UK-based NewOrbit raises €16 million to build commercial satellites for very low Earth orbit (VLEO)
NewOrbit, a Reading-based SpaceTech company building satellites for very low earth orbit (VLEO), has closed an oversubscribed €16 million ($18.5 million) Series A round to fund the launch of the world’s first commercial satellite to fly at 200-300 km.
The round was led by Voyager Ventures, with leading angel investors including David Kirk (former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA), Lawrence Leuschner (co-founder and former CEO of TIER Mobility), and the family office Custos participating in the round. The round also received continued backing from Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF and Illusian.
Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, said, “For sixty years, VLEO has been treated as too hostile an environment for commercial satellites — but it is in fact the most valuable empty real estate in space. Today, no one in the industry has a reliable, affordable and fast way to fly payloads in very-low Earth orbit. We built our NEO-1 satellite to do exactly that.”
Founded in May 2021, NewOrbit builds satellites for very low Earth orbit (VLEO), a band of near-Earth space at 200–300km historically reserved for spy satellites and the International Space Station. Its mission is to engineer Earth’s lowest orbiting satellite to advance global connectivity and insight.
The team building NewOrbit includes senior engineers from SpaceX, NASA, Tesla and Airbus. Its advisory board comprises senior figures from the global space industry, such as Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (2003-2015), and Sir Chris Deverell, former Commander of UK Joint Forces.
According to the company, three forces have rendered VLEO commercially unviable since the dawn of the space age: aerodynamic drag, which pulls spacecraft back to Earth within weeks; atomic oxygen, which corrodes their surfaces; and aerodynamic torques, which destabilise their orientation.
NewOrbit claims that it has built purpose-engineered satellites, equipped with the company’s in-house propulsion system, to withstand these conditions and operate reliably in VLEO for up to five years.
VLEO’s commercial logic is simple: flying lower improves visibility and connectivity, all at significantly reduced costs. From 200–300 km, NewOrbit states that it will be able to offer the highest-quality satellite imagery available today, at 20x lower cost than conventional satellites, alongside faster data speeds.
The UK startup believes these advantages could unlock new space economy paradigms, like 5G direct-to-device from space and live HD video, which aren’t possible with current orbital geometry.
Matthew Blain, Partner at Voyager Ventures, said, “VLEO is the next foundational shift in the global space industry. The technology will unlock order of magnitude improvements in earth observation at a fraction of the cost today. We’re proud to partner with NewOrbit on their journey to become the leading provider of commercial VLEO satellites globally.”
With this fresh funding, the company plans to build NewOrbit’s NEO Production Complex, scheduled to open in 2027. The facility will incorporate the company’s first commercial satellite for launch in 2028. This launch will mark the first time commercial customer payloads have been flown at altitudes between 200-300 km
It will then expand from an initial capacity of ten satellites annually to several per week at full operation, creating the manufacturing foundation necessary to scale up VLEO commercialisation. At full operation, the company claims that this complex will be Europe’s largest dedicated VLEO production facility and a strategic industrial asset within the continent’s sovereign space ecosystem.
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