- NewOrbit has raised an oversubscribed $18.5 million Series A to build satellites that fly lower than any commercial operator has managed before.
- Its NEO-1 satellite targets the 180–250km orbit band, where atmospheric drag has kept commercial operators out for six decades, and where image resolution is far sharper than from higher altitudes.
- The round brings total funding to $27.8 million and is backed by a mix of figures from the space, mobility, and chip industries, as well as four returning venture firms.
Since the 1960s, engineers have known that flying satellites between 180 and 250 kilometres above Earth produces sharper images and stronger signals than orbits used today. They also knew it was nearly impossible to sustain, including atmospheric drag pulling spacecraft back down within weeks, atomic oxygen corroding their surfaces, and standard control systems could not keep up with the forces involved.
NewOrbit, a Reading-based startup founded in 2021 by Anatolii Papulov and Ruslan Rakhimov, says it has solved all three.
The company has closed an oversubscribed $18.5 million Series A round led by Voyager Ventures, bringing its total funding to $27.8 million. It plans to launch NEO-1, its first commercial satellite, in 2028, which it describes as the first commercial payload ever flown in very low Earth orbit, known as VLEO.
“For sixty years, VLEO has been treated as too hostile an environment for commercial satellites — but it is in fact the most valuable empty real estate in space. Today, no one in the industry has a reliable, affordable, and fast way to fly payloads into very low Earth orbit. We built our NEO-1 satellite to do exactly that,” says Papulov.
The commercial case rests on resolution and cost
Satellites in VLEO produce imagery at a fraction of the altitude of conventional platforms, resulting in sharper images. NewOrbit says NEO-1 will offer the highest-resolution images available commercially at one-fifth the cost of traditional satellites.
Future applications could include 5G direct-to-device connectivity from space, though that remains speculative at this stage.
The key engineering problem was staying up. NewOrbit developed an air-breathing propulsion system that harvests atmospheric particles as fuel, giving NEO-1 an operational life of up to five years despite the drag environment.
Europe’s response to a US-led race
NewOrbit is not the first to VLEO. US-based Albedo flew its first VLEO satellite, Clarity-1, in March 2025, and has since pivoted toward providing satellite buses for defence and commercial operators rather than selling imagery directly. EOI Space plans a launch at 250 kilometres in late 2026. China’s CASIC is developing a 300-satellite VLEO network.
NewOrbit’s claim to distinctiveness is geographic and strategic: it argues Europe has no sovereign VLEO capability, and that no one else is building one.
This argument has convinced some important people. Jean-Jacques Dordain, who led the European Space Agency from 2003 to 2015, is on the advisory board. Sir Chris Deverell, former Commander of UK Joint Forces, is also involved. Engineers from SpaceX, NASA, JPL, Tesla, Airbus, ESA, and Formula 1 have joined the team.
“VLEO is the next foundational shift in the global space industry. The technology will unlock order-of-magnitude improvements in earth observation at a fraction of the cost today,” says Matthew Blain, partner at Voyager Ventures.
New investors in this round include former NVIDIA chief scientist David Kirk, TIER Mobility co-founder Lawrence Leuschner, and the family office Custos. Atlantic.vc, Lifeline Ventures, LGF, and Illusian also participated, following their involvement in the company’s previous $9.3 million seed round.
What’s next
The funding will go toward building the NEO Production Complex in the Thames Valley, which is set to open in 2027. The facility will scale from producing ten satellites a year to several each week at full capacity.
The first commercial satellite launches in 2028, which NewOrbit says will be the first time commercial payloads have flown between 180 and 250 kilometres.
If the project succeeds, Europe will gain a new presence in space. If not, NewOrbit will learn what others already know: VLEO is challenging, and good intentions alone cannot overcome atmospheric drag.
