ABL Space Hits Unicorn Status, Scores National Space Agency Contract

Breanna De Vera

Breanna de Vera is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is currently a senior at the University of Southern California, studying journalism and English literature. She previously reported for the campus publications The Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media.

ABL Space Hits Unicorn Status, Scores National Space Agency Contract

Rocket launcher ABL Space Systems has achieved unicorn status, announcing a close of a $170 million Series B round, bringing the company's total valuation to $1.3 billion.

The funds come four years after ABL's founding and before its first planned launch into space in the second quarter of this year.


The El Segundo-based company said it's lined up 10 new customers, including the National Space Agency and U.S. Defense Department, for its launch vehicle called the RS1. Five of those new clients are commercial. They're on top of L2 Aerospace, ABL's first customer.

The rocket is able to be transported in shipping containers and can be sent from anywhere around the globe. It will launch two of L2 Aerospace's spacecraft into orbit.

ABL Space is competing against a few other private companies developing rockets. Virgin Orbit launched its LauncherOne rocket into orbit earlier this year. Relativity Space and Firefly Aerospace have launches scheduled for this year as well.

ABL chief executive Harry O'Hanley told CNBC that the additional funds will allow the company to scale up their launch cadence for future demand.

"It will also let us carefully start exploring more opportunities both in space tech and other domains," O'Hanley told CNBC.

T. Rowe Price Associates led the round, and Fidelity Management & Research and an unnamed global investment management firm joined as new investors.

Prior to this announcement, ABL had raised $49 million, with investors Venrock, New Science Ventures, Lynett Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures. It also raised $44.5 million through contracts awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX, with participation from the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.

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Astrolab's New SpaceX-backed Rover Could Change Space Exploration Forever

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
Astrolab's New SpaceX-backed Rover Could Change Space Exploration Forever
Photo by Samson Amore

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Local Los Angeles-area startup Astrolab Inc. has designed a new lunar vehicle called FLEX, short for Flexible Logistics and Exploration Rover. About the size of a Jeep Wrangler, FLEX is designed to move cargo around the surface of the moon on assignment. It’s a bit larger than NASA’s Mars rovers, like Perseverance, but as it’s designed for transport and mobility rather than precision measurement, it can travel much faster, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour across the lunar surface.

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Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn
Creatorland

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

LinkedIn hasn’t caught on with Gen Z—in fact, 96% rarely use their existing account.

Considering 25% of young people want to be full-time content creators and most influencers aren’t active on LinkedIn, traditional networking sites aren’t likely to meet these needs.

Enter CreatorLand.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M
This Week in ‘Raises’:

It has been a slow week in funding, but a local decentralized computing network managed to land $9 million to accelerate deployment of its new product called Universal Communication Identifier (UCID™). Another local company that secured capital included Kevin Costner’s location-based audio storytelling platform and the funding will go toward expanding the app’s content library and expanding into additional regions in the United States.

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