Bordeaux, Munich, Houston, Turin, 18 November 2024: The Exploration Company (TEC), a leading European space tech, announces it has raised $160 million in Series B funding co-led by Balderton Capital and Plural, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, NGP Capital, French Tech Souveraineté, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF) and Bayern Kapital. The round also included significant follow-on investment from historical investors, including EQT Ventures, Red River West, Cherry Ventures, Promus Ventures and Omnes Real Tech Fund. This is the first time two European sovereign funds, French Tech Souveraineté managed by Bpifrance and DTCF, have invested together, demonstrating TEC’s strategic European DNA. The funding brings TEC's total raised to nearly $230 million and will be used to develop and test Nyx, expand the 200-strong team, and scale capacity.

Founded in 2021 by Hélène Huby, former VP Orion-ESM at Airbus, and an experienced team from Airbus and ArianeGroup, TEC develops, manufactures, and operates spaceships to serve the logistical needs of space stations and space exploration. With a focus on reusable and refillable spacecraft, TEC aims to make space exploration affordable, modular, and sustainable.

Hélène Huby, co-founder and CEO of The Exploration Company, said: “This significant raise is a reflection of not only the talent and commitment of the team at TEC but also that building global companies with European roots can only be done through fostering trust and cooperation between European countries. 98% of our shareholders are European, demonstrating that the continent can finance bold entrepreneurs. Space will play a critical role in shaping humanity’s future, and I want to contribute to building a future which is peaceful and cooperative and our European DNA fits perfectly with this mission.

“Over the past 12 months, we have hit major operational and financial milestones and signed significant service contracts with both space agencies and commercial clients. This new funding is the next step in scaling up our ambitions and I’m delighted to welcome Plural, Balderton Capital, NGP Capital and Bessemer to our journey, alongside our previous investors. Their support and ambition will be critical as we take another important step closer to our Nyx Earth launch and build a European space leader.”

Powering Europe’s space sovereignty

TEC is powering a new era in European space sovereignty, providing the continent with reusable and refillable space vehicles, which will be critical as space exploration escalates in the next decades. TEC estimates the addressable space logistics market in Low Earth Orbit and around the Moon to be over $300B over the next decade, partly driven by the growing number of space stations being constructed including Axiom, StarLab, Vast, Orbital Reef and the Lunar Gateway, as well as the exploration race to the Moon and Mars. As transportation capabilities are currently concentrated amongst a few players in the US, China and Russia, there is a drive within Europe to enable its own space exploration capacities.

The company is developing Nyx, a reusable and in-orbit refillable spacecraft that can be launched from any heavy launcher and fly to any space station. It will be able to return to Earth with up to 3,000 kg of cargo - the largest down-mass available worldwide - and subsequently refurbished for its next mission. The cost of this service will be 25% to 50% less than other vehicles.

TEC, the first European company to sign a Space Act Agreement with NASA, reached a major milestone this year when it signed its first major contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), ranking number one in the European space capsule competition. The company is on track to launch its mid-size capsule, Mission Possible, in 2025 carrying 300kg of customer payloads. Nyx Earth’s maiden flight is set for 2028, to carry cargo for ESA to the International Space Station.

David Thévenon, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “The planets aligned for this investment and we’re delighted to be supporting Hélène and the team with this new funding round. With their unparalleled expertise and visionary approach, The Exploration Company is poised to redefine European leadership in space exploration. Their mission to make space exploration more accessible and sustainable promises to unlock unprecedented opportunities not just for Europe, but for humanity's future in space. We're thrilled to fuel this journey toward a new era of European space leadership - one that will reshape our understanding of what's possible beyond Earth.”

Khaled Helioui, Partner at Plural, said: “TEC is a company that I believe is sitting on the kind of tinder box that you don’t see often as an investor. It’s operating in a huge market where demand for launches and delivering cargo dramatically outstrips supply, in a region which has received decades-worth of institutional investment, in a political climate where policy-makers know they need to take urgent action if they want to safeguard our critical assets. When you add in a founder who you believe can emulate the kind of value creation we’ve seen in commercialising space in the US, you have a near-perfect set of ingredients for success.”

About The Exploration Company

The Exploration Company’s mission is to build accessible, sustainable and cooperative space worlds. To realize this mission, The Exploration Company builds and operates Nyx, a modular and reusable orbital vehicle that can eventually be refuelled in orbit. Nyx provides a wide scope of missions ranging from resupplying space stations around the Earth and the Moon, free-flying around the Earth or landing on the Moon - and safely coming back to Earth. Nyx starts with flying cargo and has the potential to carry humans.

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is a multistage venture firm with more than two decades of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. We have both early and growth funds and invest across the technology sector, with a proven track record backing AI, fintech, B2B SaaS, digital health, mobility, gaming and marketplace companies. Previous investments include Darktrace (LON: DARK), Depop, Flywire (NASDAQ: FLYW), Kobalt, MySQL, Nutmeg, Peakon, Recorded Future, Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) and THG (LON: THG). Balderton’s current portfolio includes: Aircall, Beauty Pie, Contentful, Dream Games, GoCardless, Lendable, Matillion, Merama, Photoroom, Revolut, Tibber, Wayve, Writer and ZOE.

About Plural

Plural is an early-stage investment fund that backs the most ambitious founders on a mission to change the world through technology. Plural launched in June 2022 with the aim to give serious founders in Europe investors with experience to match their ambition. Based in Tallinn, Estonia, and London, UK, Plural’s mission is to have GDP-level impact on Europe, address systemic risks and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies it backs.

Source: The Exploration Company

Intuitive Machines unveiled the Moon RACER lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) at Space Center Houston on Thursday, November 7. RACER, an acronym for Reusable Autonomous Crewed Exploration Rover, accommodates two astronauts and some 400 kg (882 lbs.) of cargo, and is designed to pull a trailer loaded with an additional 800 kg (1,764 lbs.). The LTV was developed for NASA's Artemis campaign.

Intuitive Machines is one of three companies selected by NASA to advance LTV capabilities. The objective is to enable Artemis astronauts, like the Apollo-era moonwalkers before them, to drive the rover, which features a rechargeable electric battery and a robotic arm, across the lunar surface, to conduct scientific research and prepare for human missions to Mars.

In April 2024, NASA selected Intuitive Machines for the agency’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services Feasibility Assessment. Building on the Company’s success delivering payloads to the Moon’s surface, the Intuitive Machines-led Moon RACER team got to work creating a roadmap for a state-of-the-art LTV built to handle extreme conditions at the Moon’s South Pole and transportable by the Company’s Nova-D heavy cargo-class lunar lander.

Designed with input from Apollo-era moonwalkers Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt, the Intuitive Machines team thoughtfully factored in the astronauts’ experience driving the original Apollo rover. Some of the suggestions that factored into the pickup-truck-sized Moon RACER include a simplified and ergonomically designed seatbelt, paddle controls that are easier to operate while wearing bulky spacesuits and protective gloves, and the ability to drive the rover from either the driver or passenger side.

Under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, Intuitive Machines aims to provide essential lunar infrastructure services to NASA. Intuitive Machines will retain ownership and operational capabilities that will enable remote operation of the LTV between Artemis missions for approximately 10 years. This ensures commercial scientific discovery and long-term human space exploration continues, even when crews are not on the Moon. The LTV features advanced technologies for power management, autonomous driving, and communications and navigation systems.

“This procurement strategically aligns with the Company’s flight-proven capability to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, further solidifying our position as a proven commercial contractor in lunar exploration,” said Steve Altemus, CEO of Intuitive Machines.

The static prototype of the LTV is undergoing human-in-the-loop testing by astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, while the fully electric mobile demonstration LTV undergoes field testing near Meteor Crater National Park in Arizona later this month. NASA is anticipated to announce its choice of LTV provider(s) in 2025, after which they will issue additional task orders to provide unpressurized rover capabilities for the agency’s moonwalking and scientific exploration needs through 2039.

The Intuitive Machines Moon RACER was engineered in partnership with, Atlas Devices, AVL, Barrios, Boeing, CSIRO, FUGRO, Michelin, Northrop Grumman and Roush. 

Source: Intuitive Machines

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (“AST SpaceMobile”) (NASDAQ: ASTS), the company building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by everyday smartphones, and designed for both commercial and government applications, today announced launch services agreements securing the orbital launch capacity to enable continuous space-based cellular broadband service coverage across some of the most in-demand cellular markets globally. AST SpaceMobile's global service will initially target key markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan, the U.S. Government and other strategic markets. The Cape Canaveral Florida Space Force Station launch campaign, scheduled during 2025 and 2026, will utilize existing launch vehicles and Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for up to ~60 Block 2 satellites to low Earth orbit.

“We have now contractually secured orbital launch capacity during 2025 and 2026 to enable continuous cellular broadband service coverage of the AST SpaceMobile network,” said Scott Wisniewski, President of AST SpaceMobile. “With these new launch services agreements, our in-house vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities in Texas, our mobile operator partners, and the additional capital raised during 2024, we are now well-positioned to reach our goal of continuous cellular broadband service coverage, enabling our service to hundreds of millions of users around the world and the U.S. Government.”

The next-generation Block 2 BlueBirds are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird satellites in orbit today, accelerating the goal to achieve 24/7 continuous cellular broadband service coverage. The service will target approximately 100% U.S. nationwide coverage from space with over 5,600 coverage cells, with beams designed to support a capacity of up to 40 MHz, enabling peak data transmission speeds up to 120 Mbps, supporting voice, full data and video applications. The Block 2 BlueBirds, featuring up to 2,400 square foot communications arrays, will be the largest ever commercially deployed in low Earth orbit once launched, surpassing the current record held by AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird 1-5 and BlueWalker 3, each ~700 square feet in size.

The Block 2 BlueBirds are designed to be compatible with all major launch vehicles. Blue Origin’s launch vehicle, the New Glenn, offers a seven-meter fairing enabling twice the payload volume of five-meter class commercial launch systems, and is well-suited to launching up to 8 of the largest-ever Block 2 BlueBirds.

During 2024, AST SpaceMobile has secured additional strategic investment from AT&T, Verizon, Google and Vodafone, and new contract awards with the United States Government, directly and through prime contractors. The company has agreements with more than 45 mobile network operators globally, which have over 2.8 billion existing subscribers total, including Vodafone Group, AT&T, Verizon, Rakuten Mobile, Bell Canada, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, Saudi Telecom Company, Zain KSA, Etisalat, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Telkomsel, Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Millicom, Smartfren, Telecom Argentina, MTN, Telstra, Africell, Liberty Latin America and others. AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Google, Rakuten, American Tower, Cisneros Group and Bell Canada are also existing investors in AST SpaceMobile.

About AST SpaceMobile

AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with standard, unmodified mobile devices based on our extensive IP and patent portfolio, and designed for both commercial and government applications. Our engineers and space scientists are on a mission to eliminate the connectivity gaps faced by today’s five billion mobile subscribers and finally bring broadband to the billions who remain unconnected.

Source: AST SpaceMobile

The Czech Ministry of Transport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vast, the U.S.-based pioneer in space habitation technologies. The Memorandum, signed as part of Czech Space Week, outlines a commitment by Vast and the Ministry of Transport to explore ways to partner on future human spaceflight projects, whether through private astronaut missions (PAM) to the International Space Station (ISS) before it is retired in 2030, or on missions to Vast’s own Haven space stations, and to engage with a growing Czech Space industry and start-up ecosystem.

Any future mission with Vast could see Aleš Svoboda, one of 12 reserve astronauts selected by the European Space Agency in November 2022, become the second Czech astronaut. Svoboda has been a focal point for the Czech government’s efforts to stimulate growth in the Czech space industry and inspire the country’s young people to pursue STEM careers, crystallized by the launch of the Czech Journey to Space project in June 2024.

"We are thrilled to join forces with the Czech space mission and explore joint spaceflight opportunities to bring science, research, and technology from Czech industry to orbit, as well as potentially fly Aleš Svoboda to the International Space Station or Haven-1 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft,” said Max Haot, Vast’s CEO.

Czech Minister of Transport Martin Kupka said: “We’re excited to partner with Vast, who shares our vision and commitment to pioneering advancements that shape the future of space exploration. The Memorandum demonstrates our commitment to advancing the Czech space sector and ushering in a new era of Czech innovation and technology leadership.”

Andrew Feustel, Vast advisor and veteran NASA astronaut with over two decades of experience, underscored the significance of this MoU: “I’ve worked closely with the Czech space community for years and have long admired their innovation, commitment, and collaborative spirit as we push the boundaries of what’s possible in space. Vast is well-positioned to further this mission by combining a bold vision with technical expertise, and together, we can build a future in space that will inspire future generations.”

In June 2024, Vast signed an MoU with the European Space Agency (ESA) to explore opportunities for European countries to access space through Vast space stations. In addition, Vast recently unveiled its final design for Haven-1, its first habitable module, as well as plans for Haven-2, its proposed design to replace the International Space Station after its retirement in 2030, as part of NASA’s Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) program. NASA is expected to release details of the next phase of CLD in 2025.

About Vast

Founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, Vast is developing humanity’s next-generation space stations and pioneering the path to long-term living and thriving in space. Launching as soon as 2025, Haven-1 will be home to the world’s first commercial crewed microgravity research, development, manufacturing platform, and space station. Vast is also developing its future Haven-2 space station to compete for NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program. These Haven stations are designed to test a range of micro and artificial gravity environments, with a fully realized artificial gravity station launching in the 2030s and reaffirming Vast's commitment to ensuring a spacefaring future for all.

Source: Vast