Georgia Spaceport Setback

Camden County’s plan to build a spaceport has suffered a potentially fatal blow as the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that citizen initiated referendum rejecting the plan was constitutional. The Associated Press reports:

Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France (Leanspace PR) — Leanspace, the company building the digital infrastructure of the space industry, is today announcing a major milestone in its development with the closing of an oversubscribed Seed financing round of €6m ($6.4m). The funding will be used to scale up Leanspace’s cloud services platform, and was led by Karista and 42CAP, with complementary non-dilutive financing from Bpifrance. The new investors join leading space organizations already backing Leanspace, like Seraphim Space, the International Space University and strategic business angels.

The commercialization of the space industry and the ‘NewSpace’ paradigm have complexified, rather than simplified, the management of space missions. On top of the legacy requirements we’ve seen for decades: reliability, trust and bespoke developments, space programmes of today come with new needs: a drastic increase in agility and reduction of costs.

BORDEAUX, France (HyPrSpace PR) – HyPrSpace, a startup specializing in the design of space launchers, has announced that it has raised €1.1 million from the Geodesic fund, the French Tech Seed fund managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030, and private investors. This funding will allow the startup to strengthen its teams to accelerate the development of its OB-1 reusable launcher, and to offer a fast, economical, sovereign and more environmentally friendly orbiting service!

Founded in 2019 by Alexandre Mangeot, Sylvain Bataillard and Vincent Rocher, HyPrSpace aims to develop a launcher using a propulsion technology that facilitates access to space: Hybrid propulsion. This technology is reliable, inexpensive and has a lower carbon footprint, but until now it has suffered from a technological lock-in that makes the engines unusable for launch applications.

PARIS (CNES PR) — Several calls for projects and calls for applications have just been launched in the field of micro and mini-launchers to promote the emergence of French and European projects in this innovative segment, complementary to current launchers.

PARIS (CNES PR) — Karista announces the first closing of CosmiCapital, its venture capital fund initiated by CNES and entirely dedicated to NewSpace. Subscribed in particular by CNES, initiator of the fund, and the National Seed Fund 2 (FNA 2), managed on behalf of the State by Bpifrance, within the framework of the Future Investments Program (PIA), the fund will have an investment capacity of 38 million euros [US $43.9 million] to fulfill its main objective: take advantage of the unprecedented acceleration of the space economy and invest in French and European technology start-ups in the sector. With this closing, Karista completes its range of funds to become a European multi-fund venture management platform.

PARIS, July 16, 2020 (Exotrail PR) — Exotrail has raised 11 million euros ($13 million) to become a leader in on-orbit transportation for small satellites.

This Series A round was led by two European Venture Capital firms, Karista (through Paris Region Venture Fund) and Innovacom. IXO Private Equity, NCI-Waterstart, Turenne Capital and returning investors 360 Capital, Irdi Soridec Gestion and Bpifrance also invested.

SAINT-AGNES, France (Kineis PR) — Kinéis has reached its capital-raising target of 100 million euros [$110.6 million]. CLS, CNES, Bpifrance via the fund for Industrial Project Companies (SPI), financed by the ‘Investments for the Future’ Programme and the European Investment Bank, Ifremer, Thales, CELAD, BNP Paribas Développement, HEMERIA and other industrial and financial partners are investing in and supporting Kinéis’ ambition to provide universal satellite connectivity.

25 nanosatellites will be added to complement the service which has been provided by the Argos system to scientific and environmental communities for more than 40 years. Kinéis will also develop its activity in the new markets opened up by the IoT.

PARIS, December 10, 2019 (CNES PR) – The AI4GEO project to develop an automatic solution for producing 3D geospatial information, in which €30 million is to be invested over four years, is receiving €13.5 million in funding from the government’s PIA future investment programme led by the Secretariat General for Investment (SGPI) and operated by public investment bank Bpifrance. The signature of the contract marks France’s desire to acquire a 3D geospatial information capability at the cutting edge of innovation.