Plus: A comprehensive list of the space unicorns
By Dan Robitzski
After decades of trial and error, launch operators are getting pretty good at sending things into space. The Falcon 9 is such a reliable workhorse that it’s now more newsworthy when something goes wrong than right. China is rapidly deploying megaconstellations that may rival the scale of SpaceX’s Starlink, all while building out new rockets with what the Chinese space industry claims will be better capabilities. That’s not to say that launch and space access are fully sorted, but things are coming along.
Receiving much less attention until recently is downmass, or the ability to send (intact) cargo back to Earth through controlled reentry shipments.
Some companies, such as Varda Space Industries, have been making headway. That company recently completed its sixth reentry mission, landing a capsule intact at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. These capsules and others like them would provide a means for in-space manufacturing, cargo delivery and biomedical or pharmaceutical research in microgravity.
Now, with newly-published Federal Aviation Administration documents, it appears that SpaceX is serious about getting in the game. The agency approved two test reentries for SpaceX’s Starfall, a cargo reentry vehicle that was first disclosed last July but not discussed publicly until now. Thus far, there’s no public information on when these tests will happen. But the documents suggest that, in typical SpaceX fashion, the company plans to push the concept hard with mass deployment of reentry vehicles after the testing phase.
This mass deployment may bring not only competition but potentially disruption to other downmass companies like Varda — which has been relying on SpaceX to launch its capsules.
These reentry capsules may not revolutionize the space industry overnight but could someday be as broadly ubiquitous as Falcon 9’s reusability is today. Aside from microgravity research and point-to-point delivery, technology that turns space traffic into a two-way street could enable use cases or growth in the in-space economy that the industry isn’t even thinking about yet, providing new tools for the trade.
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SPONSORED |
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The Clouds Above the Clouds
40 Years of Collaboration
Salt Lake City, UT
August 23–26, 2026
The 40th Annual Small Satellite Conference will spotlight the technologies driving constellation success and celebrate the thousands of people whose vision and collaboration have propelled the industry forward over the past four decades. Join us as we celebrate the past, examine the present, and shape the future of small satellites.
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SIGNIFICANT DIGIT
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$12 billion |
The projected value of Iceye, a Finnish company that develops and operates radar imaging satellites, following a Series F fundraising round that brought the company’s total fundraise amount to $1.2 billion.
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SPACE UNICORNS
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Speaking of Iceye, that fundraising round prompted the SpaceNews editorial team to update the newly published list of space unicorns, first compiled for the June issue of SpaceNews Magazine.
Iceye, already on the list of unicorns — startups that have reached a value of $1 billion or higher — leapt to the top of the list, now holding the highest disclosed valuation among all space unicorns and one of the highest amounts fundraised in total.
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SpaceNews counts 30 space unicorns across the global industry in a list compiled from independent research and industry sources, company and government disclosures and other intelligence. (One less after SpaceX’s IPO expected Friday.) This list, assembled in the absence of a widely accepted global list of space unicorns, will become an ongoing project, updated as more companies cross the $1 billion threshold — a feat that’s occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. In the meantime, if we missed anyone or if you have any additional information, you can contact SpaceNews’ Business Intelligence Manager, Jason Rainbow, at jrainbow@spacenews.com.
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| Amazon no longer faces a July 30 cutoff for deploying half its planned 3,232 broadband satellites, but the reprieve comes with a temporary loss of spectrum priority that could give SpaceX and other rivals more leverage in orbit.
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| NASA has named the astronauts who will fly the Artemis 3 mission, a test flight in low Earth orbit in which the Orion spacecraft will attempt to dock with prototypes of two lunar landers.
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| Axiom Space unveiled the design of the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment that is part of the lunar spacesuit it is developing for NASA in partnership with luxury designer Prada.
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| NASA is open to reboosting the Hubble Space Telescope, provided its operating costs can be reduced.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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The first SpaceNews mobile app is now available on Apple and Android devices. Now, you can get our latest coverage of the companies, policies, tech and trends shaping the business of space whenever you want to catch up quickly. Choose your key topics and authors to curate your personalized My SpaceNews feed and save articles for offline reading. Or download the most recent issue of SpaceNews magazine and tune in to our Space Minds podcasts. It's all in the SpaceNews app. |
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