Episode Details

Main Topics

ODC

* Google announced a multi-year contract worth $920M/mo to use 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs in SpaceX’s Colossus supercomputer. [source]

* SpaceX announced the AI1 sat - a 150 kW bus with a 70 meter wide footprint for use in orbital data center infrastructure. [source]

* Orbital raised $5M pre-seed for orbital data centers led by Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun targeting a 100kW compute payload and a 100,000 satellite constellation. [source]

Comms

* The FCC announced their verdict to waive the 50% threshold requirements for Amazon LEO’s spectrum license by the end of July; the 100% requirement remains in place for July of 2029. [source]

* The USSF announced that Rocket Lab and K2 Space were subselected by Viasat and SES as primary subsuppliers for the persistent and resilient communication milsatcom program. [source]

* Satellite communication stalwart Avanti sold their Hylas-3 geostationary satellite - currently operating in orbit - to Sky Perfect JSAT, effectively divesting from 25% of their GEO portfolio. [source]

* The Canadian Space Agency awarded $2.4M to MDA, Kepler, and Calian for ground station network capabilities as part of the upcoming RADARDSAT initiative through Canada’s Defense Industrial Strategy. [source]

Space Sovereignty

* ICEYE raised €1B split between a primary Series F of €450M and a secondary placement for the remainder at a valuation of over €10B led by General Atlantic. [source]

* ICEYE and Rheinmetall Space Solutions’ joint venture announced a partnership with Constellr, Ororatech, Liveeo, and Reflex Aerospace, leveraging ICEYE’s bus platform and scale manufacturing to pair with the new wavelength payloads of their new partners. [source]

* Airbus announced a partnership with Rohde & Schwartz, Constellr, Orbint, and High Performance Space Structure Systems to develop an intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform. [source]

* Thal