NorthStar raises $15 million for debris-tracking satellites waiting on Rocket Lab

WASHINGTON — NorthStar Earth and Space has raised another $15 million to support its first four satellites for tracking objects in orbit, the Canadian company said Dec. 6 as it waits on Rocket Lab to get back to flight so they can launch on a future mission.

The company said it has now raised a total 143 million Canadian dollars ($105 million) for building out a space situational awareness (SSA) business following the Series D funding round.

An initial batch of satellites provided by Spire Global was due to launch this summer with Virgin Orbit before the air-launch company fell into bankruptcy in April.

NorthStar pivoted to Rocket Lab for a fall launch only to face another delay following the September failure of the company’s Electron rocket to deploy an imaging satellite for Capella Space.

After completing an investigation into the failure, Rocket Lab recently said it expects to return to flight from its launchpad in New Zealand no earlier than Dec. 13, with a mission for Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space. (iQPS), a Japan-based Earth imaging company.

Payload integration is complete for our 42nd Electron launch!

We’ve got a final step to clear before launch day – completing a wet dress rehearsal to confirm all systems are ready for lift-off. As such, we’re currently targeting no earlier than 13 Dec NZT for the launch of The… pic.twitter.com/0dz60wkxrw

— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) November 26, 2023

NorthStar was second in line to launch before Rocket Lab’s September failure. 

Rocket Lab said it plans to share details of the next mission in the queue after launching iQPS. The company’s fastest turnaround record to date between Electron launches is seven days.

Stewart Bain, NorthStar’s CEO, declined to say where its satellites are now in Rocket Lab’s pipeline but said they are currently being packed at Spire’s facilities in Glasgow, Scotland, to be shipped soon to New Zealand.

NorthStar’s latest funding round was supported by Telesystem Space, a family-owned technology fund based in Canada, along with the government of Quebec and Luxembourg Future Fund.

The launch contract with Rocket Lab includes two more missions of four satellites that NorthStar says would be enough to provide full commercial SSA services, designed to track objects as small as five centimeters in low Earth orbit and 40 centimeters in geostationary orbit.

The satellites in the first batch are each the size of 16 cubesats, and NorthStar’s agreement with Spire includes options for up to 30 spacecraft in total, enabling the SSA platform to track objects more frequently.

This article was updated Dec. 8 after NorthStar specified the amount of funding it has raised to date.

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