Unlocking Space Industry Intelligence: How Space Impulse Is Simplifying Data for the Sector
Space Insider
Making Space Technology accessible through media, news, insights and data
sed an update this week detailing the recent enhancements we've made to our team, platform, and offerings, along with a few exciting updates coming soon!
Read on to learn more about SpaceX's latest Starship test flight, how Space Impulse is making the space tech industry more accessible and easy to navigate, and your weekly news round-up.
In this edition of the Space Impulse Newsletter, you'll find:
As always, we want to hear from you! Whether you'd like to collaborate on a guest post or offer feedback on what you'd like to learn about and see from us, feel free to reach out at hello@spaceimpulse.com.
Space News Highlight ✨
Starship’s Sixth Test Pushes Boundaries With In-Space Engine Reignition And Heat Shield Testing
SpaceX completed the sixth test flight of its Starship rocket on Tuesday afternoon, launching from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, with no crew on board. Starship reached space, traveled halfway around the Earth, and splashed down in the Indian Ocean. This was the first daylight splashdown for the system, providing new data for SpaceX’s engineers.
SpaceX decided mid-flight to forgo the orinally planned SuperHeavy booster catch on the launch tower’s arms due to the booster not meeting “commit criteria” for the attempt. Instead, the booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. On this mission, SpaceX tested a range of new features, including reigniting a Starship engine in space and deploying updated elements of its heat shield.
🗝 Unlocking Space Industry Intelligence: How Space Impulse Is Streamlining Data and Access for the Sector
It's been a big year for Space Impulse! From the growth of our team spanning the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Europe to the expanded customer base of space startups, corporates, investors, and government organizations, we've been hard at work enhancing our team, offerings, and platform to best serve the space tech industry.
Since the launch of our data platform in April, we have continued to upgrade and introduce key features in response to customer feedback and the ever evolving industry landscape. We've also grown our media reach from 13,000 to 21,000 subscribers globally.
Last but not least - we are working on a rebrand to reflect our journey – stay tuned… There is no other provider in the global space industry today offering the same combination of open-source market intelligence (our Platform) combined with a top-tier suite of professional services (from due diligence and strategy consulting to business and ecosystem development).
Read on to learn more about what we've been building and the exciting things to come!
Media: Daily Summary
Our daily summary feature gives you a concise AI synopsis of all the important news in the space ecosystem. We'll soon be expanding it to include partnerships, contracts, and a management changes tracker. Start every day with a quick look at the latest news!
Business Development: Contact Details
Contact details were one of the most highly requested and anticipated features now available on our Platform! Now, you can integrate the Platform into your business development workflows. This includes access to email addresses – allowing business development teams to find the relevant people and directly reach out.
Business Development: Government Opportunities (US)
Another key request from business development teams has been a live feed of relevant government opportunities. We have now integrated US government opportunities directly into the Platform- all on a “single pane of glass”!
EU/ESA government opportunities will be added next year.
Market Research: Patents and Research Papers
Space-related technologies are rapidly evolving with continued scientific, engineering, and other technological advancements. Keeping up with the plethora of patents and research papers published has generally been a challenge. To address this, our Platform now offers rich details and a stats view of all space tech patents and research papers.
Platform Improvements: Improved Search Engine and Export to CSV Features
We have optimised our global search feature, enabling you to find your desired entity faster and improved our export options so you can download data with filters applied. No more full data export, only download what you want!
Coming Soon!
We are working on several exciting features that will be launched in the coming months:
1. Competitive Intelligence: Full Integration of Mission Statistics. Track the space missions that your competitors are on: enabling you to assess new business opportunities, evaluate spaceflight heritage and inform competitive analysis.
2. Market Research: Financial Details for Public Companies. We are currently integrating live trading data, financial statistics and analysis of all public Space companies into our Platform.
3. Competitive Intelligence: Commercial Contracts and Partnerships. We have automated the collection and structuring of commercial contracts and partnerships in the Space industry – so you can easily view existing partnerships, and track what new contracts / deals are being made public.
4. Market Research: Natural Language AI Search. We are experimenting with allowing our users to interact with our data through natural language - like using an LLM but enriched with our dataset. Asking questions like “What VC firms typically co-invest in what Space segments?”, “What launch vehicle providers exist in the 3-10 tonne payload segment?” or “What are near-term government opportunities for quantum communications systems?”
Looking for more insights and resources to learn about commercial, government, and academic space entities? The Space Impulse Market Intelligence Platform has captured data on the space tech industry's key companies, investors, universities and government organizations.
Space Industry Quote of the Week 🗣
"The need for any of those legacy businesses is declining. … What you're seeing in space, I think, is a slower evolution of what happens in tech, where it happens really quickly, which is low cost always wins in the end."
- Alex King , CEO of Cestrian Capital Research, Inc , discussing the shift in the space industry, as newer, cost-efficient space companies gain traction while older, legacy players like face setbacks.
Weekly Space News Roundup 🌌
The Exploration Company has reportedly raised $160 million in a Series B funding round, co-led by Balderton Capital and Plural , bringing its total funding to nearly $230 million since its founding in 2021. The funding will bolster the company’s efforts to develop Nyx, a reusable spacecraft designed for missions in low Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and on the lunar surface. Nyx’s first planned mission, a cargo transport operation to the International Space Station, is scheduled for 2028 under a contract with the European Space Agency.
The company has also announced the launch of its second demonstrator, Mission Possible, in 2025. This capsule, carrying customer payloads to orbit, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
AeroVironment has announced plans to acquire BlueHalo in an all-stock transaction valued at $4.1 billion. The merger integrates AeroVironment’s established defense solutions with BlueHalo’s emerging technologies, enhancing both companies’ capacity to address evolving defense priorities. AeroVironment will issue approximately 18.5 million shares of common stock to BlueHalo, with AeroVironment shareholders retaining 60.5% ownership of the merged company. BlueHalo stakeholders, led by Arlington Capital Partners , will hold the remaining 39.5%.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. The headquarters for the combined entity will remain in Arlington, Virginia.
Inversion has raised $44 million in Series A funding co-led by Spark Capital and Adjacent with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Kindred, and Y Combinator. The funds will support the development of Arc, Inversion’s next-generation re-entry vehicle designed to store cargo in orbit and deliver it to Earth on demand. This funding brings Inversion’s total investment to $54 million, following a $10 million seed round.
A study explored how quantum annealing, a quantum computing technique, can optimize spacecraft trajectories, using an Earth-to-Mars mission as a test case. Hybrid quantum-classical solvers delivered reliable and efficient trajectory solutions, while fully quantum solvers faced limitations due to current hardware constraints.
Advancements in quantum technology could revolutionize space mission planning, enabling more complex and cost-effective interplanetary travel.
Anduril Industries has been awarded a $99.7 million Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract and a five-year Program of Record designation by the Space Systems Command . The contract tasks Anduril with deploying its Lattice platform as a resilient mesh networking capability to modernize the Space Surveillance Network.
This effort is part of the broader Space Domain Awareness Network (SDANet) initiative, which aims to replace aging infrastructure with next-generation technologies to support the U.S. Space Command's evolving needs with the aim of full deployment by the end of 2026.
Space Machines Company has partnered with LeoLabs to support its upcoming Space MAITRI mission, an on-orbit servicing and space debris mitigation demonstration scheduled for launch in early 2026. This collaboration integrates LeoLabs’ advanced safety and tracking solutions into the mission lifecycle, marking a step forward for sustainable space operations.
Space MAITRI is a joint effort between Australia and India under the ISI India Projects program, funded by the Australian Space Agency . The mission aims to advance technologies for managing space debris and promoting a sustainable space environment.
ICEYE will lead a consortium of Finnish space and defense companies to support the Finnish Ministry of Defense’s F-35 fighter program. The initiative aims to advance space-based intelligence and develop cutting-edge technologies to strengthen Finland’s defense capabilities, particularly in Arctic conditions.
The consortium includes prominent Finnish companies Insta, Huld, DA-Group, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), alongside global aerospace leader Lockheed Martin .
Interested in Deep Tech? Check out Digital Twin Insider, The Quantum Insider, AI Insider, and Climate Insider to take your knowledge of deep tech further and even deeper.