Technology, Connected - China’s SpaceX Is Learning by Crashing Rockets

Episode Date: April 9, 2026

This episode of Thinking on Paper examines the largest space technology funding rounds of 2026 and what they reveal about the direction of the commercial space economy.Investment is moving beyond satellite launches and communications. Companies are now raising capital for orbital data centres, private space stations, reusable rockets, alternative navigation systems, weather intelligence, secure communications and national-security infrastructure.We count down funding rounds involving:StarcloudXona SpaceTomorrow.ioPLD SpaceStoke SpaceAxiom SpaceCesiumAstroVastSierra SpaceChina’s iSpaceThe episode covers:Why investors are backing space-based data centresThe business case for commercial space stationsHow Xona Space and other companies are developing alternatives to GPSWhy reusable launch systems continue to attract capitalThe growth of secure satellite communicationsHow space-based weather intelligence is becoming a commercial marketWhether microgravity research can support viable businessesWhy defence and national-security funding are becoming more importantHow private investment is shaping competition between the United States, Europe and ChinaWhat the largest funding rounds suggest about the next phase of the space economyThe companies raising the most capital aren’t all pursuing the same market, but several themes recur: sovereign infrastructure, lower launch costs, persistent Earth observation, orbital computing and a shift from individual spacecraft towards complete space-based systems.This conversation follows the money to understand which technologies investors believe can move from ambitious engineering projects to durable commercial infrastructure.Please enjoy the show.--🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: [e-mail](00:00) Starcloud(00:52) Xona Space(03:27) Tomorrow IO(06:01) PLD Space(08:00) Stoke Space(10:18) Axiom Space(12:29) Cesium Astro(14:50) VAST Space(19:02) Sierra Space(21:47) I-Space (Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd.)

I feel a little bit like Casey Kasem. It's top 40. So this is exciting. This is exciting. We've got 10 companies we're going to run down. You've already hit the first one, StarCloud. Philips been on the show. We've done a reaction video.

What a raise for those guys. Got a lot planned for the year. Hopefully we can have them back on the show. But man, $1.1 billion valuation. That's pretty impressive. A sign of the optimism and the belief that perhaps all data centers will be in space. So, Jeremy, I will roll over to you in the charts. Who's in at number nine? How do I pronounce this?

Yeah, that's why I came to you. Yeah, it's all to fair. Yeah. So Zona space, I'm going to go with XONA. XONA, XONA, space.com if you want to hear more about these guys. But again, this is this is about infrastructure. Infrastructure is always the bigger piece to the puzzle that industries can scale on. And we're talking about space infrastructure here. We're talking about the ability to consider a potential alternative to how we get around and how we coordinate. Coordination is a big human thing we talk about. Why are these guys looking at something different than GPS?

The global navigation satellite system, the GNS, is the umbrella term for all satellite systems of which GPS is one. and Zona are launching satellites, a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit, that deliver stronger, more precise, and I like this, encrypted positioning signals than existing GPS system. Potentially giving us a little more autonomy on who we give our location to, potentially.

So looking at this right now, the basis of, not the basis of their success, but a real chunk of their momentum has come from US Space Force that, I don't know, I guess they put it in, about 20 million in government funding tied in with 30 million private capital, right? What was their raise? Was that their full raise or what do the numbers look like for these guys?

They got 170 million. So we put StarCloud in TED. They could have been in joint ninth, however they want to play this game, but $170 million. That's a Series C, so they're a bit further down the road than Star Cloud. But in terms of actual products, the company plans to launch six additional satellites on a SpaceX ride share, and later this year, full constellation of 258 satellites planned over the next few years. Again, we're talking about potential. Listeners, stay in touch with thinking on paper to look at our Kessler syndrome dashboard

as we run up against the bottlenecks predicted by a pretty brilliant, pretty brilliant man. Yeah, these guys sound pretty interesting. They got some backing, some potential defense contracts. A lot of things happen on the heels of a defense contract, the internet, which we are broadcasting and recording to and from right now is brought to you by a DARPA experiment way back in the day. Okay, so the next one. Been at number eight, already made the cover of Time magazine and playing some games with Formula One racing, Jeremy, who is in at number eight on the top ten space funding countdown. Number eight on the top 10 space funding countdown is Tomorrow IO coming in at number eight. These guys are not just partnered.

This isn't like a sponsorship with Formula One. Apparently Formula One is using their infrastructure to understand real-time weather as it would affect racing, safety of the racers, the cars, the crews, all of that stuff. That's a pretty big signal to a pretty powerful piece of infrastructure. Yeah, the FIA, so that's Formula One and all regulated motorsport, the governing body, is integrating a commercial space weather platform into its operations using tomorrow for real-time race decisions in 2006. This is being used. JetBlue is using it in airports. They were in 2024 times top 100, the Time 100 most influential companies of 2024. What are the numbers you look like here? Fox Sports, Ford, Denny's, whatever that is.

That sounds like an American pizza joint. Denny's. No, Denny's is a breakfast joint, man. It's a breakfast joint. Yeah. So they nip into eighth place with a $175 million raise. Financing led by Stone Court Capital and Deep Sky. Yeah, and this pushes the valuation of the third company on the list,

and we're only at number eight to another billion dollar valuation, would it be for space tech? Guys, if you're listening, you're listening, you're thinking about all of space tech, we're way far away, this is science fiction, this is this and that, there's going to be major inflection points in space tech, in investment. We'll have to get our buddy at Serafin back on and see what he thinks about. And just to be clear on that, so they are, it's a confirmed unicorn valuation, $1 billion of this. Top 10, only three of the companies tomorrow StarCloud, and we can't tell you the one until we get there, has a confirmed valuation. So we're not using the valuation. We're using the raise amount to build this top 10.

Which red's number one, very, very, very interesting. So stick with us for number one because it's going to send some ripples through the atmosphere. So as we bounce around the globe, Mark, since you're more on this side of the world, Why don't you tell us about who's in at number seven? Yeah, surprising. We're heading to Spain, CEO and founder Raul Torres and PLD space. PLD is a launch service provider, focusing on the European market. Its first commercial contractors with satellite, a Spanish 5G satellite company,

and that's going to launch two directed device satellites in 2027. Interesting Mitsubishi Electric invested 50 million as part of the total 210 million for PLD. And they invested that so they get priority access to large slots for its planned satellite constellation. So this is an interesting... Yeah, this is an interesting... Go Europe.

Go Europe. This is interesting positioning, right? So this is more like the Uber black... car service than you're jumping in with 90 other people on a on a falcon rocket right this is more targeted to people who want a dedicated launch who wouldn't want to share space at this point who wouldn't want to share space that's really interesting yeah it is and the like the European angle and I like that it's not just America in this top 10 so go Spain what is the funding Funding looks like, what, 210 million?

Or 180 million? Euros, it's a series C, so again, they're a bit later on. But 50 million of that is coming from Mitsubishi Electric. It's a big junk. Big jump. Big junk. It is a big jump. It's a big jump.

And also, like you said, Mitsubishi is essentially acquiring the ability to have some dedicated slots for the stuff that they want to throw up in Leo and all the fun stuff. Okay, number seven. There you have it. And in at number six, Stoke Space. Dude, what a skater stoner name. Stoke. Stove Space.

What up, man. How do you feel about that? I like it there. Co-founder Andy Lapser has raised a gargantuanant-350 million. And what's interesting about Stope Space is that's an extent. on previous funding. So they've now raised 1.34 billion. That's not valuation.

That's how much they've raised. So they're doing something pretty big, Jeremy, you would think for that amount of funding. What was tech us out of doing? According to my research here, there are five companies approved to launch national security satellites. You have SpaceX, you have ULA,

you have Blue Origin, you have Rocket Lab, and guess who? Stoke, Space. The US Space Force selected Stoke for its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program, making it eligible to compete for up to 5.6 billion in national security launch contracts, placing alongside SpaceX, ULA, BLEO origin, Rocket Lab, only one of five approved providers. However, per the Congressional Research Service, Stoke and Rocket Lab must complete at least

one successful launch before they can receive actual mission assignments. So they'll prove to compete, but not yet approved to fly government payloads. Yeah, right. And this is fully reusable is what they're running towards in their first

attempt this year, I guess. Have you heard any dates on when they're going to allow? No, they want to carry 3,000 kilos to Leo. First orbital attempt is 2026, so at the time of recording, I don't believe that they have. Betting on something that hasn't gotten off the ground. Yeah, that's a lot of money. I guess it takes a lot of money to pull this

kind of stuff off, man. You say the words national security in 2026 and the money comes flooding in. They've been selected by the US Space Force. They've been mentioned in the same sentences as SpaceX and Blue Origin and Rocket Labs. Let's wait and see. Watch this space. Talking of space, we're moving up the charts. We're going into the top half in at number five. We have space. Axiom is special in this in that they've sent astronauts to the ISS four times. They hold NASA's only active moonwalking suit contract. This is land and expand, man. It's land. Last band. Expand. That's right. That's right. How much does it cost? I like this. How much does it cost? So Axiom has completed four missions to the

ISS, AX1 through AX4, between 2022 and 2025, selling seats at approximately. $55 million. Just a, yeah, just chump change for you, Mr. Fielding. Did you watch the Artemis launch? I can't think of anything more terrifying than sitting on that rocket. After paying $55 million for it. So these guys are pushing. Okay, so space suits, I get it.

There's a market for those, although relatively limited. But they're selling them or doing those things. But they're also building freaking space station. So we talked in, that's what got my eye, yeah. We talked in space to grow about like space stations have to be a piece of the infrastructure. We want to do half the things we want to do in space. And the ISS is getting ready to be retired, I believe. Yeah.

And there surely will be a private sector built replacement for that. And Axiom will be front of the queue. Did we talk to the numbers on this one? 350 million? Yeah. Episode 3. Equity in debt. $5 million.

A lot of money rolling into this space, into space, space, all based on Mark Fielding's quote, space, we're going. There is a lot of excitement, and it's not just for us space nuts. It's all over, at least in the UK, it's all over the media. Everybody is aware of what NASA are doing.

And where there are eyes, There is money. That is correct. Man, we're nearly cracking the top three. Nearly cracking the top three. We're on to number four. Number four, this is a company you probably haven't heard of. I know Space Force has.

A couple of other people have. And this is more infrastructure again, I think, if I'm not mistaken. So cesium astro. Seism Astro. Is it number four? Seism Astro. I'd never heard of them. Me neither.

What do they do? What do they make? So according to the research, they make software-defined. of communication systems. All right. So what does that mean? This is essentially comms for space. Super simply put,

but how satellites and aircraft send and receive secure messages, right? Because if you're putting stuff up in space, I'm putting stuff up in space, you're putting stuff up in space. You don't necessarily need to hear what I'm saying for my stuff. I don't need to hear what you're saying for your stuff. So maybe this is a bit of say, it's like a, are we in WhatsApp world for,

secure communications upstairs above us. Who would use this stuff, you know, military defense agencies, needing high throughput, high throughput jam resistant satellite comms, right? So secure. Well, they've got a few contracts, haven't they in the worst one with the Taiwanese space agency

to provide software to find radio payloads. And in the aviation market, Airbus is a demonstration partner. So if he's announced planned flight. tests of this in-flight connectivity arrays on Airbus, commercial aircraft and helicopters in 2020 and 24, that there's no confirmed operational commercial contract with Airbus as yet. 470 million.

470 million. 470 million raised. The stakes are climbing, Mark. The stakes are climbing. We're creeping into the top three. So we're talking about infrastructure with the previous ones we've gone through largely infrastructure, communication, coordination. These three at the top have a larger goal, a bigger goal.

And it involves folks like you and I hanging out above the earth, above orbit, doing things up there that we normally do down here. These are companies that we've been following. I've been kind of tracking these folks and would love to have them, obviously, on the show. Number three. Number three. This is pretty oldacious, number three. An appropriate name.

Vast space. Vast space. Half a billion dollars, my guy. Half a billion dollars, Series A. And they have, allegedly have a space station launching in Q1, 2027. That's a blink around the corner, dude.

That's a blink around the corner. And guess what? Astronauts are already booked and assigned for the summertime. Wow. summertime of 2027. If you say space station, your mind instantly goes to something, well, at least the ISS, but perhaps bigger than that. Their first isn't of that size.

Haven one, it's a single module about the size of a truck. First step, step by step. Obviously, their multi-module station designed to replace the ISS when it retires in 2030. So they're starting with a small, single module. Yep, single module. And then the longer term goal moves into Haven 2. which, you know, designed to replace the ISS in 2030 when it goes to the beach to drink margaritas

and do some fishing because it's been a great career for the ISS. Vast have got a confirmed customer, Jeremy. Who is that? Who is that? Who is their confirmed customer? NASA selected Vast for the sixth. NASA selected Vast for the six private. astronaut mission to the ISS targeted for launch no earlier than summer 2027, with a crew

of four spending up to 14 days aboard the station. And they're already talking about having some payload customers too, right? So partnering up and trying to make that stuff work. And this is moving towards something that I want to learn more about. Drug discovery thing in microgravity, microgravity makes it easier to do some of those things. We've been tracking that a little bit on thick and on paper. but that's one of the things, even back in the day, so space stations aren't super new. I mean, we did a lot of research after the book, after the Space to Grow book,

talked about Bigelow who did Bigelow Space did this way back in the day, betting on this microgravity condition that everyone would jump up there and start doing research. No one really did. I think it was a launch cost thing maybe a little bit back in the day. But maybe also, how do you get stuff back to Earth? and all of that. So anyway, Haven One. Next year about this.

Microgravity, one thing as well. As you speak, I was thinking about a drug research lab and how many scientists, how many people would be working in those labs at any one time on, in mammoth breakthroughs. And I know that sometimes these incredible breakthroughs often come by accident by single people, but in a team, there'll be lots of people. and how easy is it to get all those people up into space? Hey team, good news and bad news.

Good news, we're going to go work on some incredible Alzheimer's drugs. Bad news, we're doing it up there. So we're all going to the space station. So you need, how do you, it's not so easy to get the people up there as well as to get the equipment up and down. Well, I mean, think about what you did prior to that. We talked to Philip Messker about this, the parabolic flights. that create those super small instances of microgravity.

And you put a ton of time, energy, money behind whatever experiment you're doing that last, how long does that situation last? Four seconds or whatever the heck, right? Extending the opportunity to develop and use that condition, it's a little bit more difficult. It's a way that it's an economic, it's a way that you can make money in space, perhaps. And all of these companies, all of these ideas, it's very early days. and they're getting a lot of investment and a big valuations,

but at some point they have to bring money in, and it's definitely pharmaceuticals is a way to do that. We're heading to the top. We're heading to the top. We are closing in on number one, but before number one is number two. The second biggest space industry raise of 2026, flying in from the Sierra.

is Sierra on their on their flying in from the Sierra on their dream chaser is Sierra space so Dream Chaser is this reusable space plane

that they're developing that will land on a runway like an aircraft it's interesting that's kind of what is a bit of replacement for the shuttle that's yeah

I mean probably probably with a little bit higher capability potentially so let me read read some of this So Dream Chaser, when it flies, will be a demonstration flight first. The first mission has been re-baselined. So it's basically been changed from an ISS resupply run to a demo run.

And that's for late this year. I'm not sure where they're sitting with that. But they've had some relatively well-known visitors as of late to their facility, which gives you the idea that more defense money is coming in to these organizations. Would you agree? Was it the Secretary of War Pete Higseff? Did he pay a visit? That he did.

So $550 million Series C as of March 5th, so not too long ago. Not too long ago. Confound contracts include a $450 million contract to build more than four satellites for a classified national security customer, according to a press release in Sat News. That kind of balances the cards a little bit, right? 550 coming in, one contract at 450. Not quite diverse, but the money's there. There's another one, the Space Development Agency awarded Sierra Space

a contract with a total potential value of $740 million for 18 missile warning, tracking, and fire control satellites as part of the tranche, the Tranch II tracking layer constellation. The Sierra Space Space States hold a contract with all eight space procurements. and agencies across the US Department of Defense and Intelligence community, although that's according to them, to their own press release, which all adds up to a valuation. So this is the third of the top 10 with an actual confirmed valuation. 8 billion of your US dollars. The Sierra.

That's a bunch. That's a bunch. Sierra, one to watch, one to watch those that aren't in space tech. if you pay any attention to what we do and what we've been doing at thinking on paper over the last few months as regards to the people we're speaking to and the books we're reading, that number one and number two on this list, by number two, you could call it a space company, but it could be a US national security company as well, which leads us to number one in the charts for the biggest space rays of 2026. And we're throwing a curveball into the charts, aren't we, Jeremy?

Guess what? It's not in the States. It's not in Europe. But where is this company located, Mark? China. The least compelling space name of all the fundraisers, Ispace. Do you say that high space? Not to be confused with Ice Space Inc, which is a Japanese lunar exploration company. Their full name is the Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology. Limited, ice space for sure. $729 million, 18 investors, six provincial government funds.

And guess what? How are the rockets doing? They're medium range rockets, medium lift rockets, similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9. How is their testing going? How are they doing with their rockets, Mark? They're doing about as well as any fresh off the press. Rocket companies, rockets do traditionally. So 50%, 50%, below 50% failure rate.

But hey, I remember we talked through the SpaceX rise to glory and there are quite a bit of failures and things to overcome. But the pace at which they reinvented and reconfigured things so it worked was quite impressive. Read it in Space to Grow. It's a great recollection of that story. The primary market, I guess, for these guys is all of China's mega constellation projects. There's a few there that are kind of their state-backed answer to Starlink, planning more than other, you know, both of them to get there. Wang and Kwanfan. Yeah, 23,000. 23,000 again, stay tuned for the thinking on paper, Kessler syndrome dashboard.

23,000 more objects put up to Leo. So let's see what happens, right? Launch costs in China are currently around $21,000 per kilo versus SpaceX's. Obviously, two and a half grand-ish, according to the Mercator Institute for China Studies. Icepace aim to conduct 25 hyperbola three launches per year by 2030. Hyperbola 3 is a name for their rocket. Another catchy name. That's a big discrepancy in the launch cost.

I think, but they see the potential of the physics, I think. When someone has figured out how to get the launch costs to 27 to 3,000, they're at 21,000. I don't think that number really means anything, does it? Coming out of China, we don't really know, we don't even know the CEO or the founder of this company. There's not a lot in the public domain about them. How can they have a per kilo price when they're not really launching, give it a few years? as we've learned about China, yes, they'll catch up, won't they? If you can compare the electric car market, they're behind, but they play catch up pretty well.

Yeah, they handled the electric stack. Okay, didn't they? All right. So we've been through the top 10 space tech raises of 2026 as of April 3rd, 2026. Mark, what do you glean out of what we went through? and its effects on the perception of the market, the future of space tech, and humanity's involvement with it. It's exciting times. There is money to be earned. There is money to be made. There is progress to be taken. Artemis has re-ignited the public perception of what is possible. It won't last forever. The fanfare will wear off pretty quickly once they get back.

Time is of the essence. They're not all going to make it. This top 10 will not be the top 10 in five years, one year, 10 year. I'm most excited about Axiom and Vast myself. I just love the stag hunts. I love the stag hunts, Jeremy. I want to see those big space stations. I want to see those monumental steps that push us our anti-civilizations.

I'm excited about Vast. I'm excited about Axiom. It's interesting to see number one being a Chinese rocket company. I think that makes sense with everything we learned in space to grow. I think that makes sense with what we learned from Serafin investments. I think that makes sense with what we learned from Philip Metzger. It fits in. The Chinese are in the race and they're throwing some money at it.

Yeah, and this isn't, reminder, this isn't the top space companies, the top raises this year for space technology companies. What do you think about it, Jeremy, before we go through the top 10, just to remind our audience of what it was? The three things that stand out for me. Everyone we've talked to about space tech talks about the space to Earth infrastructure play, which is what we're seeing. There's a large amount of companies in here still raising money on behalf of that.

And that endeavor to still try to figure out the what and the why. Like we can get data from space and get it back to Earth. But the usage of that as the space to grow, team of authors says the next challenge is trying to figure out how to make that a usable, wantable, to the masses. The second piece is one country's capability to do something on their own. We're seeing that with the company in Spain. We're seeing that with China, trying to build this internal capability there. And then lastly, with the top three, or two of the top three, really putting the humans into space and being able to do human things for long periods

of time in space, taking advantage of those existing conditions and, in, and, physical environments. So pretty interesting, pretty interesting. We've got through that without mentioning the SpaceX trillion dollar, multi-trillion dollar IPO, which I'm happy that we did. We'll talk about them another time. You just did, so we didn't. So there you have it. There it is space tech. Top 10 companies. Top 10 raises in space tech so far in 2026. And it's only April. It's only April. There's more to come. We might have to revisit prior to the end of the year, see how these guys are doing and see if any new players popped up thinking on paper.xyz. We're into space tech, we're into AI, we're into quantum computing and all of its effects

on humanity in the future for us. So stay curious, be disrupted. Keep thinking on paper.