Airbus Defence and Space operates the Pléiades Neo Next programme as the successor to the Pléiades Neo constellation.

The Pléiades Neo constellation provides very high-resolution optical Earth observation data to governmental and commercial customers.

Pléiades Neo Next satellites will offer native resolution in the 20-centimetre class, an improvement over the 30-centimetre capability of current Pléiades Neo satellites.

The Pléiades Neo Next constellation is expected to offer increased revisit rates and an upgraded ground segment capable of handling a higher volume of imagery requests.

The first Pléiades Neo Next mission is expected to launch in early 2028.

The 19 December Avio contract details are consistent with a Pléiades Neo Next mission.

A 19 December Avio press release referenced two launch contracts with unnamed customers valued at over €100 million.

Airbus’s selection of Vega C reflects renewed confidence in the rocket’s reliability following Vega C’s return to service in October 2023.

Nippon Low Earth Orbit Co., Ltd. was established in 2024 as a 100% subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

Spire Global’s weather intelligence can provide high-accuracy forecasts up to six days ahead.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation completed underwriting and investment in a third-party allotment for Nippon Low Earth Orbit Co., Ltd. on January 26, 2026.

President Donald Trump signed the FY2026 consolidated appropriations bill, which bundles three appropriations bills for Commerce–Justice–Science, Energy and Water Development, and Interior and Environment, into law on January 23, 2026.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Electric possess space development knowledge and technical capabilities and will support Nippon Low Earth Orbit Co., Ltd.’s management and business development through their investment.

Nippon Low Earth Orbit Co., Ltd. is developing a Japanese module to connect to private space stations to support expanded commercial use of low Earth orbit after the planned 2030 retirement of the International Space Station.

Investors in Amateras Space’s angel round included Takafumi Horie, Hideto Fujino of Rheos Capital Works, Kazunori Asada, Mamoru Taniya of SDG Impact Japan, Hitoshi Uehara of Mynavi, Tomoya Nakamura of Axelspace Holdings, Kunihiro Ogiwara of Zero to One, and Yasumasa Manabe of HOXIN.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. completed underwriting and investment in a third-party allotment for Nippon Low Earth Orbit Co., Ltd. on January 26, 2026.

Amateras Space Inc. completed a third-party allotment angel round funding for next-generation spacesuit development on January 27, 2026.

The FY2026 appropriations provide NASA with approximately $24,438,300,000 in funding.

Spire Global generates weather intelligence from its satellite constellation using radio occultation, maritime wind, and soil moisture data.

The United States experienced a severe cold wave with record snowfall that caused power outages, flight cancellations, and fatalities in January 2026.

Amateras Space will use the funds from the angel round to accelerate research and development of next-generation spacesuits and to strengthen commercialization and organizational capabilities.

AiDASH will be able to provide power companies an environment to comprehensively and in real time understand transmission-grid risks caused by weather factors using Spire’s weather intelligence.

Spire Global’s high-accuracy weather intelligence was adopted by AiDASH for AiDASH’s power-utility monitoring solution on January 22, 2026.

Many 2019–2022 investments in launch and orbital platforms were premised on the idea that drastically lower launch costs would unlock trillion-dollar markets in satellites, manufacturing, and data relay.

Private equity investment in space has shifted toward supply-chain “picks and shovels” businesses serving the space industry.

Private equity largely sat out the launch-focused investment cycle and watched as growth equity and public markets tested those assumptions.

Pitch decks from that period depicted fleets of rockets landing on ocean barges, constellations deploying by the thousands, and rapid hockey-stick revenue growth.

Valuation step-ups for some space suppliers are sustainable only when the underlying business fundamentals justify them.

Private equity firms are increasingly acquiring companies that machine tanks, harden electronics, operate ground stations, and develop spacecraft software.

From 2019 through 2022, SPACs and late-stage venture rounds invested billions of dollars in launch vehicle builders and orbital platform startups.

The first Pléiades Neo Next satellite will be launched on Avio’s Vega C rocket.

Pléiades Neo and Pléiades Neo Next operating together will provide increased revisit frequency to any point on Earth, up to multiple times per day, combined with improved spatial resolution and geolocation accuracy.

Users will be able to task Airbus satellites up to a few tens of minutes before the satellite passes over an area of interest.

Airbus is developing new capabilities based on stratospheric platforms.

Pléiades Neo Next will create new satellite assets and capabilities for Airbus’s Earth Observation services.

Airbus will launch its first Pléiades Neo Next satellite in early 2028 from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The Pléiades Neo Next program will include satellite assets with a native resolution class of 20 cm.

Images from Airbus satellites will be received through customers’ Direct Receiving Stations (DRS) or via the OneAtlas digital platform shortly after acquisition.

Development of Pléiades Neo Next will improve Airbus’s ground segment, Direct Receiving Stations, and the OneAtlas platform, increasing capacity to handle image requests and reducing the time between request, acquisition, and reception.

Airbus’s satellite fleet includes optical and radar constellations that provide complementary services with diversified resolutions, all-weather capability, and day-and-night operability.

The Pléiades Neo Next program is funded, produced, and operated by Airbus Defence and Space.

SKY Perfect JSAT owns antenna facilities at six domestic satellite control sites in Japan.

SKY Perfect JSAT’s ground station will perform signal measurements in Earth orbit and cislunar space from February through April 2026 after the Orion launch.

The planned use of SKY Perfect JSAT’s ground station equipment for Artemis II represents the first time those facilities have been used for lunar exploration.

Since the 1989 first private communications satellite launch, SKY Perfect JSAT has operated artificial satellites and ground stations for more than 35 years.

SKY Perfect JSAT is the only Asian commercial company selected as a ground station for the Orion one-way Doppler measurements for Artemis II.

SKY Perfect JSAT was selected as a ground station to receive one-way Doppler measurement signals from the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission on January 26.

The ground station equipment to be used for Artemis II is the same equipment employed in the commercial near-Earth tracking network service JSAT Space Line, which began in September 2025.

SKY Perfect JSAT will use three 13.5-meter antenna facilities to receive radio signals from Orion, measure frequency transitions (Doppler shifts) with high precision, and provide the acquired tracking data to NASA to support mission safety.

Gilat received more than $60 million in Sidewinder orders last year for delivery over the following year.