Latest News

Satellite navigation startup Xona has raised $19 million in a Series A funding round, the company announced Wednesday. Future Ventures and Seraphim Space led the round, which also included new investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq. Xona is developing a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network to provide commercial navigation services....

Privateer, a space data company started by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, acquired Earth observation (EO) analytics company Orbital Insight in a deal announced May 6. Privateer pitched the acquisition as a way to “make space data and Earth insights more powerful and accessible than ever.”  Privateer said that Orbital Insight’s TerraScope analytics platform will be...

Rocket Lab selected its subcontractors for its work for the Space Development Agency (SDA), announcing deals with CesiumAstro, Mynaric, SEAKR Engineering, Collins Aerospace, Redwire Space, and Parsons Corporation.  Rocket Lab is building 18 satellites for the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture under a $515 million contract announced in late 2023. The satellites will be part...

SES has secured new capacity deals with QVC for the U.K. and Germany. SES has worked with QVC for many years. QVC is one of the most world’s most well-known brands in video commerce, which includes video-driven shopping across linear TV, e-commerce sites. SES announced the new capacity deal, May. 7. For QVC Germany, the...

Starfish Space executed a successful in-space rendezvous between its Otter Pup satellite and D-Orbit’s ION SCV006 satellite. The companies announced the milestone on May 7.  This was a backup mission for the Otter Pup, which faced a number of challenges on orbit. After launch deployment last year, the spacecraft fell into an uncontrollable rotation and...

SES is expanding its work with Colombian connectivity provider INRED to connect more than 500 homes, schools, government entities, and habitants in the Amazonas. This supports the Colombian government’s Amazonas Digital initiative. SES announced the deal on Monday.  INRED will leverage SES’s Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to connect the city of Leticia and other rural...

Eutelsat Communications is considering selling its network of satellite ground stations, the company confirmed on May 6.  Eutelsat issued a press release on Monday after Bloomberg broke the news on May 3. According to Bloomberg, the ground network is worth more than 800 million euros ($850 million).  Eutelsat confirmed it is “analyzing options to partner...

Muon Space and Earth Fire Alliance are working together to build a new satellite constellation to aid in global wildfire response, called the FireSat Constellation. The initiative has the expertise and support of Google Research, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Google’s charitable arm Google.org, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Minderoo Foundation.  The full...

Anuvu is streamlining as it looks to focus on its core markets of in-flight connectivity (IFC), and in-flight and maritime entertainment. The company sold its maritime, energy, and government connectivity business operations to FMC GlobalSat. The deal includes all customers, employees and key operations, and marks a strategic move for both entities to strengthen their...

Northrop Grumman and Umbra have been awarded small contracts by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue to the second phase of a program designed to collect data from radar-equipped satellites flying in formation and develop innovative algorithms to process the data for military applications. Umbra’s contract under the Distributed Radar Image Foundation Technology (DRIFT)...