🚀 Project Kuiper Sets Record

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The Space Scoop

Week Ending 04.08.2022

Happy Friday! We had quite the busy week of news emerging from the 37th Space Symposium in Colorado. The biggest of it comes from Amazon's Project Kuiper. Catch the full details below.

Market Max-Q 📈

Indexes:S&P 500: 4,488.27 -1.3%NASDAQ: 13,711.01 -3.9%ETFs:UFO: 24.91 -3.9%ROKT: 41.05 -1.3%ARKX: 17.11 -5.1%ORBT: 18.84 -3.9%SSIT: 104.4 -0.5%Weekly Movers:MNTS: 4.01 +27.3%SPCE: 8.69 -13.0%LLAP: 6.22 -15.1%ASTR: 3.66 -15.1%

Top Stories 🚀 

Satellogic & Palantir Partnership Reaches Space

Palantir ($PLTR) and Satellogic ($SATL) announced the successful launch of their first Edge AI-enabled satellite apart of SpaceX's Transporter 4 mission. Satellogic's NewSat will allow imagery data processing to begin on orbit enabling customers opportunity to gain near real-time data at scale.The Edge AI-enabled NewSat is the culmination of a six-month project and delivers new capabilities, which will have broad applicability across mission sets for government and commercial sectors. Palantir and Satellogic shares rallied +5.8% and +5.0% on the news.

Amazon's Project Kuiper Prepares For Launch

On Tuesday, Amazon secured up to heavy-lift 83 launches from three launch providers for Project Kuiper, the company's global broadband LEO satellite constellation. While no official details were disclosed, it is stated to be the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history.The contracts will help deploy the majority of $AMZN 3,236 constellation over five years. Chosen parties and launch vehicles include:• Arianespace Ariane 6: 18 Launches• Blue Origin New Glenn: 12 Launches• ULA Vulcan Centaur: 38 Launches

2021 Start-Up Space

This week, analytics firm BryceTech released their 2021 Start-Up Space Report. While we're four months into 2022 already, it's a great reminder how monumental 2021 was for space and space funding.Highlights:• Space startups raised more than $15B in total financing, +95% higher than the $7.7B record set in 2020.• Number of recipients and deals both increased +50%, with the average deal size growing  +35%.• VC investment grew +82%, from $5B to $9B, while the total number of VC deals grew +54%, from 78 to 120.• Space startups raised over $4B in public market capital in 2021, +28% YoY.• 13 M&A deals were completed compared to 11 in 2020.

Maritime Launch Services Preps For Public Markets

On April 1st, Merchant bank Jaguar Financial officially closed its reverse takeover (RTO) with then-privately held Maritime Launch Services, taking over the latter’s name. The deal was previously announced in November and grossed MLS roughly ~$7M. The company has received conditional listing approval from Neo Exchange Inc. and is working to satisfy those conditions.

Momentus' Multi-Launch Agreement With SpaceX

On Thursday morning, $MNTS announced four launch reservations establishing a flight schedule through 2023. The reservations are in addition to the planned June 2022 Transporter-5 mission. The newly reserved slots include:• Transporter-6 October 2022• Transporter-7 January 2023• Transporter-8 April 2023• Transporter-9 October 2023By market close, the news sent shares soaring +48.8% on the day. Is a change in trend here or is this an overreaction?

In Other News 🛰️ 

Xplore Acquires the Assets of Kubos 

(Company)

Kubos is the developer of Major Tom® flight control software platform for satellites. MT enables mission operations for over a dozen satellites currently in orbit across commercial and government customers. The acquisition price was undisclosed.

Venus Aerospace Raises $20M Series A Round 

(PRNewswire)

Prime Movers Lab led the round in the hypersonic aircraft startup. Participants included Draper Associates, Boost, Saturn 5, Seraph Group, Cantos and The Helm & Tamarack Global. The valuation was undisclosed.

ArkEdge Space Finalizes $18.7M Series A Round 

(SpaceNews)

The Japanese nanosatellite technologies startup raised an additional $5.2M to close out its Series A round with $18.7M in total funding. Investors included Incubate Fund, Real Tech Fund, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, SPARX Innovation for Future and Pavilion Capital PTE.

Accenture Invests in Titan Space Technologies 

(Business Wire)

$ACN made an undisclosed strategic investment in the orbital compute platform through Accenture Ventures. Titan is a part of Axiom’s Ax-1 mission, successfully deploying a suite of machine learning models on ISS computers.

Airbus To Acquire DSI Datensicherheit GmbH 

(Company)

$EADSY announced the acquisition of German provider of cryptography and communication systems for space, airborne and naval & ground markets. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Quick Links 🔗

• Microsoft ($MSFT) Azure Expands Space Partnerships and Capabilities• Astranis Signs Dedicated Launch Contract With SpaceX for 2023• Rocket Lab ($RKLB) To Attempt First Mid-Air Electron Helicopter Capture During Next Mission• Hughes ($SATS) Announces Distribution Agreement With OneWeb• Redwire ($RDW) Selected by U.S. Air Force To Compete for $950M IDIQ Contract• MDA ($MDA) Working With Lockheed ($LMT) and General Motors ($GM) on Human-Rated Lunar Vehicles• York Space Systems Wins $382M Contract From SDA for 42 Satellites• Sidus ($SIDU) Reports FY2021 Financial Earnings• Teledyne, Sierra Space and Nissan ($NSANY) Designing Next-Generation Lunar Terrain Vehicle for NASA• The Satellite Applications Catapult, Horizon Technologies and Virgin Orbit ($VORB) Announce New Launch Agreement• Redwire ($RDW) Passes Mission Critical Design Review for OSAM-2 Mission• BlackSky ($BKSY) Expands Constellation to 14 Satellites• SpinLaunch To Fly NASA Payload on Developmental Test Flight• Neutron Star Systems Completes U.S. Restructuring• Spaceflight's Astra-1 ($ASTR) Mission Recap Video• E-Space To Deploy First Satellites on Rocket Lab ($RKLB) “There and Back Again” Mission• BlackSky ($BKSY) Looks To Expand Its Military Business Amid Growing Interest in Commercial Satellite Imagery

Opinion 🗣️

• Assembling America’s Future in Space• Space Investors Predict More Acquisitions To Combat Hiring Challenges• Is Planet ($PL) Worth Buying Today?• Amazon’s ($AMZN) Investment Into Rockets Is a $100 Billion Opportunity• 14 Entrepreneurs Leading Some of the Hottest Space Startups• Virgin Galactic ($SPCE): We Keep Staying Away

Calendar 📅

• $IRDM: April 19 - Before Market Open• $LMT: April 19 - Before Market Open• $BA: April 27 - Before Market Open• $GD: April 27 - Before Market Open• $MYNA: April 28 - 11:00am EST• $SPCE: May 5 - After Market Close

*Company confirmed dates only.

Chart of the Week 📊

In 2021, 596 investors (+59% from 2020) invested in 212 space startups across 241 deals (+48% from 2020). In total, 63% of all 2021 investors were first time investors in space startups.