NewOrbit Secures $18.5M for VLEO Satellite Deployment in 2028
NewOrbit has successfully raised $18.5 million in Series A funding to advance its Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellite technology. This investment will enable them to launch the NEO-1 commercial satellite in 2028, aiming to overcome historical VLEO challenges with proprietary propulsion and materials. The company plans to build Europe's largest VLEO manufacturing base in the UK, targeting low-latency applications like 5G and HD video streaming.
Key Takeaways
- NewOrbit finalized an oversubscribed $18.5 million Series A funding round, increasing total capitalisation to $27.8 million.
- The company will launch its first commercial VLEO satellite, NEO-1, in 2028, operating between 200-300 km altitude.
- NewOrbit claims its proprietary air-breathing ion propulsion and resilient material coatings will enable NEO-1 to operate for up to five years in VLEO.
- VLEO operations are projected to deliver drone-quality imagery at 20 times less cost and enable low-latency applications like 5G and HD video streaming.
- The funding supports the NEO Production Complex in the UK Thames Valley, operational in 2027, to become Europe's largest VLEO manufacturing facility.
Why It Matters
This significant funding enables NewOrbit to advance VLEO satellite technology, which could lower the cost and improve the performance of satellite-based data services. Successfully deploying and operating commercial VLEO satellites has the potential to introduce new infrastructure for applications requiring high-resolution Earth observation and extremely low-latency connectivity, challenging the current reliance on higher-altitude LEO constellations. The industry should watch NewOrbit's NEO-1 launch in 2028 for tangible proof of VLEO's commercial viability and sustained operational lifespan under harsh atmospheric conditions.
Additional Context
NewOrbit's $18.5 million Series A funding, led by Voyager Ventures, marks a key step in commercializing Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), an altitude band between 200-300 kilometers previously considered unviable for commercial operations (SpaceNews, June 2026). While NewOrbit plans its first commercial NEO-1 satellite launch for 2028, other companies are also exploring VLEO. Notably, Univity, another European startup, raised $32 million in Series A earlier this year to fund VLEO 5G demonstrator satellites, according to TheNextWeb (June 2026). This indicates nascent but growing competition in the VLEO space. The European Space Agency (ESA) has also conducted studies on the benefits of VLEO for Earth observation, and the UK government's UKTIN network identifies VLEO as a growth market (TheNextWeb, June 2026). However, an important distinction is that no commercial payload has yet successfully operated long-term below 300km. NewOrbit's CEO, Anatolii Papulov, emphasized to Payload (June 2026) that VLEO requires entirely new satellite designs, not just modifications of LEO satellites, underscoring the engineering challenges. The company plans to initially deploy NEO-1 in LEO to validate vacuum operations before lowering its orbit into VLEO, attempting to prove a five-year operational lifespan (Payload, June 2026). The success or failure of NewOrbit's 2028 mission will serve as a crucial real-world test for VLEO's commercial practicality.
Read full article at ventureburn.com
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