Citra Space
Apr 13 — Citra Space raised **$15 million** in Series A funding to expand its platform for identifying objects in orbit. The company provides space situational awareness and object identification services.
SPACEHAUS · Commercial space intelligence
Space Industry Weekly Briefing — 2026-04-13
Commercial space news and intelligence for the week ending 2026-04-13.
Week ending
Funding Rounds & Investment Activity
Archangel Lightworks
Apr 13 — Archangel Lightworks secured **£10 million** (approximately **$13 million**) in Series A funding to scale its optical ground infrastructure for satellite communications. The UK-based company is expanding its laser communication ground station network.
Sateliot
Apr 13 — Sateliot announced it is targeting **€100 million** (approximately **$110 million**) in a Series C funding round to finance the deployment of its 5G satellite constellation. The company is building direct-to-device connectivity services.
HawkEye 360
Apr 13 — HawkEye 360 filed for an initial public offering (IPO), marking a significant milestone for the RF geolocation and analytics provider. The company operates a constellation of satellites detecting radio frequency signals.
Contracts, Awards & Government Activity
EarthDaily
Apr 13 — EarthDaily secured an **eight-figure** AI-ready data subscription agreement with a U.S. defense technology client. The multi-year contract will provide Earth observation data optimized for AI applications to support defense and intelligence operations.
NASA
Apr 13 — Senator Jerry Moran, a key Senate appropriator, rejected proposed NASA budget cuts, signaling potential Congressional pushback against administration proposals. The statement provides crucial support for NASA's funding levels amid budget debates.
European Space Agency
Apr 13 — ESA opened its call for proposals to develop a crew launch abort demonstrator with a budget of **€1 million** for the initial phase. The project, first announced in November 2025, advances European human spaceflight capabilities.
Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships
Sophia Space
Apr 13 — Sophia Space signed an agreement with Kepler Communications to demonstrate orbital data center technology combining orbital compute with optical communications links. Kepler is operating **40 GPUs** in Earth orbit, currently the largest orbital compute cluster.
Launch Activity & Mission Milestones
NASA Artemis
Apr 12 — The Artemis II crew successfully completed a historic **10-day** lunar flyby mission, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego. The mission marked the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit in over **50 years**, with ESA's European Service Module powering and sustaining the Orion spacecraft throughout the journey.
SatVu
Apr 12 — UK-based SatVu launched HotSat-2, expanding its constellation of high-resolution thermal imaging satellites. The launch adds to the company's growing capability to provide thermal 'eyes in the sky' for Earth observation.
China National Space Administration
Apr 12 — China successfully conducted a Smart Dragon-3 sea launch, accelerating deployment of its orbital internet constellation. The launch demonstrates China's continued progress in building out its satellite broadband infrastructure.
ESA Proba-3
Apr 13 — ESA's Proba-3 mission released first science results showing surprisingly speedy solar wind movement close to the Sun. Since July 2025, the dual-satellite formation has created **57** precision solar coronagraphs, revealing new insights into solar physics.
Industry Context
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Apr 13 — A new report on 2025 launch activity shows smallsats dominated the global landscape as mass efficiency peaked. The analysis highlights the continued shift toward smaller, more efficient satellite designs across the commercial space industry.
Apr 13 — Industry analysis highlights growing concerns about orbital congestion and the need for pre-emptive crisis management as Earth's orbit fills up rapidly. Experts emphasize the awkward challenge of handling potential collision scenarios and debris mitigation.
Apr 12 — The NSA released a new Cybersecurity Information Sheet highlighting high-level cybersecurity risks and mitigation strategies for LEO satellite systems. The report comes amid increased Iranian cyber attacks targeting space companies, according to CISOs from Viasat, SES, Telesat, and Vantor.
Additional Updates
Atomic-6
Apr 13 — Atomic-6 launched ODC.space, the first online marketplace for purchasing orbital data center (ODC) capacity on-demand. The platform enables AI developers, software providers, and government agencies to secure compute capacity that delivers in half the time of terrestrial alternatives.
Logos Space
Apr 13 — Logos Space founder Milo Medin discussed building a resilient broadband constellation for a contested space era. The company is led by former SpaceX Starlink and Amazon Leo veterans focused on security-focused satellite communications architecture.
SSC
Apr 13 — SSC introduced Space Go, a service offering near real-time payload data delivery for satellite operators. The platform aims to streamline data access and reduce latency in satellite ground operations.
Kepler Communications
Apr 13 — Kepler Communications now operates **40 GPUs** in Earth orbit, representing the largest orbital compute cluster currently in operation. The company signed Sophia Space as its latest customer for orbital computing services.
SpaceX
Apr 13 — Industry speculation continues around SpaceX's potential IPO, which analysts describe as potentially the biggest IPO in history. Media coverage suggests Elon Musk is actively planning the public offering, though no official timeline has been announced.