Startup Fleet Space launches satellite on SpaceX mission
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The news: Fleet Space Technologies has announced the successful deployment of its Centauri-6 satellite on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 mission, marking the latest milestone for the Australian space exploration startup.
The numbers: Last year, Fleet Space completed an oversubscribed $50 million Series C funding round, doubling its valuation to $350 million.
The context: Fleet Space's Centauri-6 satellite, deployed on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-1 mission, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Adelaide-based company said Centauri-6 will play a "vital role" in servicing the global demand for its end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, while also building capacity to deliver advanced satellite communications capabilities with microsatellite architectures.
The launch of Centauri-6 is the latest development from Fleet Space, after its Centauri-4 became the world’s smallest voice-enabled satellite last month.
The company's SPIDER (Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research) technology will also head to the Moon to search for water ice and deliver new insights about the lunar regolith on Firefly Aerospace’s second lunar mission in 2026 as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
What they said: Fleet Space co-founder and CEO Flavia Tata Nardini said: "Humanity’s expanding satellite infrastructure is rapidly unlocking new capabilities that can help to address some of the most pressing challenges facing our planet.
"At current rates of mineral discoveries and production, our net-zero goals and clean energy future are unattainable in the coming decades.
"Leveraging the latest advances in space technology, AI, and geophysics — Fleet Space is demonstrating a path to accelerate mineral exploration in a more data-driven, scalable, and sustainable way.
"Centauri-6 is a portal into a future of efficient, mass-scale satellite manufacturing that can unlock previously unimaginable satellite-enabled solutions to hard problems on earth.”
The source: Fleet Space media release
