Astranis said on Wednesday that it has fully funded its next-generation satellite program called Omega after completing a $200 million Series D financing round. Megan Sapack, Astranis's head of avionics, said in a video: "The next satellite is a milestone for Astranis to enter the next realm."
Astranis develops and operates small broadband communications satellites in geostationary orbit. The company has launched several first-generation satellites, called MicroGEOs, and sells capacity to local telecommunications companies in countries including the United States, the Philippines and Mexico. In April this year, the company launched its next-generation Omega satellite, which it said will provide five times the bandwidth capacity in the same small size.
The team achieved this by reducing the power of each light beam and designing a new, larger reflector. The new spacecraft also has improved mechanical, thermal and avionics system performance and a longer overall on-orbit life.
The first Omega satellite will be launched in 2026. Each spacecraft has an operational life of 10 years.
Astranis aims to build 24 satellites per year by 2025, an unprecedented scale for a spacecraft operating in geostationary orbit. While companies like SpaceX build hundreds of spacecraft each year, these satellites operate in low Earth orbit; for geostationary satellite operators, the manufacturing rate is often many years to build a satellite due to increasing requirements for power and size. Astranis achieves this speed by bringing about 70% of its manufacturing in-house.
Astranis engineer Payton Case said: "Since moving into this new facility, we have been very focused on moving the process away from satellite manufacturing and transitioning to large-scale manufacturing design."
Astranis plans to have more than 100 spacecraft in orbit by 2030.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz's Growth Fund, a long-term investor in Astranis, and co-led by growth investor BAMElevate, which is backed by investment firm Balyasny Asset Management. BlackRock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford also participated in the round.