UK Startup NewOrbit Raises $18.5M for VLEO Satellites

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-08

NewOrbit, a Reading-based SpaceTech company building satellites for very low Earth orbit (VLEO), has closed an oversubscribed $18.5 million Series A round to fund the launch of the world's first commercial satellite designed to fly at altitudes between 124 and 186 miles. ### Who's Backing This Mission? The round was led by Voyager Ventures, with notable angel investors including David Kirk (former Chief Scientist at NVIDIA), Lawrence Leuschner (co-founder and former CEO of TIER Mobility), and the family office Custos. Existing backers Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian also participated. ### The Vision Behind VLEO Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, explained the company's bold vision: "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." Founded in May 2021, NewOrbit builds satellites for VLEO — a band of near-Earth space historically reserved for spy satellites and the International Space Station. Their mission: to engineer Earth's lowest orbiting satellite to advance global connectivity and insight. ### The Team and Advisory Board The NewOrbit team includes senior engineers from SpaceX, NASA, Tesla, and Airbus. The advisory board features heavyweights like Jean-Jacques Dordain, former Director General of the European Space Agency (2003-2015), and Sir Chris Deverell, former Commander of UK Joint Forces. ### Overcoming VLEO's Challenges For decades, three forces made VLEO commercially unviable: aerodynamic drag (which pulls spacecraft back to Earth within weeks), atomic oxygen (which corrodes surfaces), and aerodynamic torques (which destabilize orientation). NewOrbit claims it has built purpose-engineered satellites with an in-house propulsion system to withstand these conditions and operate reliably for up to five years. ### Commercial Advantages of Flying Low The commercial logic is simple: flying lower improves visibility and connectivity at significantly reduced costs. From 124 to 186 miles, NewOrbit says it can offer the highest-quality satellite imagery available today at 20x lower cost than conventional satellites, alongside faster data speeds. The startup believes this could unlock new space economy paradigms like 5G direct-to-device from space and live HD video — things not possible with current orbital geometry. Matthew Blain, Partner at Voyager Ventures, said: "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. We're proud to partner with NewOrbit on their journey to become the leading provider of commercial VLEO satellites globally." ### Production Plans and Timeline With this fresh funding, NewOrbit plans to build its NEO Production Complex, scheduled to open in 2027. The facility will produce the company's first commercial satellite for launch in 2028 — marking the first time commercial customer payloads will fly at altitudes between 124 and 186 miles. The complex will expand from an initial capacity of ten satellites annually to several per week at full operation. At full capacity, NewOrbit claims it will be Europe's largest dedicated VLEO production facility and a strategic industrial asset for the continent's sovereign space ecosystem.