Spaceflight Industries to sell rideshare business to Japanese firms

WASHINGTON — Spaceflight Industries announced Feb. 11 it will sell its smallsat rideshare launch business to a pair of Japanese companies, allowing it to focus on its BlackSky geospatial business.

Spaceflight Industries said that Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Yamasa Co., Ltd. will acquire its rideshare business, known as Spaceflight, Inc., for an undisclosed sum. Mitsui & Co. and Yamasa will own Spaceflight as a 50/50 joint venture. The companies said that they expect the deal to close in the second quarter of this year, after a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to examine any national security implications of the sale.

Spaceflight Industries said it will use the proceeds from the deal to accelerate the growth of BlackSky, its geospatial intelligence business that is developing a constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites. BlackSky has four satellites in orbit currently with another eight scheduled for launch this year.

“This is an exciting and monumental development for Spaceflight Industries, especially for our launch business,” Curt Blake, president and chief executive of Spaceflight, said in a statement announcing the deal. “The acquisition provides an opportunity to be a part of a high-growth international portfolio, which offers deep expertise and investment opportunities.”

Blake will remain president and chief executive of Spaceflight, which will operate as an independent U.S.-based company with its headquarters remaining in Seattle. The company will establish a new board of directors, the majority of whom will be U.S. persons.

Spaceflight is known for being a leading broker for smallsat launch services, primarily as secondary payloads on a range of launch vehicles. It has arranged the launch of 271 satellites on 29 missions. That includes SSO-A, a dedicated smallsat rideshare mission organized by Spaceflight that flew 64 smallsats on a single Falcon 9 in December 2018.

The company has touted its ability to move customers from one launch vehicle to another depending on their schedules or other needs. “We’re continuing to sort of be the grease between the different launch vehicles across the whole range of the market,” Blake said during a Feb. 5 panel discussion at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California.

He noted in that discussion that those customers have changed over time. “Five years ago, our client base was a lot more cubesats. It’s now very much microsat-driven,” he said. The overall secondary payload market, he said, has also evolved. “For a long time, being a secondary passenger meant just living with whatever you got. That’s moved on to a much more customer-driven mentality.”

For Mitsui & Co., the acquisition is a way for the conglomerate, which is involved in fields from iron and steel to healthcare and information technology, to enter the space market. It had previously participated in Spaceflight Industries’ $150 million Series C round in March 2018.

“The acquisition of an industry leader is an optimal way for Mitsui & Co. to enter the space industry and expand its business by offering greater access for customers considering utilizing services related to space,” said Tomohiro Musha, general manager of aerospace systems and rail leasing division in Mitsui & Co., in the statement.

In its own statement, Mitsui & Co. said that after the acquisition Spaceflight will “utilize Mitsui’s network to develop and expand new services to better meet customer needs, while further collaborating with Japanese satellite development companies, launch operators and other stakeholders in the space industry.”

Brian O’Toole, president of Spaceflight Industries and chief executive of BlackSky, said the sale will help both BlackSky and Spaceflight. “Both companies are poised for a new phase of rapid growth. This acquisition is a significant step in driving our strategy forward,” he said in his company’s statement.

O’Toole added that BlackSky would continue to work with Spaceflight for the launch of its satellites. That includes the launch of four BlackSky satellites on India’s forthcoming Small Satellite Launch Vehicle later this year, a launch arranged by Spaceflight.

Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio and Spaceflight Industries Finalize Alliance to Manufacture Smallsats at Scale and Deliver Innovative Geospatial Services

Washington, D.C., March 13, 2018 – At the Satellite 2018 conference, The Space Alliance formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%) announced today it has officially taken a minority stake in Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, having received all government approvals for the transaction.

This investment is part of an overall fundraising effort of $150 million from several sources which include The Space Alliance, existing investors, and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of the largest general trading companies in Japan. With this latest funding, Spaceflight Industries has raised more than $200 million in total capital.

BlackSky, the geospatial intelligence company of Spaceflight Industries, is now fulfilling its vision to deploy a high revisit rate earth imaging constellation which, when combined with other space and terrestrial based sensors, will enable delivery of innovative global monitoring solutions and geospatial activity-based intelligence products and services. BlackSky’s first four Global next-generation satellites are slated to launch in the next 12 months. This round of funding ensures production and launch of an additional 20 Global satellites which are planned to be in orbit by 2020. These smallsats will generate revenues that will enable the production and launch of the full 60 satellite constellation.

In conjunction with the investment, Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries are creating a Seattle-based industrial joint venture (owned 50% by Spaceflight Industries and 50% by Thales Alenia Space) which will be responsible for manufacturing cost-effective, high-performance small satellites at scale, including the 20 satellites for the BlackSky constellation. The new company, named LeoStella LLC, will start operation this year. It will provide a unique capability for the US market as well as the fast growing low earth orbit constellations. The executive team is being formed from both Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, as well as other leading organizations.

Finally, BlackSky and Telespazio have signed a joint cooperation and marketing agreement to distribute each other’s products and services, as well as co-develop, brand, and market unique applications and services. Under the agreement, Telespazio will sell BlackSky products and services within Europe to key government customers.

The Earth Observation market is undergoing constant changes, with increasing requirements in terms of both high resolution and much shorter revisit times. Thales Alenia Space, Spaceflight Industries and Telespazio are combining their strengths to offer a constellation of small satellites that will be deployed in conjunction with a smart ground segment to offer services at very competitive prices by calling on massive and automated data/image processing. The result is a disruptive product, designed not only for traditional customers in the commercial observation market, but also to support the development of new vertical B2B markets, such as mining, energy, transport, finance, agriculture, manufacturing and environmental monitoring, and even B2C applications.

About Thales Alenia Space
Combining 40 years of experience and a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales Alenia Space architects design and deliver high technology solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments, institutions and companies rely on Thales Alenia Space to design, operate and deliver satellite-based systems that help them position and connect anyone or anything, everywhere, help observe our planet, help optimize the use of our planet’s – and our solar system’s – resources. Thales Alenia Space believes in space as humankind’s new horizon, which will enable to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of about 2.6 billion euros in 2017 and has 7,980 employees in nine countries. www.thalesaleniaspace.com

Thales Alenia Space – Press Contacts:

Spaceflight Insider

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket as seen before being raised to vertical. The vehicle’s maiden flight will occur sometime in late-May 2017 from New Zealand. Spaceflight Industries has purchased a dedicated rocket for its rideshare program. Photo Credit: Rocket Lab

While Rocket Lab is gearing up to perform the maiden launch of its Electron rocket, SpaceFlight Industries announced that it has purchased a flight on a future Electron to increase the number of its dedicated ride-share missions.

Spaceflight Industries is purchasing rockets and then selling the space on board via a rideshare program. The company said the Electron is an ideal launch vehicle, especially for those looking for difficult-to-come-by destinations such as mid-inclination orbits for remote sensing satellites.

“There are numerous rideshare launches each year to Sun Synchronous Orbit, but getting to 45 to 60 degrees is hard to find, and can cost the equivalent of buying an entire rocket,” said Curt Blake, President of Spaceflight’s launch business, in a press release. “We are thrilled to be working with Rocket Lab to enable our customers’ remote sensing missions that require high revisit time over North America, Europe, and the Middle East.”

According to Spaceflight, dedicated rideshare for smallsats is a new launch alternative that blends cost-effective rideshare pricing with first-class services, which are typically associated with buying a private rocket.

The company has already launched more than 100 satellites from a variety of launch vehicles, including India’s PSLV, Russia’s Dnepr and Soyuz, and Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. None of these rockets or spacecraft, however, were dedicated solely to Spaceflight customers.

For Rocket Lab’s 56-foot (17-meter) tall Electron, the vehicle is made entirely of carbon-composite material and can send payloads of up to 500 pounds (225 kilograms) to an elliptical orbit and up to 330 pounds (150 kilograms) to a 310-mile (500-kilometer) high Sun-synchronous orbit.

“We look forward to expanding this relationship and operational manifest with Spaceflight as we increase our market reach and remove the barriers to commercial space,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s CEO.

This is the second dedicated rideshare launch that Spaceflight has purchased. The first was inked in a deal with SpaceX in 2015. The company will launch several small satellites atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Neither SpaceX nor Rocket Lab have set a launch date for these missions.

For now, Rocket Lab is gearing up to launch its first Electron rocket. The flight will take place at its New Zealand launch site on the Mahia Peninsula. The company has a 10-day window that opens at 5 p.m. on May 21, 2017.

The mission, dubbed “It’s a Test”, will fly only if conditions are ideal, Rocket Lab said.

“We are all incredibly excited to get to this point,” Beck said in a May 15 news release. “Our talented team has been preparing for years for this opportunity and we want to do our best to get it right. Our number one priority is to gather enough data and experience to prepare for a commercial phase. Only then can we start delivering on our mission to make space more accessible.”

Derek Richardson

Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a blog about the International Space Station, called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team during the flight of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter. His passion for space ignited when he watched Space Shuttle Discovery launch into space Oct. 29, 1998. Today, this fervor has accelerated toward orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After dabbling in math and engineering courses in college, he soon realized his true calling was communicating to others about space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to increase the quality of our content, eventually becoming our managing editor. @TheSpaceWriter

Spaceflight Industries to Sell Its Satellite Rideshare Business

No sooner did SpaceX become a competitor than Spaceflight sold out. Coincidence?

So here’s the thing about rocketships: Sometimes, the rocket you’ve got is bigger than the rocket you need to put the satellite you want into orbit.

For example, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 reusable rocket has an 8.3 ton-to-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit payload capacity. That’s big enough to lift a pair of four-ton satellites into orbit, with 300 kilograms of capacity left over. You can fit the payloads of two entire Rocket Lab Electron rockets into just the unused capacity of that single Falcon 9!

That is to say, you could carry that extra payload, if you happened to have a couple of spare customers lined up, having satellites and looking for a way to launch them at a time convenient to you. That’s where Spaceflight Industries comes in.

Image source: Getty Images.

A brief history of Spaceflight (Industries)

Founded in 1999, privately held Spaceflight Industries (which we’ll refer to as “SI” for now on, for reasons that will become clear) created a new business model seven years ago — one in which it would act as the middleman between satellite owners and suppliers of space launch services. SI would identify rockets with unused capacity, identify satellite companies looking for a way to get to orbit, buy the excess capacity from the rocket company, and resell it to the customer. (On occasion, SI would even purchase entire rockets and then parcel out their capacity to multiple customers with payloads to launch.)

For a few years, this was a successful business. That is, it was successful up until one of SI’s biggest suppliers of available payload — SpaceX — decided to take all the profits for itself.

SpaceX enters the race

In 2019, SpaceX announced that instead of consigning launch services via SI, it would start up a couple of “Smallsat Rideshare Programs” of its own. In one, SpaceX would guarantee customers space aboard its “Starlink” rockets (carrying them alongside its primary Starlink internet satellites-cargo, and launching twice per month). In a second, related program, SpaceX would offer dedicated launches carrying nothing but other companies’ small satellites — launching at least once per year.

The prices SpaceX advertised for this rideshare service would be hard to beat — as low as $5,000 a kilogram, or about $1 million for a 200-kilogram small satellite. And in fact, it now appears that the prices SpaceX mooted may have proven impossible to beat — because earlier this month, SI announced that it is getting out of the rideshare business entirely, exiting nearly as fast as it went in.

Spaceflight flies away

The news came down on Feb. 11: Subject to regulatory clearance, SI will sell its Spaceflight Inc. rideshare business (which confusingly has almost the same name as the parent company) to a 50/50 partnership comprising Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. and industrial machinery-maker Yamasa Co.

For Mitsui and Yamasa, this deal offers a means to quickly “enter the space industry and expand its business” by acquiring the world’s “leading rideshare service provider.” For SI, the deal will yield valuable cash (how much hasn’t been revealed) to reinvest in its “BlackSky” geospatial intelligence business, which operates “four Earth observation satellites” already, with another eight planned to launch this year.

But what does it mean for SpaceX? The fine print of SI’s press release may be suggestive. Highlighting the advantages of this deal for Mitsui and company, SI notes that Spaceflight plans to launch 10 times this year utilizing Indian PSLV and SSLV rockets, and Vegas from Arianespace — but makes no mention of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. This would appear to suggest that Spaceflight has cut ties with SpaceX entirely — or perhaps vice versa — as the latter evolves from a valued partner into a mortal foe of Spaceflight‘s business.

And what does all this mean to other up-and-coming new space firms, aiming to compete with SpaceX? For now, Rocket Lab appears to be doing a brisk business selling small rocket launches to small satellite providers seeking rapid launch dates and tailor-made orbits, while Virgin Orbit is still full speed ahead preparing to enter the field with midair rocket launches from its Cosmic Girl mothership. Whether the higher prices these companies charge can compete with the ultra-low prices SpaceX is advertising — once SpaceX actually starts up its rideshare business, that is — remains to be seen.

I have to say, though, that SI’s rapid “exit, stage left,” from the scene only months after SpaceX entered does not bode well for anyone aiming to compete with the space hegemon from Hawthorne. Just as it’s all but taken over the commercial large satellite launch industry, SpaceX now seems to be aiming to own the market for small launch as well.

Tag: Spaceflight Industries

LeoStella Inaugurates State-of-the-Art Smallsat Production Facility

Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries joint venture plans to disrupt the smallsat industry by producing cost-effective satellites at scale

TUKWILA, Wash., Feb. 15, 2019 (LeoStella PR) – LeoStella, a smallsat design and manufacturing company, today announced the official inauguration of its production facilities in Tukwila, Wash. The company is a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space, joint venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %), and Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries. Formed in March 2018, LeoStella has been developing a state-of-the-art production facility to construct smallsats cost-effectively and at scale.

Draper Laboratory Unveils Team for NASA’s Next Moonshot

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Draper, a company with a heritage in space exploration dating to the Apollo moon landings, announced today its team for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract. Under the proposal, the team will support NASA in the delivery of small rovers and instruments to meet lunar science and exploration needs, advance development of lunar landers for human missions and conduct more research on the moon’s surface ahead of a human return.

Loft Orbital Announces inSpace Mission Partner Program to Standardize Access to Space

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2018 (Loft Orbital Solutions PR) — Loft Orbital Solutions, a provider of Space Infrastructure as a Service, announced this week that it has signed agreements with over 20 companies to join its inSpace Mission Partner Program as inaugural members.

inSpace partners are companies across the space value chain with whom Loft Orbital will collaborate for its end-to-end space mission offering. These partners span Satellite Bus, Launch Services, Ground Segment Services, Payload and Data Analytics. Each partner’s product has been validated for compatibility with Loft Orbital’s technology.

BlackSky Selects ATLAS to Provide Ground Station Support for Earth Imaging Constellation

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – July 17, 2018 (Atlas Space Operations PR) — ATLAS Space Operations, Inc., a company that provides satellite communications as a service through an innovative software-driven, high data flow global antenna network, announced today that BlackSky has selected ATLAS to provide telemetry, commanding, and data support for its high-revisit, Earth imaging constellation of satellites. ATLAS will be offering this support via new ground station sites in Guam and Japan to further maximize the performance of the BlackSky constellation.

Deep Space Industries to Provide Comet Satellite Propulsion for BlackSky, LeoStella

SAN JOSE, Calif. (DSI PR) — Deep Space Industries (DSI) announced today that it has signed a contract to provide its Comet water-based satellite propulsion systems for the BlackSky Earth observation constellation of smallsats. DSI will provide an initial block of 20 water thrusters for the BlackSky satellites which are scheduled to start launching later this year.

This announcement comes on the heels of Spaceflight Industries’ recent $150 million funding and the development of LeoStella LLC, a joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space. LeoStella is developing a Seattle-based facility to manufacture the low-cost, high-performance BlackSky satellites and is tasked with building the next 20 spacecraft with the Comet propulsion technology between now and 2020.

Thales Alenia Space, Telespazio & Spaceflight Industries Finalize Alliance to Manufacture Smallsats at Scale

Parties will deliver innovative geospatial services using the high revisit rate BlackSky constellation

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – At the Satellite 2018 conference, The Space Alliance formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%) announced today it has officially taken a minority stake in Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, having received all government approvals for the transaction.

Spaceflight Seeks $150 Million in New Investment

Spaceflight Industries is seeking to raise a lot of money:

Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is seeking as much as $150 million in new investment as it gets ready for a key rocket launch and a dramatic expansion of its satellite presence.

The outlines of the offering are described in documents filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing reports that $40,656,523 worth of securities have been sold, with $110 mlllion remaining to sell. The first sale was recorded on Oct. 19, according to the filing.

This offering isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill funding round. The filing says the total amount includes a $60 million convertible debt facility and $50 million in capital stock, the sale of which is subject to regulatory approval.

Spaceflight Industries Forges Strategic Partnership to Fully Fund BlackSky Constellation

Paris, September 15, 2017 – The Space Alliance, formed by Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67%, Leonardo 33%) and Telespazio (Leonardo 67%, Thales 33%), today signed a partnership with the U.S.-based company Spaceflight Industries which includes the following elements:

• A minority investment in Spaceflight Industries, which through its BlackSky business, has developed a geospatial platform and plans to build and operate a constellation of 60 small high-resolution observation satellites featuring very short revisit times;
• The creation of an industrial Joint Venture in the United States between Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight Industries specialized in the production of small satellites;
• The implementation of a Joint Cooperation and Marketing Agreement between Telespazio and BlackSky enhancing their respective product and analytics portfolios on the market.

BlackSky Awarded $16.4 Million Contract by Air Force Research Lab

SEATTLE, August 29, 2017 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – Spaceflight Industries today announced that BlackSky has been awarded a two-year $16.4 million cost-plus-prime contract with the Air Force Research Lab to develop and deliver a cloud-based geospatial intelligence broker platform. The brokering platform will provide on-demand analytics, collection, and information services from global data sources.

Start-up Space Blasts Off

Bryce Space and Technology has produced a new report, Start-up Space: Update on Investment in Commercial Space Ventures.

Below is the executive summary. You can also download the full report.

Executive Summary

The Start-Up Space series examines space investment in the 21st century and analyzes investment trends, focusing on investors in new companies that have acquired private financing. Space is continuing to attract increased attention in Silicon Valley and in investment communities world-wide. Space ventures now appeal to investors because new, lower-cost systems are envisioned to follow the path terrestrial tech has profitably traveled: dropping system costs and massively increasing user bases for new products, especially new data products. Large valuations and exits are demonstrating the potential for high returns.
(more…)

Spaceflight Industries Reveals BlackSky Spectra

Airbus’s Pléiades, SPOT6/7, KazEOSat-1, and TerraSAR-X Join Growing Satellite Imagery Service

SEATTLE, April 5, 2017 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – Spaceflight Industries today revealed BlackSky Spectra, its on-demand satellite imagery service which enables customers to discover archive images and task new images from 13 high-resolution imaging spacecraft, all from one convenient web platform. BlackSky Spectra enables customers to easily look at the planet across every spectrum, from visual imagery to multi-spectral data including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), hyperspectral data, and radio frequency detection, which provides a more comprehensive view of the changing world.

Spaceflight Industries Reveals its BlackSky Platform

SEATTLE, Dec. 14, 2016 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – Spaceflight Industries today announced the availability of its BlackSky global intelligence platform, as well as its Early Adopter Program (EAP) participants, and the diverse partner ecosystem fueling the platform. The highly scalable, cloud-based platform enables organizations to observe, analyze and act on global events as they happen. Unparalleled in the industry, the BlackSky platform integrates diverse sensors and data – including satellite imagery, social media and other data feeds – to reveal timely and relevant insights around specific topics or locations.

Spaceflight Industries Satellite Working

SEATTLE – Nov. 14, 2016 – Spaceflight Industries, a next-generation space company enabling access to space and redefining global intelligence, has revealed some of the first photos captured by its BlackSky Pathfinder-1 satellite after a successful launch on September 26 from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India. Additional images from Pathfinder-1 can be found on the BlackSky blog.

Terra Bella and Spaceflight Industries Sign Agreement for Falcon 9 Launch for Small Imaging Satellites

SEATTLE, Oct. 11, 2016 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – Spaceflight Industries, a next-generation space company enabling access to space and redefining global intelligence, announced today that Terra Bella has signed an agreement with its launch services entity, Spaceflight, for a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Terra Bella SkySats.

Terra Bella will be the co-lead on Spaceflight’s SSO-A dedicated rideshare mission scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in late 2017.

Spaceflight Industries Successfully Launches BlackSky Pathfinder Satellite

SEATTLE, Sept. 26, 2016 (Spaceflight Industries PR) – Spaceflight Industries, a next-generation space company enabling access to space and redefining global intelligence, announced the successful launch of its BlackSky Pathfinder-1 satellite into a sun synchronous orbit from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). From Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, liftoff occurred on Sunday Sept. 25 at 11:42 p.m. EDT with the satellite separating from the rocket’s upper stage at 1:57 a.m. EDT Monday .

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