Space Kinetic wins $50M for satellite flinger, Space brief 14 aug 2026. Space Force awards Space Kinetic $50M for Whirlwind centrifugal satellite deployment. Astranis unveils Perceptor GEO surveillance craft. Gravitilab enters liquidation. Top stories. Space Kinetic wins $50M Space Force award for centrifugal satellite deployment system. Space Kinetic received a $50 million OTA award from the Space Force to develop Whirlwind, a system that flings microsatellites from a host spacecraft using centrifugal acceleration rather than thrusters. The company, which raised a $12 million seed round in 2025, describes the approach as applying drone economics to orbit: cheap, attritable payloads with useful lives potentially as short as 30 minutes. The concept decouples maneuvering from the payload itself. Whirlwind provides the initial delta-v electromechanically, then the microsatellites use their own propulsion and comms for the mission. The system is designed to be both regime- and payload-agnostic, fitting the Space Force's push toward distributed, responsive architectures. Read the full story: Payload Astranis enters GEO surveillance market with Perceptor spacecraft. Astranis, known for its microGEO broadband satellites, unveiled Perceptor, a spacecraft built on the same platform but fitted with sensors for inspecting other satellites in geostationary orbit. The vehicle uses electric propulsion to reposition across the GEO belt and can conduct flybys, with multiple units working together to observe targets from different angles. GEO surveillance is a growing Space Force priority as China fields maneuvering spacecraft near U.S. communications and missile-warning satellites. Astranis was among 14 companies selected in April for the Andromeda contract vehicle supporting the RG-XX next-generation GEO surveillance constellation. "There are blind spots that will be used against us if not eliminated," CEO John Gedmark said. Space Force awards $60M to five companies for multi-vendor satellite network Integration. Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems each received $12 million to demonstrate how their satellites can connect to the Space Data Network, the military's planned LEO mesh communications architecture. The tests will cover on-orbit data transport and standardized interfaces across different providers. The SDN backbone is being built by SpaceX under a $2.29 billion contract awarded in May, using optical crosslinks to route data satellite-to-satellite. These awards address the next layer: making sure other vendors' systems can plug into that backbone without locking the network into a single provider. UK suborbital rocket builder Gravitilab enters liquidation. Gravitilab Aerospace Services, a UK-based suborbital rocket company, has ceased trading and entered voluntary liquidation. Shareholders approved the winding-up on 20 July via a Microsoft Teams meeting, and creditors appointed Price Bailey as liquidator. The company's statement of affairs shows more than £700,000 owed to unsecured creditors, including £324,465 to business creditors, £144,487 to 19 employees, and £104,515 to four directors. Against those debts, Gravitilab listed just £92,243 in available assets, nearly all held in a client account. After preferential claims for employee holiday pay, roughly £76,700 remains for creditors. Army fires Chief identifies four capability gaps across 62 programs. Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, leading offensive fires under the Army's new Portfolio Acquisition Executive structure, outlined four capability gaps at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville: propulsion and energetics, targeting and seekers, the industrial base, and munitions depth. Mikesh's office is managing 62 programs. On targeting, Mikesh said the Army is planning for contested electromagnetic environments where GPS and networks are degraded, requiring multi-mode seekers that fuse data from multiple sensors. He also called on industry to stop proposing weapons that lock the government into single-source solutions, pushing instead for open architecture and multiple suppliers. Maurice Stellarski. Maurice Stellarski is the Chief Coordination Officer (CCO) of the Civilian Cardboard Command Center Protocol (CCCCP). With over 25 years of self-certified experience in NEATS (Non-Existent Aerospace Tracking Systems), Maurice specializes in predicting launches with uncanny accuracy using his proprietary KITCHEN (Knowledge Integration Technology Combined with Household Equipment Network) methodology. When not monitoring his mission control center, Maurice maintains the world's largest collection of mission-critical authorization stamps and hosts the underground podcast 'Countdown to Breakfast: Uncensored Launch News.'

Space Kinetic awarded $50M by Space Force for space maneuverability and space architecture technology. Aug 13, 2026, 08:00 ET EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Space Kinetic has been awarded a $50 million contract award from the United States Space Force for technology development, the largest award in the company's history. "Our goal is to rethink the foundational assumptions for our most important space missions, and to do that we're approaching the hardest problems from totally new first principles. This program marks a significant step forward for our team and our technology, advancing our efforts as our capabilities move into its next phase," said Ryan Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of Space Kinetic. "We are focused on bringing paradigm-shifting advantages to our US Government partners." From Space Kinetic Co-Founder, CTO & President Scott Ziegler said, "We have a mission to make the space domain more secure and more prosperous and this technology will enable us to 'boldly go' into the era of abundant space maneuver." The award is among the largest granted to a company at Space Kinetic's stage and reflects a broader shift in how the Pentagon is approaching space acquisition. The Space Force is increasingly relying on venture-backed companies and rapid acquisition pathways to accelerate emerging space capabilities, using mechanisms like STRATFI (Strategic Funding Increase) agreements and OTAs (Other Transaction Authority) to accelerate operational deployment. Space Kinetic reflects the growing role venture-backed startups are playing in national security space programs. About Space Kinetic Space Kinetic is a venture-backed space technology company building a revolutionary architecture for dual use space missions. The company's Whirlwind platform enables the deployment of low-cost, ruggedized micro-satellites from a host spacecraft at high velocities without using consumable fuel, enabling extreme maneuverability and a new class of low-cost, highly capable space vehicles. For more information, visit www.spacekinetic.com. Media Contact SOURCE Space Kinetic Corp.