Three European space start-ups raised about $1bn in two weeks, and Impulse Space added $308m in the US

The stories

22 stories on this beat today.

Every story told the same way: what happened, who is involved, why it matters, how it works, the truth and the good news.

1. 01

   Three European space start-ups raised about $1bn in two weeks, and Impulse Space added $308m in the US

   about $1bn

   raised by three European space start-ups in about two weeks

   Open Cosmos $346m, The Exploration Company $450m and EnduroSat $205m. [1][2][3]

   $16.5bn

   put into space start-ups worldwide so far in 2026

   PitchBook says that is roughly on track to nearly double last year's total. [1]

   $4.26bn to $5.6bn

   Impulse Space's value, from June to September

   Payload's account of the same source puts the new figure at $5.4bn. [5][6]

   What happened

   • Open Cosmos, a satellite maker with its headquarters in Britain, raised 300 million euros, about $346m, on Monday 14 September. [1]
   • Most of that money came from European backers, led by Lightrock, a London investment firm, and ETF Partners. [1]
   • Five days earlier The Exploration Company, a start-up building a cargo capsule called Nyx, raised $450m. [2]
   • The New York Times calls it one of the European space industry's biggest rounds ever. [1]
   • EnduroSat, a Bulgarian company that builds small standard satellites, then raised $205m to open a new factory in the United States. [3]
   • Payload, a space business newsletter, counts EnduroSat's as the third round of more than $100m by a European space company in two weeks. [3]
   • The three add up to about $1bn.
   • In the US, Impulse Space, which builds spacecraft that move satellites around after launch, added $308m on 16 September. [5]
   • That brings the round it opened in June to $808m. [6]
   • Investors have put more than $16.5bn into space start-ups worldwide so far this year, according to PitchBook, a firm that tracks private deals. [1]
   • That is roughly on track to nearly double last year. [1]
   • SpaceX sold its shares to the public in June, raising $86bn. [5]
   • Reuters says that sale made investors keener on space firms, and helped Impulse raise. [5]
   • Impulse was valued at $4.26bn in June. [6]
   • A source told Reuters the new money values it at $5.6bn. [5]
   • Payload's account of the same source puts it at $5.4bn. [6]
   • The Exploration Company's two test flights both fell short.
   • In 2024 the rocket's upper stage failed, so the capsule was never released. [2]
   • In 2025 the team lost contact with it minutes before splashdown. [2]
   • It has still won more than $2bn in contracts, and it plans Nyx's first trip to the International Space Station in 2028. [2]
   • European government buyers have started giving large contracts to start-ups, not only to the big old aerospace firms, Payload reports from this month's Paris space meetings. [4]

   The Exploration Company$450m

   Open Cosmos$346m

   EnduroSat$205m

   Who is involved

   • Open Cosmos a satellite maker with its headquarters in Britain; it raised 300 million euros to build more satellites and sell satellite data
   • The Exploration Company a European start-up founded in 2021 that is building the Nyx cargo capsule and a reusable rocket engine called Storm; it raised $450m
   • EnduroSat a satellite maker based in Sofia, Bulgaria; it raised $205m and will open a factory in the United States
   • Impulse Space a US company founded by Tom Mueller, SpaceX's first employee; it builds vehicles that move satellites after launch and grew its round to $808m
   • SpaceX Elon Musk's rocket company; it sold shares to the public in June, raising $86bn

   How it unfolded

   1. June SpaceX raises $86bn selling shares to the public, and Impulse raises $500m at a $4.26bn value. [5][6]
   2. 9 September The Exploration Company raises $450m. [2]
   3. 14 September Open Cosmos raises 300 million euros. [1]
   4. 16 September Impulse adds $308m, taking its round to $808m. [5]
   5. This week EnduroSat raises $205m for a new US factory. [3]

   Why it matters

   The next test is whether the money becomes working hardware on the dates promised, starting with Nyx's first flight to the space station, planned for 2028. [2]

   The truth

   • What is really going on Investors put about $1bn into three European space start-ups in two weeks, and $308m more into Impulse Space in the US. [1][5]Reuters and the New York Times both tie the rush to SpaceX selling its shares in June. [5][1]In the same week NASA, the European Space Agency and the US Space Force signed or promised contracts, and several of the funded firms count governments among their customers. [9][11][17][5]
   • Why it works on people A round of hundreds of millions reads like proof that a product works, but The Exploration Company raised $450m after two test flights that both fell short. [2]
   • Who gains Investors who backed Impulse Space in June — The company's value rose from $4.26bn to between $5.4bn and $5.6bn in three months. [6][5]
   • Who pays The Exploration Company's new investors — They carry the risk of a capsule that has not yet finished a full test flight. [2]
   • Nobody knows yet

     What Impulse Space is really worth after its new round.

     Reuters says a source puts it at $5.6bn, while Payload reports the same source at $5.4bn, and the company has not published a figure. [5][6]

   • Nobody knows yet

     How much of the rush SpaceX's share sale actually caused.

     The New York Times says only that some investors see a SpaceX effect, and European worries about falling behind began before the sale. [1] Nobody has separated the two.

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether The Exploration Company's Nyx capsule will fly to the space station in 2028.

     Neither of its two test flights ended with the capsule safely recovered. [2]

1. 02

   NASA buys three more SpaceX crew flights

   What happened

   • NASA, the US space agency, is paying SpaceX $946m for three more astronaut flights to the International Space Station, Crew-15, Crew-16 and Crew-17. [9]
   • The deal runs to 2030, and it brings SpaceX's total to 17 flights worth $5.92bn. [9]
   • NASA added them to the old contract without a new competition. [9]
   • Boeing's Starliner capsule, the other US crew ship, had problems on its 2024 test flight, and its two astronauts came home on a SpaceX Dragon. [10]
   • The next SpaceX crew, Crew-13, is due to launch in early October. [29]

   $946m3 new crew flights

   vsvs

   $5.92bnAll 17 flights

   Why it matters

   The price includes keeping each Dragon docked at the station as a lifeboat. [9]

   Reuters reports that NASA still wants Boeing flying too, so one company's problem cannot stop US astronauts reaching the station. [10]

   The truth

   • Who gains SpaceX — NASA added three crew flights worth $946m to its contract without a new competition, taking the total to $5.92bn. [9]
   • Who pays NASA's budget — It pays $946m for three flights bought from its main crew provider, with no rival bid to compare. [9][10]
   • Who pays Boeing — Its Starliner capsule is not part of this purchase, after the 2024 test flight on which its two astronauts had to come home on a SpaceX Dragon. [10]
2. 03

   SpaceX stops selling Falcon 9 rides

   What happened

   • SpaceX has told several would-be customers in recent months that it is no longer taking new orders for commercial Falcon 9 launches, Ars Technica reports. [8]
   • Avio, the Italian company that builds the Vega-C rocket, says those customers are now calling it. [8]
   • Avio's chief executive, Giulio Ranzo, said so on a call with investors on 10 September. [8]
   • Some of them asked European institutions for money to cover the higher cost of a European launch. [8]

   Why it matters

   A turned-away customer has to use a smaller or dearer rocket, and Ars estimates a Vega-C launch costs about $60m. [8]

   It is part of why Europe's launch firms are finding customers now.

   The truth

   • Who gains Avio, the Italian company that builds Vega-C — Customers that SpaceX will no longer fly on Falcon 9 are coming to it instead, its chief executive says. [8]
   • Who pays Satellite companies turned away from Falcon 9 — They must book a smaller or dearer rocket, and Ars estimates a Vega-C flight at about $60m. [8]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Which customers SpaceX turned away from Falcon 9, and why.

     The claim comes from Avio's chief executive, who gains from it, and no statement from SpaceX is in the reporting. [8]

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether any European body will pay the extra cost of launching on a European rocket.

     Turned-away customers lobbied for it at the Paris meetings, and no decision has been reported. [8]

3. 04

   Impulse Space's round grows to $808m

   What happened

   • Impulse Space raised $308m more on 16 September, on top of $500m in June. [5][6]
   • It builds Mira, a small spacecraft that moves satellites around in orbit, and Helios, a stage meant to carry them much higher, first launching in 2027. [6]
   • The company has sold out its shared Helios flights for 2028. [6]
   • It has more than 600 staff and says the money goes mainly on hiring and building. [5]

   June$500m

   16 September$308m

   Why it matters

   Its value rose within three months, and Reuters links the easier fundraising directly to SpaceX's June share sale. [5]

   Impulse also hired a new finance chief as it tries to turn its orders into income. [5]

1. 05

   Space firms list through shell companies

   What happened

   • Young defence and space companies are going onto the stock market through SPACs, Reuters reports.
   • A SPAC is a shell company that raises money first and then merges with a private firm to take it public. [7]
   • Six defence and space firms have agreed SPAC mergers so far this year, about a tenth of all such deals. [7]
   • Rocket-engine maker Ursa Major agreed one worth $2.3bn last month. [7]

   Why it matters

   A SPAC lets a company agree its value in private before it lists. [7]

   Firms that depend on government contracts use this to avoid waiting for a good week on the stock market. [7]

   How it works

   Why one big company selling its shares lifts the value of every company like it

   Nobody can see what a young space company is worth, so investors compare it with a similar company whose shares are bought and sold every day.

   The twist

   Nobody can measure what a young rocket or satellite company is worth. So investors measure it against space companies whose shares trade every day, and since June the biggest of those is SpaceX.

   The picture

   Impulse, June$4.26bn

   Impulse, September$5.60bn

   Step by step

   1. 1 SpaceX sells its shares to the public, so its value can be seen every day
   2. 2 A young space company has no public value of its own
   3. 3 Investors judge it by comparing it with the nearest company that has one
   4. 4 When SpaceX is valued high, companies like it are valued higher too
   5. 5 So rounds get bigger and come faster, like Impulse's two in three months

   The same force, elsewhere today

   Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

   • Impulse Space's round grows to $808m

     Investors valued it a quarter to a third higher in September than in June, and Reuters says SpaceX's share sale made investors keener on firms like it.

   • Space firms list through shell companies

     Big share sales this year drew smaller space firms towards the stock market, and a SPAC lets them fix their value in private first.

   • A $300m lease for computers in orbit

     A lender is using the lease that airlines use for planes, because it already knows how to judge that kind of deal.

   Where you've seen this

   Selling a house

   an agent sets the asking price from what similar houses on the street sold for

   Football transfers

   one record fee raises what clubs ask for every player like him

   Trading cards

   one rare card sold at auction changes what collectors ask for the rest

   The catch

   The comparison works in both directions. If SpaceX's shares fall, the companies measured against it lose value too, even if nothing about them has changed.

   And the whole of it

   Founders, investors and the pension funds that put money into rounds like Open Cosmos's are all watching one number. None of them sets SpaceX's share price, and most cannot tell how much of their own value rests on it.

1. 06

   ESA picks two teams to plan Europe's spy satellites

   What happened

   • The European Space Agency, which runs Europe's joint space programmes, signed contracts with ICEYE and Leonardo at a Paris space meeting. [11]
   • ICEYE is a Finnish firm whose satellites take pictures with radar, and Leonardo is an Italian defence group. [4][11]
   • Each will lead a team that designs, in parallel, a European government service for security pictures from space. [11]
   • The European Commission pays for the work, and the service itself is planned to begin in 2028. [11]

   Why it matters

   The EU would own part of the system itself and buy the rest from companies. [11]

   A start-up leading one of the two design teams shows Europe's governments now trust young firms with defence work. [4]

   The truth

   • Who gains ICEYE, the Finnish radar-satellite firm — It now leads one of two teams designing the EU's security picture service, a service the EU plans to begin in 2028. [11][4]
2. 07

   Two operators plan a shared satellite network

   What happened

   • Viasat, an American satellite company, and Space42, a satellite company from the United Arab Emirates, agreed on Monday to set up Equatys. [12]
   • It is one network of satellites that several phone companies would share, the way they share phone masts on the ground. [12]
   • The two will each put in $400m once it is formed, and up to $1bn in all. [12]
   • The first stage uses fewer than 200 satellites, with service aimed for the end of 2029. [12]

   $400mViasat puts in

   ++

   $400mSpace42 puts in

   Why it matters

   Phones that talk straight to satellites need a very expensive network, so splitting one spreads the cost across several phone companies.

   No phone company has been named as a customer yet. [12]

3. 08

   A $300m lease for computers in orbit

   What happened

   • Sophia Space, a start-up that wants to put computers in orbit, and SLI, a company that leases space equipment, set terms for a $300m deal. [13]
   • SLI would pay to build ten of Sophia's satellites, own them once they work in orbit, and rent them to Sophia's customers. [13]
   • It is a letter of support, not a contract. [13]
   • It only goes ahead once Sophia raises its final funding round, and no customer has signed yet. [13]

   Why it matters

   Sophia says it is borrowing the leasing tools that airlines and shipping firms already use. [13]

   A customer could then rent a satellite's computing without paying to build one first. [13]

   How it works

   A lender is using the lease that airlines use for planes, because it already knows how to judge that kind of deal.

   The idea, in story 05: Why one big company selling its shares lifts the value of every company like it →

   The truth

   • Who pays Sophia Space — Under the lease plan it must still find the customers itself before any satellite is built. [13]
   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Sophia Space's $300m lease happens at all.

     It is a non-binding letter, it depends on a funding round Sophia has not closed, and no customer has signed. [13]

4. 09

   China launches four rockets in 44 hours

   What happened

   • China launched four rockets between Tuesday 15 September and Thursday, from its Jiuquan and Hainan launch sites and from a ship in the East China Sea. [14]
   • They were LandSpace's Zhuque-2E, Orienspace's Gravity-1, a Long March 12 from China's state rocket makers and ExPace's Kuaizhou-11. [8]
   • Three of the four came from companies separate from China's government rocket makers. [8]
   • The Zhuque-2E carried satellites for Qianfan, a Chinese internet network in orbit. [14]

   Why it matters

   Ars Technica reads it as a sign that China's satellite networks will no longer depend only on the Long March rockets built by China's state space industry. [8]

   Its companies are moving quickly from test flights to paid missions. [8]

5. 10

   The delayed secret Space Force launch flew

   What happened

   • SpaceX launched USSF-259, a classified mission for the US Space Force, from California on the evening of 16 September. [16][15]
   • It had been called off the night before for an issue nobody has explained. [16]
   • It was SpaceX's third Space Force launch in a month under the same contract, after missions on 15 August and 10 September. [16]
   • The Space Force has not said what any of them carried. [16]

   Why it matters

   Public papers give the earlier two missions 23 satellites each, and another, R-3, is set for 27 September. [16]

   It was SpaceX's 110th launch of 2026. [15]

   The truth

   • Nobody knows yet

     What USSF-259 and the two missions before it put into orbit.

     The Space Force has declined to confirm any details, and public papers give only code names. [16]

6. 11

   Navigation backup kept alive by Congress

   What happened

   • The US Space Force says it will soon give new contracts to Astranis, L3Harris and Sierra Space to keep working on Resilient GPS. [17]
   • That is a plan for small navigation satellites that would work alongside the GPS fleet. [17]
   • Congress had added $15m last year, and that money is keeping the work going. [17]
   • The Space Force left the next phase out of its own 2027 budget request. [17]

   Why it matters

   GPS now guides drones and other spacecraft as well as phones and planes, and the Space Force is designing its next GPS system. [17]

   The new contracts cover the riskiest parts first, such as secure codes that can be changed in orbit. [17]

   The truth

   • Who gains Astranis, L3Harris and Sierra Space — Their navigation-satellite work goes on, paid for by $15m that Congress added, even though the Space Force left the next phase out of its own budget request. [17]
7. 12

   A squadron for tracking moving targets

   What happened

   • The US Space Force has set up the 77th Space Surveillance Squadron, its first unit for satellites that track moving targets, a general said on 16 September. [18]
   • The first satellites that follow aircraft are due to launch this month. [18]
   • Satellites that follow vehicles on the ground, being built by Northrop Grumman, should follow within two years. [18]

   Why it matters

   The National Reconnaissance Office, which runs US spy satellites, already helps with this work using more than 200 satellites. [18]

   At least 13 companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab, are in the group allowed to bid to build the aircraft-tracking satellites. [18]

8. 13

   StarBurst gets a ride for 2028

   What happened

   • NASA picked SpaceX to launch StarBurst, a small satellite that will look for short bursts of gamma rays, the most energetic kind of light. [19]
   • Those bursts come when two dead stars called neutron stars crash together. [19]
   • StarBurst will share a Falcon 9 with other satellites from Florida no earlier than 2028. [19]

   Why it matters

   StarBurst will watch almost all the sky that Earth does not block. [19]

   Its readings can be matched with detectors on the ground that pick up ripples in space from the same crashes. [19]

9. 14

   Hydrosat shows off heat-sensing satellites

   What happened

   • Hydrosat, a company whose satellites photograph heat, unveiled a new group of satellites called Osiris in Paris. [20]
   • Each will carry five sensors, so it can see both sharper detail and a wider strip of ground than its two satellites in orbit now. [20]
   • The first two are due to launch next year. [20]
   • Hydrosat says about 40% of its income is from private companies. [20]

   4 of 10

   About 4 in 10 from companies

   Why it matters

   Heat pictures work at night, so military customers already use Hydrosat's data to watch movement after dark. [20]

   It has also agreed with Kazakhstan's government to put its sensor on a government satellite. [20]

10. 15

    An X-ray telescope sees a dead star feeding

    What happened

    • XRISM, an X-ray telescope in orbit run by Japan with NASA, watched gas from a giant star fall onto a pulsar, the spinning core of a dead star. [21]
    • The pair, BP Crucis, is 13,000 light-years away. [21]
    • The giant is about 40 times the Sun's mass, and the gas was moving at about 540,000km an hour. [21]
    • The results came out on Friday in the journal Science Advances. [21]

    Why it matters

    Astronomers had never clearly seen a star's wind falling onto such an object before. [21]

    The team says it can now test its ideas about how these pairs feed in much more detail. [21]

    Good news

    • For the first time, astronomers clearly watched gas from a giant star falling onto a pulsar, 13,000 light-years away, using XRISM, a Japanese-led X-ray telescope.
11. 16

    Webb finds tiny failed stars

    What happened

    • The James Webb Space Telescope searched IC 348, a young cluster of about 400 stars 1,000 light-years away. [22][23]
    • It found brown dwarfs, objects too small to burn like stars, weighing only about twice as much as Jupiter. [23]
    • Their light shows a carbon compound nobody predicted, and the team proposes a new class for them, called H. [23]
    • Two of the new ones have discs of material around them. [23]

    Why it matters

    Finding how small a brown dwarf can be shows where star-making stops. [23]

    A disc means one of these tiny objects could have planets of its own. [23]

    Good news

    • The James Webb Space Telescope found brown dwarfs only about twice as heavy as Jupiter in IC 348, a young star cluster. Two of the new ones have discs of material around them, the raw stuff planets are made from.
12. 17

    Strange pits on Mars

    What happened

    • NASA's Curiosity rover, driving on Mars for 14 years, has found broad, shallow pits in the rock of Mount Sharp. [24]
    • Its team says they are unlike anything seen before on Mars. [24]
    • Unlike earlier small pits, nothing seems to have sat inside them. [24]
    • The material in them looks chemically different from the rock around it. [24]

    Why it matters

    Nobody yet knows how the pits formed or how old they are. [24]

    Curiosity is the older of NASA's two working rovers, and it keeps finding new things after 14 years. [24]

    The truth

    • Nobody knows yet

      How the new pits on Mars formed.

      Curiosity's team says the pits are unlike anything seen before, and it does not yet know how old they are. [24]

    Good news

    • NASA's Curiosity rover has been driving on Mars for 14 years. This week its team reported broad, shallow pits in the rock of Mount Sharp, unlike anything they have seen there before.
13. 18

    Nearly 50 faint galaxies found

    What happened

    • Astronomers using the VLT Survey Telescope found 47 very faint small galaxies around three bigger galaxies, up to 100 million light-years away. [25]
    • Only four had been seen before. [25]
    • The team found them by checking the pictures by eye instead of with software. [25]
    • The results were published on 11 September. [25]

    Why it matters

    Theories of how galaxies grow predict how many small ones should circle a big one, and counts have come out both too low and too high. [25]

    Europe's Euclid telescope will now look again to confirm them. [25]

    The truth

    • Nobody knows yet

      Whether all 47 faint galaxies are real.

      The team says it needs more observations, and plans to check them with Europe's Euclid telescope. [25]

14. 19

    Europe's first astronaut suit tried in orbit

    What happened

    • Sophie Adenot, a French astronaut for the European Space Agency, tried on EuroSuit on the space station. [26]
    • It is a European suit for launch and landing, not for spacewalks, meant to go on in under two minutes. [26]
    • She said it still needs a lot of work. [26]
    • Adenot and her three crewmates, there since February, are preparing to come home. [27]

    Why it matters

    France's space agency says the suit is part of Europe building its own human spaceflight. [26]

    Their return depends on Crew-13, now due in early October. [29]

    The truth

    • Nobody knows yet

      When Crew-12 comes home.

      NASA has given no return date, and the next crew, Crew-13, has slipped to early October. [29][27]

15. 20

    Making rocket fuel from Mars air

    What happened

    • Researchers led from the University of Mississippi report a way to turn carbon dioxide, which makes up most of Mars' air, into methane pure enough to burn as rocket fuel. [28]
    • The method uses electricity to split water and join its parts to the carbon dioxide. [28]
    • It is a study, not a machine working on Mars. [28]

    Why it matters

    Every kilogram carried from Earth costs a lot to launch. [28]

    A crew that could make its own fuel on Mars would need to bring much less for the trip home. [28]

16. 21

    A Chinese engine that looks like SpaceX's

    What happened

    • Space Pioneer, a Chinese rocket start-up that has raised nearly $1bn, showed a design for its Tianhuo-21 engine this week. [8]
    • It burns methane, looks strikingly like SpaceX's newest Raptor 3 engine, and has almost the same thrust. [8]
    • SpaceX's owner, Elon Musk, said the inside is very hard to make and advised new companies against trying. [8]

    Why it matters

    Its thrust, 2,450 kilonewtons at sea level, is almost the same as Raptor 3's. [8]

    What was shown is a design, not an engine firing. [8]

17. 22

    A French start-up fires its engine

    What happened

    • Sirius Space Services, a French rocket start-up, test-fired a complete prototype of its STAR-1 engine for the first time, at a test site in southern England. [8]
    • The tests ran all the engine's main parts together, including its pumps and control software. [8]
    • Nine of these engines would power the core of each of its planned rockets. [8]

    Why it matters

    The engine burns liquid oxygen and methane and is meant to push with 55 kilonewtons. [8]

    It is one more European launch start-up moving towards a first flight. [8]