August Investment Activity
August 7 – KKR & Co. announced that it acquired a minority ownership interest in OHB SE (OHB) for $110m, including a $33m convertible debt investment in OHB subsidiary Rocket Factory Augsburg AG, in a transaction that values OHB at $1.08b and will result in its privatization through delisting from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
August 21 – Space station developer Axiom Space, Inc. announced that it raised $350m in a Series C investment round from Aljazira Capital and Boryung Corporation to fund work with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration on a private space station that will host scientific projects currently carried out at the International Space Station.
August 29 – SatSure Analytics India Private Ltd., an Earth imaging start-up that plans to use satellite data for agricultural insurance applications, announced that it raised $15m in a Series A investment round led by Baring Private Equity Partners India and Promus Ventures, with participation from Omidyar Network India, xto10X, Force Ventures, Luckbox Ventures and IndigoEdge Advisors.
August 30 – Finland-based satellite flight software start-up ReOrbit oy announced that it raised $7.4m in its seed funding round led by Inventure VC, with participation from 10xFounders, Icebreaker.vc, Expansion and YesVC.
August Satellite Procurement Transactions
August 8 – Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PJSC announced that it selected Airbus Defence and Space to manufacture the Al Yah 4 and Al Yah 5 geostationary communications satellites, which are expected to replace the Al Yah 1 and Al Yah 2 satellites in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
August 8 – GHGSat Inc. announced that it selected Spire Global Inc. (Spire) to manufacture four more 16U cubesats— adding to the three 16U cubesats that it ordered from Spire in 2022—for its greenhouse gas monitoring constellation.
August 11 – Telesat announced that it secured full funding for Lightspeed, its planned $3.5b low-Earth orbit broadband constellation, through a combination of Canadian federal and provincial support, its own equity commitments and certain vendor financing, and that it selected MDA Ltd. to manufacture Lightspeed's 198 satellites under a $1.6b contract, reflecting a roughly 100-satellite reduction in the size of the constellation, which is now expected to be deployed beginning in 2026 and to provide polar and global services starting in 2027.
August Mergers & Acquisitions
August 8 – EchoStar Corporation (EchoStar) and DISH Network Corporation (Dish) announced that they entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction whereby EchoStar shareholders will receive 2.85 shares of Dish stock for each share of EchoStar stock at a premium of 12.9% to EchoStar shareholders. The merger is expected to advance the companies' strategic aims to develop enhanced 5G service offerings through the combination of EchoStar's satellite-based capabilities and Dish's spectrum rights and terrestrial network. Upon closing of the transaction, Dish shareholders will own roughly 69% of the combined company.
August 17 – BAE Systems, Inc. announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the aerospace division of Ball Corporation for $5.6b, with the expectation that the division's $2.2b in forecasted sales for 2023 could grow to $4b by 2030 based on rising levels of market demand for its products.
August 31 – MDA Ltd. announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SatixFy Space Systems UK Ltd., the digital payload division of Israel-based user terminal, modem and chipset developer SatixFy Communications Ltd., in a transaction valued at $60m.
August Launch Services Round-up
August 3 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully launched the Galaxy-37 satellite for Intelsat S.A. (Intelsat) on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and then recovered the vehicle's first stage. Manufactured by Maxar Technologies Inc., the satellite will provide C-band broadcast services to U.S.- based users and is the final satellite to be deployed by Intelsat in connection with its C-band clearing efforts. The satellite includes the Horizons-4 payload, which is jointly owned with JSAT International Inc. and will provide Ku-band connectivity services to users across the Pacific Ocean and United States.
August 6, 7, 11, 16, 22, 26, 31 – SpaceX successfully launched batches of 22, 15, 22, 22, 21, 22 and 22 Starlink satellites, respectively, each time on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
August 10 – Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. conducted its first suborbital spaceflight for private astronauts with the VSS Unity.
August 24 – Rocket Lab, Inc. successfully launched a nextgeneration Acadia satellite for Capella Space Corp.'s synthetic aperture radar constellation on an Electron launch vehicle, achieving a development milestone in the process by using a previously flown Rutherford engine for the first time.
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