Military/Aerospace Electronics

Satellite Vu has raised a further £12.7m in Series A-2 funding, bringing its investment total to £30.5m. The UK thermal infrared satellite firm says the A2 round was led by Molten Ventures, with participation from Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC, A/O Proptech, Lockheed Martin, Ridgeline Ventures, Earth Sciences Foundation, and Stellar Ventures. All are existing investors. The company said the ...

The UK government has announced £50 million of funding – the Space Clusters and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) – to support research and development with a focus on building the UK’s space infrastructure. Basically, SCIF aims to help build or upgrade R&D facilities and equipment that can bring high value space technologies to market. Specifically, it will award match funding to ...

Iceye, the Finnish satellite imagery specialist, has introduced a new imaging mode, dubbed “Dwell”, for its synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) small satellites. It’s a commercial system aimed at users who need to extract more information from radar imagery, including movement and direction of man-made objects, for example vehicles. It enables the radar imaging satellites to focus on a single point on ...

The UK has hosted the first AUKUS AI and autonomy trial, with the aim of driving artificial intelligence into military use. Service personnel, scientists and engineers from the three AUKUS nations (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) combined for the exercise taking place on the Salisbury Plains. It saw “AI-enabled assets” involved in a collaborative swarm to detect and track military ...

Viasat can finally complete its acquisition of Inmarsat, following the announcement that the European Commission (EC) has unconditionally approved Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat. Regulatory approval has already been forthcoming from the UK and the US. The U.K. Competition & Markets Authority gave clearance on 9 May 2023 and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on 19 May 2023. The two companies ...

An Imperial College prototype quantum accelerometer has been tested on a Royal Navy ship. The accelerometer uses ultra-cold atoms, whose wave-like properties allow them to be measured accurately by lasers as they move under acceleration. Quantum accelerometers and gyros are of enormous interest for inertial navigation systems as the quantum nature of the parameters measured have the potential to offer ...

Orbex, the UK-based private, low-cost orbital launch services specialist, has announced construction has begun at Sutherland Spaceport, making it the first vertical launch spaceport to be built on the UK mainland. The site, which was formerly known as Space Hub Sutherland, will be the ‘home’ spaceport of Forres-based rocket and launch services company, Orbex. It intends to use the site ...

Almost 350 licences have been granted to companies in the UK space sector since July 2021, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced, highlighting its work in this area. As well as the 343 licenses issued, the regulator is also monitoring more than 750 UK satellites in space, including supporting the deployment of the OneWeb satellite constellation, one of ...

A joint Price Waterhouse Coopers and UK Space Agency report says the UK is the most attractive destination for private investment in space after the United States. The report – ‘Expanding frontiers – The down to earth guide to investing in space’ – highlights expected global space sector growth of up to 11% per year over the next decade. It ...

EnduroSat, a satellite data services company, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by the investment firm CEECAT Capital, which focuses on high growth markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Existing investors, for example, the German Seed fund Freigeist Capital, also joined the round. EnduroSat is headquartered in Luxembourg but has its main R&D operations in ...