Satcoms

Firefly Aerospace completed a $75 million series A financing round, valuing the company at more than $1 billion, the company said. The interest “far exceeded” the $75 million equity being offered, Firefly said. Its seed investor, Noosphere Ventures, therefore sold “approximately $100 million of its holdings.

One for Eutelsat, one for Atos: the satellite operator said it was chosen by Global Eagle to increase its mobility capabilities over North America. Under this multi-year agreement, Eutelsat provides Global Eagle for its entire North-American coverage with extensive additional capacity to augment the company’s connectivity services for mobility customers, Eutelsat said.

The end of April saw the beginning of a new Space Café series, the Space Café Greater Bay Area, hosted by me, Blaine Curcio. Having spent around 10 years in Greater China, and with most of that time spent in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, I have seen firsthand the rapid evolution of China’s space sector, and also the innovation and resources in the Greater Bay Area.

The inaugural Space Café Scotland featured five key members of Scotland’s collaborative space ecosystem, in conversation with Angela Mathis. With the country manufacturing more small satellites than anywhere outside of California, spaceports and orbital launch vehicles under development, a strong space research community,

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Orbital Gateway Consulting we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. We are pleased to present “Dongfang Hour China Aerospace News Roundup 26 April - 2 May 2021” .

The maritime geolocation startup Unseenlabs raised €20 million to build its maritime geolocation fleet, the French company said. The series B funding round is "cementing its status as a European leader in the interception of radiofrequency signals from space”, the company said.

The entrepreneur and investor Max Polyakov acquired a majority stake in the South African startup Dragonfly Aerospace, Polyakov announced. Dragonfly Aerospace was founded in Stellenbosch, South Africa, by a team of five satellite engineers led by Bryan Dean, a global specialist in microsatellites and high-resolution cameras.

Return to flight: Arianespace launched its 18th Vega mission (VV18) with Airbus’ Pleiades Neo 3 on board, the company announced yesterday. The mission marks Vega’s return to flight, Arianespace said, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace’s teams in less than 72 hours.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – OHB wants to launch with Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in 2024 and 2025, the company said. OHB Cosmos and the Luxembourg-based OHB affiliate LuxSpace signed a contract for a dedicated launch with RFA for upcoming missions scheduled for mid-2024 and 2025, OHB said.

Luxembourg, 28 April 2021. – Eutelsat invests in OneWeb and acquires a 24% stake for $550 million, “becoming a leading shareholder of the company alongside the UK Government and Bharti Global”, Eutelsat announced. OneWeb will operate 648 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), offering “significant” regional coverage by the end of 2021 and global coverage in 2022, Eutelsat said.