spacetoday.net: Spaceflight raises $150 million for BlackSky constellation

Posted: Sun, Mar 18, 2018, 11:47 AM ET (1547 GMT)
BlackSky satellite illustration (Spaceflight Industries)

Spaceflight Industries announced Tuesday it has raised $150 million to fund development of its BlackSky constellation. Spaceflight said that Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio would take minority stakes in the company as part of a partnership announced last September. Mitsui and Co. Ltd. as well as existing investors are also contributing to the Series C round. Spaceflight and Thales Alenia will establish a joint venture called LeoStella LLC to manufacture satellites, starting with a set of 20 Earth-imaging satellites for the BlackSky constellation. That constellation, which will ultimately have 60 satellites, is designed to provide imagery at a resolution of one meter with multiple revisits per day.