European Spaceflight
• Andrew Parsonson
HyImpulse has expanded its Series A funding round by more than €50 million as the German launch company prepares flights of its SR75 and SL1 rockets. The financing will support suborbital and orbital launch services for commercial, research and defense customers.
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Russia’s Rassvet-3 constellation, positioned as a rival to Starlink, is struggling after all 16 satellites in its second batch failed to reach their intended orbit. At least three of the first 32 satellites likely suffered outright failures, leaving only 12 of 32 launched spacecraft set for long-term orbit.
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HyImpulse has expanded its Series A funding round by more than €50 million as the German launch company prepares flights of its SR75 and SL1 rockets. The financing will support suborbital and orbital launch services for commercial, research and defense customers.
Isar Aerospace will launch Astroscale Japan’s ADRAS-J2 mission, a dedicated effort to remove orbital debris. The mission brings together a commercial launch provider and an in-space servicing company, highlighting continued industry development around technologies intended to address the growing debris environment.
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Seraphim has launched a new exchange-traded fund offering investors targeted exposure to the space sector, positioning the vehicle as a pure-play alternative amid heightened attention following the IPO of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The fund creates a new channel for capital seeking concentrated exposure to space-related businesses.
Japan’s ispace reported an 85% year-over-year decline in sales and a deeper operating loss for the three months ended June 30. The lunar infrastructure company said the deterioration was expected and does not change its ability to meet its full-year sales target.
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With Starship Flight 14 targeted for launch in the coming weeks, SpaceX is expanding facilities and launch infrastructure in Florida. The work is intended to enable Starship operations from Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A and, eventually, SLC-37, broadening the program’s launch-site capacity.
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