Field of View (FOV) - October 2023

Approach Venture’s Field of View (or “FOV”) is a monthly newsletter providing space industry participants with key insights, trends, updates and analysis to stay informed. Field of View is produced alongside space industry experts, founders, startup operators as well as commercial and government decision makers.

Approach Venture was formed to enable founding teams building the future of frontier technology to achieve their full potential. Today, Approach supports space companies ranging from stealth to publicly-traded as well as investors looking to participate in their growth potential. Connect with Approach to learn more.

This month’s Field of View is presented by Datum Source.

Founded by former SpaceX supply chain / procurement experts, Datum Source’s software streamlines procurement ops by replacing spreadsheets, Jira, email and other fragmented tools. It seamlessly integrates with your existing ERP, MES, PLM, and Accounting software, offering a connected solution for requisitions, secure RFQs, order tracking, and more. Additionally, Datum offers "buyer-for-hire" services to assemble a network of top-tier custom-fabrication vendors on your behalf.

Whether you’re a buyer looking for an expert supply chain team to open your business up to a high quality, reliable network of suppliers or a supplier looking to connect with well-funded frontier tech buyers, Datum’s managed marketplace has you covered.

Emerging Trends

As access to space increases and launch costs decrease, space companies are entering the market with missions and product roadmaps catered towards their visions of the ideal buildout of in-space infrastructure. Below contains this month’s emerging trends to keep an eye on as the space economy evolves.

Direct-to-Device (D2D) Connectivity
Direct-to-device business models have continued to emerge this year and successful demo missions by companies like Lynk and AST SpaceMobile have taken place. Said demos included a successful, real-time voice trial using unmodified phones in the US connected to a LEO satellite as well as a 5G phone call from Hawaii to Spain in a cellular dead zone for ~2 minutes. SpaceX’s Starlink service is also advertising text (2024), IoT (2025) and voice & data (2025) over the coming years without modification to hardware or firmware and no special apps are required. Eliminating dead zones to ensure connectivity in remote locations is one major benefit of D2D offerings.

Legacy satellite communications providers operating within the D2D space believe the market will not materialize for another decade or so while early-stage companies and SpaceX believe speed (see Founder Tip below) and proof of connectivity in remote locations will result in a massive market much sooner. Approach is recognizing an increasing number of emerging startups within the US and EU with businesses focused on D2D service models materializing by ~2027 timeframe.

In-Space Manufacturing
The ISS is an in-space research facility that has been paramount in progressing space research and our understanding of how products form in microgravity. However, different facilities built with mass manufacturing in mind are required to scale the industry.

When most people hear about in-space manufacturing, they often believe it must cost too much to be economically viable. However, we are at a point in materials science and development where it requires millions to billions of dollars for a 1% increase in performance. Manufacturing in space is actually a low-cost method to achieve performance increases that are orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial manufacturing. Use cases include semiconductors for longer-range electric vehicles as well as new / better medicines that treat a wide variety of cancers. These uses and others have been studied, socialized and funded to be viable candidates that can receive the benefits of manufacturing in microgravity environments.

Stealth Spotlight 🔦

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Stealth Company is producing a core technology focused on the development of high-power laser satellites orbiting the Moon to provide wireless power transfer to lunar surface assets. To enable this technology, and to generate revenue prior to the lunar economy coming online, the Company is developing a highly maneuverable & modular SmallSat bus to be used for in-space inspection missions of friend & foe satellites. The team is looking to raise a Pre-Seed round near term.

Potential investors, Connect with Approach to learn more and meet the founders.

Space Sector Trading Comps

Brought to you by one of the space industry’s leading investment banking teams located in New York City, Deutsche Bank.

Regulatory Rundown

Our rapid-growth space economy is gaining more visibility across the globe. Regulatory Rundown covers select space policies, evolving legislation updates, licensing requirements and top stories involving regulatory bodies.

In last month’s Field of View newsletter, we discussed Varda Space Industries’ ongoing saga to return their inaugural in-space manufacturing mission to Earth under new Federal Aviation Administration Part 450 regulations. In recent weeks, Varda announced an agreement with Australia-based spaceport operator Southern Launch to conduct future Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) operations at South Australia’s Koonibba Test Range (KTR), a move that would ostensibly sidestep a major hurdle in commercializing Varda’s novel microgravity pharmaceutical processing technology. But shifting future re-entry operations from the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) to Australia’s KTR (and, perhaps eventually, to other suitable ranges) would still require Varda to obtain a vehicle operator license from the FAA because Varda is a US company and therefore still subject to FAA authority. Nonetheless, conducting landing attempts at an alternate site could potentially simplify complex coordination tasks between the startup, regulatory authorities and range operators such as the US Air Force.

While the UTTR offers a very well-understood airway for space vehicles re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, and has been NASA’s go-to choice for recovering the OSIRIS-REx, Stardust and Genesis sample return capsules, the sprawling range hosts a variety of sensitive military activities, including supersonic flight test and explosive ordnance disposal. Safely integrating Varda’s re-entry into that range’s crowded schedule may still be possible on a one-time or ongoing basis, but ultimately may not prove to be a reliable “single source” option for the company’s planned high-tempo launch and re-entry business model.

The Varda team should be applauded for exploring options to add flexibility and redundancy to their strategy by seeking international agreements to activate alternate landing sites. But the unfortunate complications they’ve experienced in securing the requisite permissions to bring home their experimental pharmaceutical payload should serve as a stark reminder that the current regulatory environment does not necessarily fully support the bold ambitions of America’s space startup ecosystem.

This month’s Field of View is presented by New North Ventures.

New North Ventures is a unique, early-stage venture fund investing in bold ideas and leaders advancing innovation in our nation’s interests. New North is committed to supporting companies who are well-positioned to regain clear leadership in digital authenticity, augmented intelligence and cyber security.

Force Multiplier

A commonly referenced term within the DoD, a force multiplier is a tool, strategy or person that, when added to or employed by a team, significantly increases mission success and team potential. Each month, you’ll find select force multipliers enabling space companies to level up as they look to scale.

USG Collaboration with Indian Startups.

• In June, India became the 27th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, demonstrating its commitment to sustainable and transparent space activity

• In August, India made history by becoming the first country to land in the lunar south pole region. With this, India joined an elite club of countries who have achieved a soft landing on the Moon; the US, former Soviet Union and China

• In October, US Space Force announced its first ever Cooperative Research & Development Agreements (or CRADAs) with non-US companies - both of which are headquartered within India’s capital, New Delhi. 114AI is an artificial intelligence startup focused on dual-use space domain awareness while 3rd iTech is the country’s sole image sensor company (also has an office in Berkeley, CA). Both companies will work closely with Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate to advance innovation in Earth observation sensors and space domain awareness

Dan Smoot has the Conn at Maxar Intelligence.

Last month, Maxar announced restructuring plans to split the business into two: Maxar Space Infrastructure and Maxar Intelligence. This came soon after their $6.4 Billion take private by private equity firm, Advent International.

Effective November 6, former Cisco and Salesforce executive Dan Smoot will be replacing Daniel Jablonsky at Maxar Intelligence as CEO. In the same announcement, Maxar also presented a number of other new additions to its senior leadership team hailing from Palantir, Beyond Gravity, Blacksky and Raytheon.

Tracked Opportunities

Approach Venture is tracking >100 active federal solicitations for space and defense-related capabilities. Below is an illustrative list of opportunities on our radar that should be on yours too.

To identify more targeted opportunities tied to your respective roadmap, Connect with Approach. Our team also maintains a robust Opportunity Tracker in case you have interest in receiving.

• AFWERX’s 24.4 Open Topic Direct to Phase II (D2P2) was released this month to solicit dual-use defense technologies to solve critical gaps tied to Air Force and Space Force national security capabilities. Offerors must identify a defense customer, end-user and TPOC (technical point of contact) to be eligible for proposal submission

• 2024 TACFI Notice of Opportunity is active, and program funding will be used to help SBIR participants bridge their solutions across the “TRL Valley of Death” to deliver operational capabilities and technologies to the Defense Acquisition Force

• SDA’s TAP Lab opened their Apollo Cohort Opportunity, a collaborative tech accelerator for bringing together the space industry to solve critical SDA challenges. Project Apollo is seeking solutions between TRL 4 and TRL 6 related to space domain awareness, threat warning & assessment, and space battle management

• USSF / SSC released an RFI supporting existing efforts focused on launching / maintaining comms satellites for greater maneuverability that are smaller than traditional GEO birds

• NASA released the Universal Payload Interface Challenge (UPIC) through their TechLeap Prize program to develop an optimized flight vehicle interface to improve the ease of payload integration. This challenge will provide awardees up to $650,000 in development funds and flight testing opportunities to advance their proposed solutions

Founder Tip

“Speed Brings Great Advantages.” - Mike Cassidy, serial entrepreneur of 5 high tech companies resulting in multi-million $ exits (including Apollo Fusion who sold to Astra for $145mm).

Did You Know?

In collaboration by SSC, USSPACECOM and SpOC, Space Systems Command has a new Front Door website that went live ~3 weeks ago. If you’d like to meet with a certain FIELDCOM (SpOC) or COCOM, be sure to place this detail within the comments on your submission.

Click here to submit your Company’s product or service.