Starbridge Weekly Update for the week ending 3/1/2021

Monday morning brought a fresh new round of SPAC press releases. The first was RocketLab at a $4.1B valuation raising $470M in permanent capital. That was quickly followed by Spire at a $1.6B valuation raising $475M in permanent capital. Both companies are fairly mature and have proven revenue and customer pipelines. The Starbridge team expected the quality of space industry SPACs to improve as companies who were far more stable and mature could push back on initial offer terms. Earlier SPAC announcements seem to have been first simply because the companies were not in a strong position to negotiate and needed the capital.

Both RocketLab and Relativity also unveiled plans for going upmarket (very predictable in both cases) by building much larger launch vehicles. RocketLab’s new Neutron vehicle will be able to carry 8 tons to LEO while Relativity’s Terran R will loft 22 (!) tons. 

Redwire continued its acquisition plan by adding Deployable Space Systems. Redwire’s parent company, A&E Industrial Partners, built Redwire to design, build, and deploy complex space systems primarily for Government and Defense customers but will service commercial customers as they appear. 

In an attempt to demonstrate the capability of refueling in orbit, OrbitFab and Benchmark are designing compatible systems with the intent of flying a demonstration mission. Benchmark plans on selling the combined capability to smallsat customers. In related news, Lockheed Martin is upgrading future GPS satellites with satellite servicing interfaces which suggests that not only does Lockheed see the benefit, but its Government customer also sees the need for sustainable GPS satellite resilience. 

The Inspiration-4 mission announced one of its passengers last week. Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and a survivor of bone cancer, will occupy the seat reserved for a front-line healthcare worker at St. Jude who symbolizes hope. 

The industry news onslaught is keeping everyone on their toes. See below for the rest of last week’s space sector news. 

This week's picks of space sector news compiled from Jeff Foust's FIRST UP newsletter are:

• Spire Global, Inc., a Leading Global Provider of Space-Based Data and Analytics, to Go Public Through a Merger with NavSight Holdings, Inc.

• Redwire is acquiring space structures company Deployable Space Systems (DSS)

• Elon Musk says that SpaceX is planning to double speeds on its Starlink broadband internet service this year.

• Two startups are partnering to demonstrate in-space satellite refueling.

• A childhood cancer survivor will join the crew of a commercial Crew Dragon mission later this year. 

• An Antares launch over the weekend deployed 30 "ThinSat" education satellites. T

• L3Harris has won a contract to provide Lockheed Martin with four GPS payloads. 

• NASA showed off a stunning video Monday of the Perseverance rover's landing on Mars. 

• NASA wants to maintain competition in lunar lander development as it nears a decision on what companies will proceed in that program.

• The United States and allies are working on a proposal for rules of behavior in space. 

• DARPA ordered six more satellites from Blue Canyon Technologies. 

• The White House said Tuesday it has no schedule for nominating a NASA administrator. 

• Members of Congress want the Pentagon to talk more openly about threats to space systems posed by China and Russia. 

• SpaceX confirmed its latest funding round Tuesday.

• A weather data company announced plans Wednesday for a constellation of satellites equipped with radars. 

• A new poll finds the public is more interested in Earth science and planetary defense than sending humans to the moon or Mars. 

•  Virgin Galactic won't start regularly flying space tourists until early next year because of delays in its test program.

• Blue Origin announced Thursday it is delaying the first launch of its New Glenn rocket to late 2022. 

• Maxar says it's at only the beginning of a "multi-year" diversification strategy that calls for more national security work. 

• The South Korean government will spend more than half a billion dollars on space projects this year. 

• Relativity Space is planning to develop a larger launch vehicle. 

• Rocket Lab announced Monday it is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and developing a larger vehicle. 

• Iceye has released the first images from its latest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. 

• Lockheed Martin is planning upgrades to GPS satellites to support in-space servicing. 

• A longtime satellite communications industry executive is the new president of geospatial analytics firm Ursa Space Systems.