BERLIN – The Exploration Company has raised $160 million to support the company’s development of a cargo spacecraft to support future commercial space stations.
The company announced its Series B round on November 18, led by European venture capital funds Balderton Capital and Plural, along with participation from several other new and existing investors. Participants include two European sovereign funds, France’s Tech Souveraineté and Germany’s DeepTech & Climate Fund.
The Exploration Company says the money will support the development of its Nyx spacecraft, designed to carry cargo to and from low Earth orbit and later to cislunar space. The LEO version, Nyx Earth, can carry four tons of pressurized, unpressurized cargo to orbit and return with up to three tons of cargo.
“Over the past twelve months, we have achieved important operational and financial milestones and signed important service contracts with both space agencies and commercial customers,” said Hélène Huby, CEO and co-founder of the company, in a statement announcing the round. “This new financing is the next step in scaling up our ambitions.”
These milestones include winning one of two contracts from the European Space Agency in May to begin studies on a cargo transport vehicle. The contract, worth 25 million euros ($26.4 million), includes design work on a vehicle to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station. If ESA secures funding for later stages of the program at its next ministerial meeting in late 2025, this could lead to a demonstration mission to the ISS in 2028.
In July, The Exploration Company launched its first spacecraft, a return demonstrator named Nyx Bikini, on the inaugural Ariane 6 flight. However, the company was unable to test the spacecraft’s ability to survive reentry when Ariane 6’s final burn, intended to exit the stage, failed. Nyx Bikini remains in orbit, still attached to the upper stage.
The company shook off the setback. “While we have not collected the expected reentry data, this is not an issue for our next flights,” the company said in a social media post, noting that future spacecraft will use a different thermal protection system that has already been tested on the ground. .
“We got some great data to start with and we took a lot of risk on what needed to be excluded,” Dana Baki, Chief Commercial Officer of The Exploration Company, said of the mission in a presentation at the ISS Research and Development Conference in August.
The next flight for The Exploration Company is of a medium-sized capsule called Mission Possible, scheduled for mid-2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. That capsule will spend three hours in orbit before splashing down off the coast of Hawaii. Baki said the capsule will carry 300 kilograms of cargo from space agencies and companies looking to conduct scientific experiments or technology demonstrations during the short flight.
While Nyx Earth’s initial focus will be on the ISS, the company is targeting commercial space stations as its primary customers. It has announced contracts with Axiom Space, Starlab Space and Vast to transport cargo to and from their planned space stations. Baki said The Exploration Company has a backlog of more than $750 million with both these companies and space agencies.
The Exploration Company said the $160 million it raised is the largest Series B round to date from a space company in Europe, bringing its total to $230 million. Company publicists often claim that it is Europe’s largest space company, although with 200 employees the company is smaller than some other startups and a fraction of the size of big names such as Airbus Defense and Space, OHB and Thales Alenia Space.
Huby highlighted the company’s European roots in the statement announcing the round, noting that 98% of shareholders are European, “demonstrating that the continent can fund courageous entrepreneurs.”
“The Exploration Company is poised to redefine European leadership in space exploration,” said David Thévenon, partner at Balderton Capital, in a statement. “Their mission to make space exploration more accessible and sustainable promises to unlock unprecedented opportunities not only for Europe, but also for humanity’s future in space.”