announced in February. The additional funding comes from existing investors as well as MUFG Bank Ltd., Japan's largest bank. The additional funds, the company said, will support work on its space station and spacesuit programs as well as its broader space infrastructure and technology advancement roadmap. [SpaceNews]
AstroForge announced Thursday it completed assembly of its next asteroid mission. The DeepSpace-2 spacecraft is set to launch later this year as a rideshare payload on the Falcon 9 launch of the Intuitive Machines IM-3 lunar lander mission. The spacecraft will fly by a near Earth asteroid the company will select closer to launch. DeepSpace-2 incorporates lessons learned from Odin, a spacecraft it launched last year but which malfunctioned shortly after deployment. The low-cost spacecraft is designed to support AstroForge's future asteroid mining missions as well as scientific missions. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A pair of Chinese launches deployed satellites for the Qianfan constellation. A Long March 6A lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 7:39 a.m. Eastern Thursday, followed by a Long March 8 at 2:34 a.m. Eastern Friday from the Wenchang spaceport. Each launch carried 18 Qianfan satellites, bringing the total number of satellites in orbit for the broadband constellation to more than 200. [SpaceNews]
The Exploration Company performed a drop test of its Nyx capsule. The test, announced Thursday, took place last month in the Mojave Desert, where a helicopter dropped a model of the capsule from an altitude of 2,800 meters. The capsule deployed drogue and main parachutes as planned for a touchdown on the desert floor. The test is part of qualification for the parachute system of Nyx, a cargo spacecraft The Exploration Company is developing. Nyx is slated to make an orbital test flight to the International Space Station in 2028. [SpaceNews]
NASA is considering other launch options for Blue Origin's Blue Moon landers. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a Fox Business TV interview Thursday that NASA was "decoupling the lander from the launch vehicle" after the pad explosion of a New Glenn rocket this week. That would mean considering options other than New Glenn for the Blue Moon Mark 1 and Mark 2 landers, intended for robotic and crewed missions respectively. Moving the lander to another vehicle would require extensive engineering analysis and potentially changes to infrastructure at the alternative rocket's launch site to allow Blue Moon to be fueled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on the pad before launch. [Spaceflight Now]
The final set of solid rocket booster segments for the Artemis 3 mission are on their way to the launch pad. A train carrying eight of the segments is being transported by train from a Northrop Grumman facility in Utah to the Kennedy Space Center, the company announced this week. The segments will join others already at KSC as NASA plans to begin stacking the Space Launch System rocket later this summer for the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for as soon as mid-2027. [Northrop Grumman]
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Thanks
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"Thank you for, should I say, ruining our day? Our day and night?"
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– France Córdova, chair of the National Academies' Space Studies Board, after a presentation during a meeting Thursday on the threats to ground-based astronomy posed by megaconstellations.
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