Despite the absence of any triple-digit million rounds, we still saw over $100 million of financing activity in the space sector in October 2020. This sum is excluding public sector awards, principally the roughly $370 million to 14 companies that were announced under NASA’s Tipping Point program.

September saw over US$300 million of space financing rounds, including blockbuster rounds for Chinese launcher LandSpace and the Finnish SAR constellation ICEYE. Notably absent this month were large rounds for satellite communications companies, like those we have seen in many previous months.

August 2020 sure proved that a lot of private capital can flow into the space sector, with a total of US$2.2 billion. Sure, SpaceX represented over 80% of this total – the company’s latest filing shows $1.9 billion raised of a potential total of $2.066 billion – but even without it, the sector total would have come to almost $400 million, distributed across geographies and subsectors.

By Raphael Roettgen With approximately US$56 million of space-related funding rounds, July was slightly stronger than June 2020, but still on the weak side, and lacking any large rounds (except as noted below). On the positive side, the monthly rounds represent a good cross-section of geographies and subsectors. SpaceX is …

US$68 million of announced space-related financing rounds in April 2020 is by far the lowest number this year and indeed in a while...

US$158 million of announced space-related financing rounds in March 2020 bring the total for the first quarter of 2020 to approximately US$550 million.

By Raphael Roettgen The over US$220 million of announced space-related financing rounds in February 2020 handily beat the January number (US$170 million). Two satellite communication companies, American Astranis (with its $90 million in equity and venture debt) and French Kinéis, were responsible for US$200 million of the total amount. Just …

By Raphael Roettgen 50 years after humans first landed on the Moon, the space sector seems to be at an inflection point. Here is why: those land and sea landings of SpaceX’s Falcon-9 boosters (first stage rockets) surely never get old to watch, but, importantly, they also mean that a …