NewOrbit Raises $18.5M for VLEO Commercial Satellites

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-08

A UK-based space tech company just pulled off something impressive. NewOrbit, a startup based in Reading, England, has closed an oversubscribed Series A round of $18.5 million (that's about €16 million for the math nerds out there). The money is going toward launching what they claim will be the world's first commercial satellite flying at an altitude between 124 and 186 miles above Earth. That might not sound like a huge deal, but in the space world, it's kind of a big deal. Very low Earth orbit (VLEO) has been the playground of spy satellites and the International Space Station for decades. Commercial players? They've stayed away. Until now. ### The Investors Behind the Mission Voyager Ventures led the round, and the list of participants reads like a who's who of tech and space. David Kirk, former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, is in. Lawrence Leuschner, who co-founded and ran TIER Mobility, is in. The family office Custos also joined. And existing backers like Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian all came back for more. That's a lot of smart money betting on what CEO Anatolii Papulov calls "the most valuable empty real estate in space." Here's what he had to say about it: > "For sixty years, VLEO has been treated as too hostile an environment for commercial satellites — but it is in fact the most valuable empty real estate in space. Today, no one in the industry has a reliable, affordable and fast way to fly payloads in very-low Earth orbit. We built our NEO-1 satellite to do exactly that." ### The Tech That Makes It Work So why hasn't anyone done this before? Three main reasons: - **Aerodynamic drag**: At those low altitudes, Earth's atmosphere pulls satellites back down within weeks. It's like trying to keep a balloon floating in a windstorm. - **Atomic oxygen**: This stuff is nasty. It corrodes satellite surfaces, eating away at them over time. - **Aerodynamic torques**: These forces destabilize a satellite's orientation, making it hard to keep it pointed where you want. NewOrbit claims they've solved all three problems. Their satellites come with an in-house propulsion system that can keep them flying reliably for up to five years. That's a huge leap from the weeks or months that previous VLEO missions lasted. The company was founded in May 2021, and the team is stacked with senior engineers from SpaceX, NASA, Tesla, and Airbus. Their advisory board includes Jean-Jacques Dordain, who ran the European Space Agency from 2003 to 2015, and Sir Chris Deverell, a former commander of UK Joint Forces. ### Why VLEO Matters for Business The commercial logic here is pretty straightforward. Flying lower means better visibility and faster connectivity, all at a fraction of the cost. From 124 to 186 miles up, NewOrbit says they can deliver the highest-quality satellite imagery available today at 20 times lower cost than conventional satellites. That's not a typo — twenty times cheaper. And it gets even more interesting. The company believes VLEO could unlock new space economy opportunities that aren't possible with current orbital setups. Think 5G direct-to-device from space. Think live HD video streaming from orbit. These aren't sci-fi fantasies anymore; they're becoming engineering realities. Matthew Blain, Partner at Voyager Ventures, summed it up well: > "VLEO is the next foundational shift in the global space industry. The technology will unlock order of magnitude improvements in earth observation at a fraction of the cost today." ### What's Next: The NEO Production Complex With this fresh funding, NewOrbit is planning to build the NEO Production Complex, scheduled to open in 2027. The facility will house their first commercial satellite, which is set for launch in 2028. That launch will mark the first time commercial customer payloads have ever flown at altitudes between 124 and 186 miles. The facility will start with the capacity to produce ten satellites per year. At full operation, they plan to scale up to several per week. That's a massive ramp-up, but it's what you need if you want to commercialize VLEO at scale. At full capacity, NewOrbit claims the complex will be Europe's largest dedicated VLEO production facility. It's designed to be a strategic industrial asset within Europe's sovereign space ecosystem. ### The Bottom Line NewOrbit is taking on a challenge that the industry has avoided for decades. They've got the funding, the team, and the technology to make it work. If they pull this off, they could fundamentally change how we use space for commercial purposes. And that's not something you hear every day.