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Satellite Spotlight | Anduril acquires tactical comms Klas

Satellite Spotlight | Anduril acquires tactical comms Klas

An Imagining Forward Newsletter, Edition #21

Imagining Forward
May 06, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

connecting the deep tech ecosystem with a weekly curated newsletter

space brew

deal flow

government

Terrean Orbital wins $237M USSF IDIQ deal for satellite bus & rideshare payload services (SN).
V2X secures $140M USSF fixed price contract for outpost station infrastructure (AT).
Ursa major secures $28.5M fixed-price AFRL deal for Draper hypersonic propulsion (AT).
Magna Petra & NASA ink CRADA deal for moon to earth helium-3 supply chain (SN).

series A+

True Anomaly raises $260M Series C split-debt-equity by Acel, Riot, ACME, & Stifel Bank to scale GEO & cislunar DoD commercialization operations (PL).
Exterra raises $20M Series A by Clean Energy & BDC Capital repurposing mining asbestos waste into a decarbonization operation (BK).

m&a

AeroVironment acquires BlueHalo for $4.1B to scale defense tech across air, land, sea, space & cyber (PL).
Aerospacelab, Mitsui Busan Aerospace & JAXA partner on payload launch services (SN).

headlines

🚀

Novaspace forecasts $944B space economy by 2033 with defense spending leading a $348B boom in downstream satellite operations (SN).
USSF achieves key military survivability milestone, paving way for space infrastructure modernization opportunities with S2E2 (SN).
DoD seeks tactical, cost-effective approaches to in-orbit refueling (SN).
Firefly loses Lockheed Martin satellite payload in mission failure (VS).

🤖

UAE approves eVTOL capacity expanding air taxi market targeting 650,000 annual Abu Dhabi visitors (AIN).
Capella Space achieves L2 CMCC certificate validated by Kratos gaining access to US government controlled unclassified data (SN).
RIC Robotics unveils a 20ft autonomous Giantroid to combat labor shortages & accelerate construction (AZ).

community spotlight

today, 05/06

Climate changemakers (NY).
DTLA happy hour (LA).

wednesday, 05/07

Tech happy hour (LA).
Robot demo open mic (SF).

thursday, 05/08

Hardware meetup @ Cornell (NY).
Non dilutive capital x DTI x SBIR (LA).
Female founders lunch (LA).
Medtech happy hour (LA).
Deep tech talk x N8N (LA).
Wearables workshop x Omi AI (SF).
eVTOL demo x Pivotal (SF).
Seed founder dinner x Fidelity (SF).

friday, 05/09

Pitch & demo x Nucleate (LA).
Bootstrapped breakfast (SF).

saturday, 05/10

Edge AI workshop x Qualcomm (LA).

upcoming

RSVP for marquee NYTW panel - Commerce in Space (NY).
RSVP for first TTW panel - Quantum in Space (TO).

highlights

Bug Mars raising Seed $1.5M for insect farming infrastructure - Natalie Duncan.
Spiral Blue raising to launch LiDAR satellites seeks intros - Taofiq Huq.

/ message for an intro

Take me to the full events calendar of 2025.

cosmic weekly insights

Soviet Cosmos-482 by @konstructivizm on X

Must read

Key features of military grade drones (AZ).

Dual protection impact of quantum computing on cloud security (HN - audio available).

Preparing for the Impact of Quantum Computing on Cloud Security | HackerNoon

Quantum computing is fast approaching, threatening cloud security-leaders must act now to defend the emergence of data as new cryptographic risks.

hackernoon.com/preparing-for-the-impact-of-quantum-computing-on-cloud-security

💻 Imagining Forward Website: Upcoming events & more.

🤝 2025 Calendar: Must-attend space tech, deep tech events in North America.