Impulse Space, founded in 2021 by former SpaceX co-founder Tom Mueller, is an up and coming player in the wacky world of space tugs, more professionally known as 'orbital transfer vehicles.' OTVs are satellites designed to carry spaceborn cargo to various orbits.
Redwire focuses on space infrastructure and autonomous systems. The company completed its Edge Autonomy acquisition and reported 50.7% year-over-year revenue growth. Management maintained full-year guidance of $320 to $340 million, and the book-to-bill ratio of 1.25 suggests demand is holding. But the business is bleeding cash with a net loss of $41.2 million in Q3, nearly double the $21 million loss from the prior year. Gross margin sits at just 16.3%, leaving almost no room for error.
Could IT infrastructure, and even the rise of AI, eventually migrate beyond the atmosphere? Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted in October that gigawatt-scale, solar-powered data centers would be a reality within 10 to 20 years. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Elon Musk was even more ambitious: AI data centers in the "final frontier" could be viable within two to three years. Google also plans to deploy its TPU chips in orbit via Project Suncatcher.
We ended the year with a record $1.85 billion in backlog, representing 73% year-on-year growth, a figure we look forward to building upon in 2026. That backlog includes an $816 million SDA contract to build 18 satellites for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 program, the largest single contract in company history, plus selection for the Missile Defense Agency SHIELD program, with potential contracts up to $151 billion.
Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it will launch more than 5,400 satellites to create a new communications network. Named TeraWave, it will offer continuous internet access around the world, with the ability to move large amounts of data much more quickly than rival services. But even after launching thousands of satellites, Blue Origin would still have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk's Starlink, which currently dominates the satellite internet market.
