Finance

Significant charges in the Space business impacted Airbus in its second quarter financial results, as CEO Guillaume Faury detailed changes to the Space business on July 30 to deal with the issues.  Airbus reported its first-half results for 2024 on July 30. Consolidated revenues increased 4% year-over-year with higher commercial aircraft delivered and higher volume...

L3Harris Space segment saw flat sales in the second quarter of 2024, while the Aerojet Rocketdyne acquisition contributed to revenue growth company-wide. L3Harris reported its second quarter results on July 26.  Company-wide, revenue was up 13% year-over-year, primarily due to the Aerojet Rocketdyne acquisition. L3 Harris reported revenue of $5.3 billion during the second quarter. ...

Northrop Grumman’s Space Systems segment posted the lowest growth rate among the company’s four segments in the second quarter of 2024, while leadership set expectations for flat Space sales this year. However, the Space segment improved its operating margin year-over-year by 14% in Q2.  Northrop Grumman reported its second quarter results on July 25, posting...

Iridium Communications increased revenue by 4% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year with higher commercial revenue and higher government engineering revenue. The satellite operator reported its second quarter 2024 results on July 23, affirming its full-year guidance projecting service revenue growth between 4% and 6% for the full year.  Also...

The founders of smallsat launcher Astra Space completed a deal to take the company private on July 18. Astra Space was one of the companies to go public in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) boom of 2021 but ran into financial trouble.  Co-founders CEO Chris Kemp and CTO Dr. Adam London acquired all shares...

KBR, a provider of science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies is acquiring LinQuest, a national security space systems and technology solutions company. KBR announced the $737 million all-cash transaction on July 16. KBR acquires LinQuest from Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), a private equity firm based on Chicago. The deal is expected to be...

Booz Allen Ventures invested in Quindar, an early-stage startup focused on automating satellite operations.  Quindar has built a virtualized platform that the company says improves the ability to command cooperative fleets of spacecraft using non-proprietary technologies. The mission management platform currently operates multiple customers and assets in space. Quindar previously raised $8.5 million seed funding. ...

A group of Spanish banks have backed PLD Space with a 31.2 million euro ($34 million) loan to fund the company’s Miura 5 space launch program. Banco Santander and EBN Banco are co-lead banks for the syndicated loan, which includes participation from the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO).  This financing is earmarked for the Miura...

Edge computing startup Armada has raised $40 million in a funding round led by M12, Microsoft‘s venture fund. Armada also announced a separate agreement with Microsoft where its products are now available in the Microsoft Azure cloud software marketplace.  Armada, which emerged from stealth mode in December, sells modular data centers that work with the...

European venture capital firm Alpine Space Ventures closed its first fund with 170 million euros ($185 million) in capital to target space startups.  The fund is targeting Series A funding rounds of companies in the space sector, primarily in Europe but also in the U.S. and beyond. The fund has a special focus on companies...