OUTERSPACE TODAYNEWS
← All editionsTuesday, September 01, 2026 / Issue 067
[ OST Daily ]

SES Awards OHB Nearly €1B for 18 IRIS² Satellites, ViaSat-3 F3 Enters Service Over Asia-Pacific, and Diffraqtion Doubles Its Pre-Seed With Lockheed Backing

Outerspace Today6 min read / 2026-09-01
OST Daily September 1, 2026 — SES committed nearly €1 billion to OHB for 18 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites anchoring Europe's IRIS² secure network, Viasat brought its third ViaSat-3 satellite into service over the Asia-Pacific with a terabit of added capacity, and quantum imaging startup Diffraqtion pulled in more than $5 million from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Sumitomo's Presidio Ventures.
The daily pictureOST editorial illustration · 2026-09-01
[ 01 ]

The briefing

SES signed a contract worth almost €1 billion with OHB to develop and manufacture all 18 satellite platforms for the medium Earth orbit segment of Europe's €15.6 billion IRIS² secure communications constellation. OHB called it the first major industrial order awarded since the programme entered its implementation phase in early August, with each 2.6-tonne satellite scheduled for delivery starting in 2029 and services online in 2030. SES has said it expects to invest up to €1.35 billion in the MEO layer inside the SpaceRISE consortium it leads with Eutelsat and Hispasat, giving Europe's sovereign-connectivity project its first industrial anchor.

Viasat confirmed that its third ViaSat-3 satellite, F3, entered service over the Asia-Pacific, adding 1 terabit per second of capacity to the network after launching on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in late April. CEO Mark Dankberg framed F3 as a way to steer capacity into the aviation and government mobility corridors he has flagged as the fastest-growing revenue lines, and said sister satellite F2 is in the final stages of in-orbit testing. The trio partially rebuilds the Ka-band story Viasat lost when the original ViaSat-3 antenna failed to deploy in 2023.

Quantum imaging startup Diffraqtion added more than $5 million to its pre-seed, with Lockheed Martin Ventures and Sumitomo Corporation's Presidio Ventures leading the top-up and pushing total funding above $10 million. The Massachusetts company builds AI-assisted quantum cameras that deliver long-range or high-resolution imaging with much smaller apertures, and said the money will fund a first hosted payload in orbit. Elsewhere, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope began commissioning on its way to Sun-Earth L2 after Sunday's Falcon Heavy launch, and ESA's Samba spacecraft made a precisely targeted reentry over the South Pacific captured by an airborne observation team.

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The headlines

01

SES books OHB for €1B IRIS² MEO satellite order

ETL

SES awarded OHB a contract worth almost €1 billion to develop and manufacture all 18 satellite platforms for the medium Earth orbit segment of Europe's €15.6 billion IRIS² secure communications constellation, each with a launch mass around 2.6 tonnes. OHB called it the first major industrial order since IRIS² entered implementation on August 6, with deliveries beginning in 2029 and initial services scheduled for 2030. SES has said it expects to invest up to €1.35 billion in the MEO layer it leads inside the SpaceRISE consortium with Eutelsat and Hispasat.

02

Viasat brings ViaSat-3 F3 online over Asia-Pacific

SpaceX VSAT

Viasat confirmed that its third ViaSat-3 satellite, F3, entered service over the Asia-Pacific, adding 1 terabit per second of capacity to the network. CEO Mark Dankberg said F3 is designed to steer regional capacity density into premium mobility markets, particularly aviation and government routes he has flagged as the fastest-growing revenue lines. F3 launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in late April and is the second of the trio to enter service; sister satellite F2 is in final in-orbit testing after its November launch, following the 2023 antenna anomaly on the first ViaSat-3.

03

Diffraqtion doubles pre-seed as Lockheed and Sumitomo join

LMT

Massachusetts quantum imaging startup Diffraqtion announced more than $5 million in new pre-seed funding from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Sumitomo Corporation's Presidio Ventures, along with Collaborative Fund, TekVentures and other new investors, taking total funding above $10 million. The company uses quantum imaging and AI to build cameras that either see farther or deliver high resolution with much smaller apertures, and CEO Johannes Galatsanos said the technology aims to deliver mission capability at a fraction of typical size and cost. Diffraqtion plans to fly a hosted payload on an unnamed spacecraft to earn flight heritage.

04

Roman deploys arrays and starts commissioning en route to L2

SpaceX

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope began commissioning on its three-month cruise to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2, a day after Sunday's Falcon Heavy launch. Its solar panels and sunshade deployed an hour and 23 minutes after liftoff, and within days the high-gain antenna will swing out and the visor-like deployable aperture cover will move into place to reveal the primary mirror. Roman arrived at the pad nine months before NASA's May 2027 commitment, and scientists aim to have first science images ready for publication by the end of the year.

05

ESA nails targeted Samba reentry over South Pacific

The third of ESA's four Cluster satellites, Samba, reentered over the South Pacific at 21:39:38 UTC on August 31, with the ROSIE airborne campaign capturing the demise from a plane flying out of Tonga. The final prediction was accurate to the second, reflecting lessons from the Salsa and Rumba targeted reentries, and 29 of 30 instruments on board recorded data on how the spacecraft fragmented and burned. Cluster satellite Tango is scheduled for a similar targeted reentry later on September 1, closing out a mission that studied Earth's magnetic environment for more than two decades.

06

NorthStar shifts space-tracking sensors from Spire to Kepler

NorthStar Earth & Space and Kepler Communications signed an agreement to host NorthStar's optical space-tracking sensors on Kepler satellites, framed as a foundation for a longer-term relationship. The deal follows an ICC arbitration ruling in late July that awarded Spire Global roughly $12 million on a counterclaim against NorthStar over the original four-satellite hosting arrangement, three of which never met NorthStar's image-quality requirements. Kepler recently turned on commercial service across its optical inter-satellite network, and NorthStar is pursuing a NYSE listing through a merger with Viking Acquisition Corp.

[ 03 / 1 items ]

Research

01

NASA's next "great observatory" begins mission to widen our view of the Universe

"We would need over half a million 4K TVs to fully display the single Roman image from our largest survey."

[ 04 / +29 / -16 ]

Market pulse

Archived snapshot from this edition. Prices and moves are not live.

Gainers+29
Decliners-16
Big mover TSAT+5.4%

ETL: SES awarded OHB a contract worth almost €1 billion.

AssetSnapshotMoveTrend
TSATTelesat$46.44+5.4%
VOYGVoyager Space$34.19+4.6%
GLWCorning$152.00+4.1%
FJETStarfighters Space$2.705-2.7%
SIDUSidus Space$2.075-2.1%
ETLEutelsat€1.798-1.9%
[ 05 / 3 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-09-01 edition.

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Filings

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