Good morning and May the 4th be with you. Read the rest of this newsletter, you will.

In today's edition...
🌎 3D mapping the world
✈️ Airbus Q1 results
🔒 Kratos Q1 results
📝 The contract report

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Mapping the World in 3D

NUVIEW is looking to see the world in a whole new dimension.

The Orlando, FL-based startup emerged from stealth this morning with an ambition to map the globe in 3D each year and $1.2B in prospective customer contracts under its belt.

The world in 3D: While there’s no shortage of companies supplying optical, hyperspectral, or radar imagery from space, it’s much rarer to come across 3D data—and where it exists, it’s fairly targeted and low-resolution.

• A handful of scientific experiments collect LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data to create 3D images, including NASA’s ICESat-2, which maps Arctic ice, and GEDI, a currently paused ISS instrument that measures Earth’s forests.

• Otherwise, targeted LiDAR data over a particular region can be collected by aircraft.

• So far, NUVIEW founder and CEO Clint Graumann said, only 5% of the Earth’s surface has been imaged in LiDAR.

NUVIEW’s 3D vision: Graumann has been working in the EO business for 15 years. Over the past few years, a number of evolving factors have converged to enable a 3D-mapping constellation:

• Lower launch costs

• Improved LiDAR sensors, e.g., “Geiger-mode” sensors with lower energy requirements

• Improved satellite buses that can handle the higher power requirements for LiDAR sensors compared to optical or radar imagers

“We're going to build a constellation of 20 satellites to map the entire land surface of the Earth once per year,” Graumann told Payload. “This is a huge undertaking, because the Earth is about 150 million square kilometers.”

NUVIEW holds proprietary IP and patents pending that it believes will open the doors to creating the first 3D map of the world from space (although others, including YC alum Array Labs, are also vying for that achievement).

“And we don't just want to do it once,” Graumann said. “We want to do it every single year, and then take that data and make it available not just to the industry at large, but also to other Earth observation companies that can use our data to really make their data better for the market.”

A market for LiDAR: The market for 3D imagery of the Earth spans a variety of sectors, including downstream utilities and energy corridor mapping, forestry and carbon monitoring, flood mapping and water body management, as well as a slew of climate applications, Graumann said.

Over the past year and a half in full-fledged stealth operations, NUVIEW has conducted a preliminary design review of its LiDAR payload with key agency partners and secured $1.2B in customer contracts.

• Of that, ~$1.1B is signed in early adopter agreements, which will convert to revenue once the company has up-to-spec data available for sale.

• The remaining ~$100M is in LoIs.

Looking ahead: NUVIEW has raised an undisclosed amount of funding and secured a multi-million dollar USG contract that will enable it to hire a host of engineers on top of the 21 people it currently employs (a mix of full-timers and contractors).

The company is currently looking at a ~3-year turnaround to its first satellite launch. After that, it plans to launch a batch of five satellites every 18 months until its constellation is complete.

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Meet Millennium

Millennium Space Systems is an end-to-end small satellite prime contractor, delivering full mission solutions to customers. From design, build, integration and test to mission operations and tbatraining, the team enables customers’ missions. The in-house ground software enables system operations, and the autonomy they have developed allows for near lights-out operations.

The company is a prime contractor known for designing and building high-performance small satellites in incredibly fast timelines. Its small satellite constellations work across orbits on national security, science and other missions.

Airbus Reports Q1 2023 Earnings

Airbus reported €11.8B ($13B) in Q1 revenue yesterday, but the company’s defense and space division saw a 21.5% drop in net order intake.

The overall numbers:

• Free cash flow = €-900M (-$1B)

• Revenue = €11.8B ($13B), a slight decrease from last year’s €12B

• EBIT Adjusted = €800M ($885M)

Breaking out defense & space:

• Revenue = €2.3B ($2.6B), a 6% decrease YoY

• EBIT Adjusted = €36M ($40M)

Defense and space accounted for 19% of revenues this quarter. Of this, space systems represented about 25%. The 6% decrease in defense and space revenues was mainly due to lower sales in military air systems and space systems. The division saw an order intake of $2.77B (€2.5B), which included the ESM-2 for the Orion spacecraft and an MRTT for NATO.

This quarter zoomed out: Airbus joined forces with other major European space companies in a bid for the EU’s proposed multi-orbit connectivity constellation. This joint bid intends to foster more collaboration among major space players in Europe. The company’s space and defense division also joined Starlab, Voyager Space’s commercial space station project, and saw the launch of the JUICE mission to Jupiter’s moons.

Kratos Q1 Financials

Kratos ($KTOS) is going all-in on space services after growing investment in the division drove strong overall sales growth, the company revealed Wednesday in its Q1 financial results.

Overall financials:

• Revenue = $231.8M, an 18% increase YoY

• Net income loss = -$7M

• Cash = $46.7M, down from $254.4M in Q1 2022

Breaking out space, satellite and cyber:

• Revenue = $88.8M, a 23% increase YoY

• Q1 bookings: $112.1M

In the first quarter, Kratos spent $10.2M on R&D, including significant investment in its growing OpenSpace software. OpenSpace is a satellite ground system that digitizes signals and analyzes data in the cloud. The platform provides a range of capabilities including command & control, telemetry tracking, and simulations to satellite end markets.

Space growth: Kratos' substantial investment in OpenSpace R&D resulted in net income and cash losses, but was also a significant driver of the company’s 18% YoY sales growth. Kratos has secured several major space contracts from the DoD, Intelsat, and OneWeb over the past few years.

+ Stock pulse check: $KTOS is flat in after-hours trading.

Register For Our Next Webinar

Launch costs have fallen dramatically over the past several years, but much of the focus of current offerings is on reaching LEO. Launches beyond this, like to GEO and Cislunar, are also ripe for cost disruption as demand is set to grow. The use of orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) in in-space transportation and services is a key factor in achieving this vision.

This webinar will dive into the launch market beyond LEO and how infrastructure like OTVs can push costs down.

In Other News

• The Czech Republic signed on to the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at NASA HQ.

• Maxar's $6.4B go-private deal with private equity firm Advent has been officially completed.

• Axiom is no longer targeting early May for its second mission to the ISS.

• Garmin ($GRMN) reported $1.15B of Q1 revenue, a 2% YoY decline.

• A bill to protect satellite operators from cyber attacks was introduced in the Senate.

The View from Space

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of two super bright, interacting galaxies.