startups

Umbra raises $32 million for radar satellite constellation
Earth observation startup Umbra raised $32 million in its latest investment round.

Startup Albedo focuses on 10-centimeter Earth imagery
Albedo, the latest space company to join the Y Combinator startup accelerator, plans to establish a satellite constellation offering Earth imagery with a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel.

Aurora Insight to launch cubesats for RF sensing
Aurora Insight, a Denver startup that gathers data on terrestrial and satellite communications, plans to launch the first of two cubesats on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission scheduled for liftoff Jan. 21.

Exotrail demonstrates miniature Hall-effect thruster in orbit
Update: This article was updated on Jan. 12 at 1:09 pm Eastern time with information about initial thruster testing.
SAN FRANCISCO – French startup Exotrail announced Jan. 12 that its miniature Hall-effect thruster ignited in or…

Beyond exits: Entrepreneurs look back on forming and selling space startups
In recent commercial space acquisitions, founders largely have remained with the businesses they established or moved on to form new space companies. Two exceptions are Roccor co-founder Doug Campbell and Scott Larson, who co-founded UrtheCast and Helios Wire.

CesiumAstro founder closes in on decades-old dream
CesiumAstro has raised $29.2 million to date to establish its business of selling phased array communications and radio frequency sensing payloads for government and commercial customers including the Aerospace Corp., Airbus, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Innovation Unit, Honeywell, NASA, Northrop Grumman, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy.

Space Force trying to change negative perceptions about military procurement
The U.S. military wants to shake its reputation as an unfriendly customer to space startups and commercial tech companies, said Lt. Gen. John Thompson.

Op-ed | DoD partnerships with startups drive innovation in space technology
The commercial market is now driving almost all innovation in space technology. The government can pivot its practices to more quickly adopt the best from the market.

Carbice raises $15 million in Series A investment round
Carbice, the Atlanta startup that developed the thermal-management material Carbice Carbon, raised $15 million in a Series A investment round led by Downing Ventures, a division of London-based investment management firm Downing LLP.

Okapi:Orbits releases its first collision avoidance product
Since Germany startup Okapi:Orbits released its first space traffic management product for satellite operators, the response has been overwhelming, Kristina Nikolaus, Okapi:Orbits co-founder and managing director told SpaceNews.

Kleos Space raises funds for additional RF mapping clusters
Luxembourg-based Kleos Space raised $13.8 million following the Nov. 7 launch of its first cluster of radio frequency mapping satellites.

D-Orbit Satellite Carrier delivers Planet SuperDoves to desired orbits
D-Orbit of Italy demonstrated the first commercial last-mile delivery service when it finished a two-month campaign Oct. 28 to drop off 12 Planet SuperDove Earth-imaging satellites.

Starburst announces 15 finalists to pitch ideas to U.S. and U.K. defense agencies
Starburst Aerospace announced 14 startups and one consortium invited to share proposals for addressing important space-related challenges facing the United States and the United Kingdom at International Space Pitch Day, an event to be held in November at the virtual Defence Space Conference 2020.

International consortium to launch tiny hyperspectral camera
An international consortium plans to launch a hyperspectral camera built by South Africa’s Dragonfly Aerospace on a NanoAvionics rideshare mission scheduled to launch in 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Airbus Ventures adds Zero-Error Systems to space portfolio
Airbus Ventures invested 2.5 million Singapore dollars ($1.85 million) in Zero-Error Systems, a Singapore startup developing radiation hardened integrated circuits.