The edge of space (12/6/22)

Good morning. Ryan had a great time representing Payload in the UAE and moderating panels on megaconstellations and space agencies at the Abu Dhabi Space Debate. Keep an eye out for a recap of the event later this week. In the meantime, though, we're look forward to seeing many of you at our happy hour in Austin tonight.

In today's newsletter:🔭 Slingshot raise 🎧 Pathfinder #0026🔁 On the move

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Slingshot Raises Series A-2

This morning, Slingshot Aerospace, an Austin-based space situational awareness startup, announced the closing of a $40.85M Series A-2 round.

Cap table: Sway Ventures led the round, with participation from C16 Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Draper Associates. In addition to the equity round, Slingshot received a venture loan from Horizon Technology Finance ($HRZN).

A→A2: Slingshot raised $9.6M in its first round of Series A funding in Oct. 2020, then announced a $25M Series A-1 in March of this year. For those following along at home, that puts the total Series A funding so far at $75.45M, and the company’s total fundraising at $82.85M.

All eyes on space: For Slingshot, the name of the game is space safety and sustainability. “It’s time for a digital revolution when it comes to removing that uncertainty, and reducing risk on orbit to preserve those assets that are so vital to our way of life today,” Melanie Stricklan, 21-year US Air Force veteran and CEO of Slingshot Aerospace, told Payload in March.

Slingshot’s core technology is a digital space twin, which is designed to be a complete virtualization of everything in the space domain, from huge satellites to tiny pieces of debris. On top of that digital twin technology, Slingshot has built two central products:

1. Slingshot Beacon, a platform providing collision avoidance information and communication capabilities to government and commercial users

2. Slingshot Laboratory, an astronautics training tool

The company also operates a global network of sensors that feed data into the digital space twin. To pad out its SSA platform, Slingshot announced in August that it had acquired Numerica’s space domain awareness (SDA) division and UK-based Seradata.

“These acquisitions bring a single, unified space intelligence platform to the market that the market needs, and hasn’t seen,” Stricklan told Payload following those acquisitions.

The fresh funds: Slingshot said that part of the A-2 round went toward financing the acquisition of the two data houses. Looking forward, the company aims to bolster its product offerings and make further inroads with its civil, commercial, and defense customer bases. Slingshot is also looking to augment its global network of sensors for even better visibility of the space domain environment.

Zoom out: Commercial SSA, “while niche today,” could grow into a $1.4B market by 2032, Deloitte projects in a recent report.

Pathfinder #0026, featuring Jane Poynter

In today’s episode of the Pathfinder podcast, we’re talking all about a gentler type of suborbital space tourism. In Pathfinder #0026, we sit down with Jane Poynter, the co-CEO and cofounder of Space Perspective. Today’s episode is brought to you by Altek Space.

Jane was a member of the Biosphere 2 experiment, spending two years inside a closed ecosystem. She also cofounded Paragon Space Development Corp., which creates life support systems for spacecraft and stations. Now she’s working on Space Perspective, which has raised nearly $70M to date, is closing in on 100 employees, and aims to launch commercial service in late 2024.

Space Perspective is selling tickets for $125,000 a pop, and its capsule is designed to take a crew of eight (and one pilot) nearly 100,000 ft. above Earth.

What we covered: a sneak peek

This was a fun episode that ran the gamut from controlled environment experiments to breaking the world’s record for highest jump to what to do if a customer is overserved on a space balloon. Here’s a sample of what we discussed over the course of an hour:

• Spaceship Neptune’s interior and exterior design

• Ticket sales; pricing power; and supply and demand

• The in-cabin amenities and cuisine

• Recruiting and fundraising

• Voyager, Space Perspective’s new ship, and spaceport strategy

…plus a whole lot more. You won’t want to miss this wide-ranging conversation.

Where to get Pathfinder #0026

📺 Watch on YouTube🎧 Listen on Apple📱 Get it on Spotify

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Today's Webinar Time Change

Today's webinar on lunar communications has slipped 30 minutes, but we're still on. Sign up using the link below if you haven't done so already and would like to join us.

In Other News

• Orion swung by the Moon and is heading home.

• Landspace, a Chinese company, is preparing to launch Zhuque-2, a methane-fueled rocket.

• Saudi Arabia says it’s in talks to be involved in a next-generation, commercial space station.

• SpaceX and OneWeb pushed back their launch to no earlier than 5:27pm ET Thursday.

The View from Space