An illustration of SpaceLink’s data relay satellites. Photo: SpaceLink

Startup SpaceLink, which was working to offer in-space data relay services, is winding down operations as parent company Electro Optic Systems (EOS) is reorganizing and will no longer fund the company. 

EOS stock on the Australian Securities Exchange has largely been in decline since 2021 and fell to around 50 Australian cents in recent months. The company is now restructuring and implementing a plan to cut more than 100 jobs overall by the end of the year. 

EOS announced in September it was seeking outside investors for SpaceLink, but this was not successful. The company said in filings on Oct. 31 that it was not able to secure outside investors and will stop funding the company in November. 

SpaceLink founder and CEO Dave Bettinger told Via Satellite that in discussions with potential investors over the past few months, investors believed in the business and in the space data relay market of the future, but ultimately declined to take on the risk due to the market conditions.

“It’s a roller coaster every day, trying to follow every lead and hope that we could snag a last-minute approach, all the while, planning for the potential future,” Bettinger said. 

Bettinger said SpaceLink is still open to potential outside investors, but otherwise will file for insolvency. SpaceLink is a U.S. company incorporated in Delaware. 

“Not only is space hard, but it’s time consuming and demands a lot of capital,” Bettinger said. “A year and a half ago, companies with a lot less than we have were SPAC-ing left and right. We’re definitely in a situation that I think is going to continue to get tighter, where the avenues for larger capital programs like ours will be difficult to get through the investment markets. I don’t think we were the first one. I don’t think we’ll be the last.” 

The company, founded in Sept. 2020, has priority spectrum in Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) originally secured by startup Audacy, which EOS acquired in May 2020. SpaceLink has a complete network architecture and suppliers, in addition to proprietary network modeling, resource optimization, and scheduling management software. 

Its suppliers include OHB Systems AG (OHB) and Mynaric, which had a $28 million deal for optical terminals and Blue Marble, which had a $10 million deal for optical terminals as well. 

SpaceLink was targeting in-space data relay as there was increased interest from NASA in commercial solutions to replacing the aging TDRS system and more plans for commercial activity in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). SpaceLink had a number of contracts in place, including one with CASIS to demonstrate a 10 Gbps optical link to ISS. It also had an R&D agreement with the U.S. Army, an award in DARPA’s Space-BACN program, and a study contract with NASA for its Near Space Network. 

SpaceLink has 32 employees, with offices in Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley in California. Bettinger said layoffs will be led by EOS and could begin as early as Thursday. 

Bettinger, industry veteran from OneWeb, iDirect, and Hughes Network Systems, said that SpaceLink has been his dream job for the past two years and applauded the company’s team. 

“I don’t regret it for anything,” he said. “I think we’ll see a future that we envisioned [with in-space data relay]. I have a very resilient and skilled team that will bounce back with different endeavors in their future. Ultimately it’s been a fantastic experience, but unfortunately a little bit short of where we wanted to take it.”