CAPITAL FLOOR · WHO FUNDS SPACE

Who is funding space, and where it lands

The desk's ledger of capital events, trailing 12 months to 5 Oct 2026, sorted by one test: did new money enter a space company, from outside, for a new claim on it? Four numbers that mean four different things, so they are never added up.

New money, rest of industry

$18.0B

20 raises in the window

New money, SpaceX group

$110.7B

3 events, drawn on its own scale

Old money changing hands

$44.8B

4 events, never in a total

Promised, not moved

$9.79B

11 commitments and announced deals

Ledger as of 5 Oct 2026 · window set in data/capital-floor/read.md · definition in data/series/README.md

THE READ · AS OF 5 OCT 2026 · TRAILING 12 MONTHS TO 5 OCT 2026

What the ledger says this week

One company is the capital market. SpaceX group took in about $110B of new money in the window — the $85.7B IPO, xAI's $20B Series E and the $5B by which the June bond out-sized the bridge it retired. Every other tracked company together raised under $20B. The industry's funding story is SpaceX, then a long tail.

Outside SpaceX, venture money funds hardware, not networks. Launch, Earth observation and bus makers took most of the venture equity; the one large non-SpaceX raise was Blue Origin's $10B, also group-level and unallocated. Direct-to-device was financed with convertible debt, not equity.

Old money is nearly as large as new money outside SpaceX. EchoStar alone moved $22.65B of spectrum to AT&T and $19.6B to SpaceX, and Rocket Lab raised $1.9B to buy Iridium. None of it adds a dollar to the industry's balance sheet, which is why these sit on Board 5 and in no total.

Europe's money is promised, not raised. The IRIS² pledges from SES, Eutelsat, Hispasat, Spain, Poland and Hungary are the largest European figure on the page and none of it has moved; the hatched ribbons on Board 3 are the honest picture.

The desk's standing view, refreshed by the weekly ir-watch pass when a number it rests on moves. The board headlines below are derived from the ledger and change with it; this section is the judgement.

BOARD 1 · THE SPACEX GROUP, ON ITS OWN SCALE

SpaceX raised $110.7B — 6.1× the rest of the tracked industry together

Since the February 2026 xAI merger the group spans launch, Starlink and compute, and its raises are group-level with no allocation disclosed, so every one lands incorporate, unallocated. Drawn apart because on one scale with everyone else the other 20 raises would be slivers. Hover a bar for the citation.

SpaceX · 12 Jun 2026 · public equity$85.7B

xAI · Jan 2026 · venture equity$20.0B

SpaceX · 26 Jun 2026 · debt$5.0B

Source: funding.raised rows for spacex and rows tagged [group:spacex] in data/series/funding.jsonl, as of 5 Oct 2026. The IPO figure is the 10-Q cash-flow statement's IPO proceeds line.

Refinancing rule: the June 2026 $25B bond retired the $20B bridge of March 2026; only the $5B increment is new money and only it is drawn as capital in.

BOARD 2 · REST OF INDUSTRY, BY QUARTER

Blue Origin's $10.0B is 55% of everything else raised

New money into every tracked company outside the SpaceX group, per quarter,Q1 2026 to Q4 2026, stacked by where the money came from.20 raises, $18.0B in total. The busiest quarter by count isQ3 2026 with 16 raises; the largest by value isQ3 2026. Hover a bar for its events.

Venture equitySovereign moneyPublic equityDebt

Show the numbers

Capital raised outside the SpaceX group, USD billions, by quarter and source of money. EUR rows at 1.08 USD/EUR.
Quarter	Venture equity	Operator capex	M&A	Sovereign money	Public equity	Debt	Total	Events
Q1 2026	—	—	—	—	—	1.06	1.06	1
Q2 2026	0.94	—	—	—	—	—	0.94	2
Q3 2026	12.90	—	—	0.97	0.97	1.15	15.99	16
Q4 2026	—	—	—	—	0.03	—	0.03	1
Total	13.83	0.00	0.00	0.97	1.00	2.21	18.02	20

Source: the desk's capital ledger — data/series/funding.jsonl, metric funding.raised, rows with no [use:] exclusion and outside the SpaceX group, as of 5 Oct 2026. Each row cites its brief or dossier; open the ledger on Board 4.

Coverage: events the desk recorded in briefs and dossiers since January 2025. It is a tracked ledger, not a market census — a quarter with no bar is a quarter the desk logged nothing, not a quarter with no deals.

Not here: the SpaceX group (Board 1); refinancing and acquisition financing (Board 5); anything promised and not moved (Board 3, hatched).

BOARD 3 · SOURCE TO DESTINATION

Venture equity supplied 50% of the money; corporate, unallocated received 36%

Each ribbon is money from one kind of investor landing in one segment; width is USD.Solid = raised, rest of industry ($18.0B); hatched = pledged or announced and not yet moved ($9.79B) — same scale, never added together. The widest channel isventure equity into corporate, unallocated at $10.0B. Hover a ribbon or a bar for the events behind it.

Venture equityOperator capexSovereign moneyPublic equityDebtpromised, not yet moved

Show the numbers

Every source-to-destination channel, USD billions. Pledged and announced rows are commitments, not money moved.
Source	Destination	Kind	USD B	Events	Largest
Venture equity	Corporate, unallocated	raised	10.00	1	Blue Origin $10.0B
Operator capex	Sovereign networks	pledged	4.51	3	Eutelsat $2.41B
Sovereign money	Sovereign networks	pledged	3.41	3	Spain $2.16B
Debt	Direct-to-device	raised	2.21	2	AST SpaceMobile $1.15B
Venture equity	Launch	raised	1.26	5	The Exploration Company $450M
Venture equity	Earth observation	raised	1.16	4	ICEYE $486M
Operator capex	Direct-to-device	pledged	1.00	2	Space42 $600M
Sovereign money	Commercial broadband	raised	0.97	1	SpaceSail $973M
Public equity	Manufacturing	raised	0.97	1	OHB $972M
Venture equity	Government & defence	raised	0.50	1	K2 Space $500M
Debt	Sovereign networks	pledged	0.47	1	Astranis $468M
Venture equity	Manufacturing	raised	0.47	3	EnduroSat $205M
Venture equity	Sovereign networks	raised	0.45	1	Astranis $450M
Public equity	Manufacturing	announced	0.23	1	Astro Digital $230M
Public equity	Direct-to-device	announced	0.17	1	Astrum Space $173M
Public equity	Earth observation	raised	0.03	1	Northstar Earth Space $30M

Source: funding.raised (rest of industry), funding.commitment.* and funding.announced in data/series/funding.jsonl, as of 5 Oct 2026. Source and destination are the desk's own tags on each row.

Pledges: SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat operator capex plus Spain, Poland and Hungary public money committed to IRIS² at the August 2026 signing. Announced: Astrum Space's SPAC trust, contingent on the merger closing. Hatched because the money has not moved.

BOARD 4 · EVERY RAISE OUTSIDE SPACEX, ONE SCALE

Five raises are 79% of the money; the other 15 share the rest

Every capital-in row outside the SpaceX group, largest first, on one scale — so a Series A sits next to a $10B round and the gap is the point. Colour is the source of money. Pick a segment to see its raises alone; the scale does not change. Bus makers cuts across segments: companies that sell platforms to others, 7 of them, $2.51B between them. Hover a bar for the citation.

Blue Origin · Corporate, unallocated$10.0B

AST SpaceMobile · Direct-to-device · LEO$1.15B

AST SpaceMobile · Direct-to-device · LEO$1.06B

SpaceSail · Commercial broadband · LEO$973M

OHB · Manufacturing · bus maker$972M

K2 Space · Government & defence · bus maker$500M

ICEYE · Earth observation · SAR$486M

Astranis · Sovereign networks · small GEO$450M

The Exploration Company · Launch · in-space transport$450M

Open Cosmos · Earth observation · bus maker$324M

Impulse Space · Launch · in-space transport$308M

Deep Blue Aerospace · Launch · heavy lift$298M

Muon Space · Earth observation · bus maker$250M

EnduroSat · Manufacturing · bus maker$205M

Hongqing Technology · Manufacturing · bus maker$191M

Ispace China · Launch · heavy lift$149M

Pixxel · Earth observation · hyperspectral$100M

SWISSto12 · Manufacturing · bus maker$70M

HyImpulse · Launch · small launch$54M

Northstar Earth Space · Earth observation · SPAC$30M

Show the ledger

Every capital-in row outside the SpaceX group since January 2025, with its citation as stored.
Date	Entity	Native	USD B	Source	Segment	Sub	Confidence	Note
2026-07-08	Blue Origin	$10B	10.000	Venture equity	Corporate, unallocated	—	confirmed · secondary	Coatue led ~$4B; Bezos personally ~$2B — First outside-investor round at $130B valuation (7-outlet convergence; dossier TRACKED SERIES)
2026-07	AST SpaceMobile	$1.15B	1.150	Debt	Direct-to-device	LEO	confirmed · primary	tranches 2-3 omitted: record carries strike/combined-net only, no clean principal — Convertible notes, 5th tranche (2034), over-allotment exercised in full (SEC 8-K/10-Q; dossier TRACKED SERIES)
2026-02	AST SpaceMobile	$1.06B	1.060	Debt	Direct-to-device	LEO	confirmed · primary	Convertible notes, 4th tranche, 2.25% (earnings call; dossier TRACKED SERIES)
2026-08-18	SpaceSail	$0.973B	0.973	Sovereign money	Commercial broadband	LEO	confirmed · secondary	multi-outlet upgrade of the 2026-08-21 single-origin techtimes row (CNY6.976B/$1.035B); lead investor a China SOE Structural Adjustment Fund Phase II tranche via China Chengtong (11.5%), not CDB as techtimes named; investor count still unreconciled (Caixin 24 vs SCMP 18) — Caixin Global (2026-08-19), corroborated SCMP (2026-08-20) and Advanced Television (2026-08-21); CNY7bn raise, USD computed from the same reporting's own CNY50.1bn=USD6.96bn post-money conversion (~7.2 CNY/USD)
2026-07	OHB	€900M	0.972	Public equity	Manufacturing	bus maker	estimated · primary	~figure at upsizing; final settled amount not re-verified — Capital raise upsized from EUR510.7M target to ~EUR900M (OHB SE ad-hoc announcement; dossier TRACKED SERIES)
2026-07-30	K2 Space	$500M	0.500	Venture equity	Government & defence	bus maker	confirmed · secondary	Series D; 2x its $3B Dec 2025 mark; selected as bus provider for Space Force PTS-G — SpaceNews (Sandra Erwin), Series D at $6.8B valuation (brief 2026-07-31T0344Z)
2026-06-09	ICEYE	€450M	0.486	Venture equity	Earth observation	SAR	confirmed · secondary	correction per the ledger's secondary rule: the EUR1.0B headline included a secondary placement; the primary tranche is EUR450M/$520M and the secondary is logged as transfer.secondary; valuation >EUR10B/$12B — ICEYE press release, corroborated General Atlantic newsroom, QIA newsroom, PR Newswire (EQT), SpaceNews (dossier TRACKED SERIES)
2026-05-06	Astranis	$450M	0.450	Venture equity	Sovereign networks	small GEO	confirmed · primary	Series E ($300M equity + $155M Trinity Capital credit); Snowpoint/Franklin Templeton co-led; total past $1.2B — Astranis blog 2026-05-06; Via Satellite corroboration (dossier sovereign-geo-capacity TRACKED SERIES)
2026-09-08	The Exploration Company	$450M	0.450	Venture equity	Launch	in-space transport	confirmed · secondary	Series C; Europe's largest space round; ~$680M total since 2021; Bessemer/Atomico/EQT co-led — europeanspaceflight.com (Andrew Parsonson), corroborated Tech.eu, TechFundingNews (brief 2026-09-09T0335Z)
2026-09-14	Open Cosmos	€300M	0.324	Venture equity	Earth observation	bus maker	confirmed · primary	Lightrock and ETF Partners led; UK NSSIF participated; total >$390M since 2014 — Open Cosmos press release via GlobeNewswire (brief 2026-09-14T1524Z)
2026-09-16	Impulse Space	$308M	0.308	Venture equity	Launch	in-space transport	confirmed · primary	Series D extension; round total $808M; $5.4B valuation — Impulse Space press release via GlobeNewswire (brief 2026-09-17T1523Z)
2026-09-24	Deep Blue Aerospace	$298M	0.298	Venture equity	Launch	heavy lift	confirmed · secondary	B6+B7 series, ~CNY2bn; state-linked leads Wuxi High-Tech Zone Investment Holdings Group, Wuxi Innovation Investment Group and Shanghai Free Trade Zone Fund, plus private VCs (Huafu Capital, Addor Capital, Haisong Capital); funds Nebula-1 flight readiness (not yet flown) and Nebula-2 R&D — finance.jrj.com.cn (2026-09-27), corroborated news.pedaily.cn and Forbes China; English summary china-in-space.com (2026-09-30); dossier chinese-bri-digital-silk-road TRACKED SERIES
2026-08-20	Muon Space	$250M	0.250	Venture equity	Earth observation	bus maker	confirmed · secondary	Series C; total equity $386M; EO/climate smallsat constellation — SpaceNews, @SpaceCapital (brief 2026-08-21T0333Z)
2026-09-16	EnduroSat	$205M	0.205	Venture equity	Manufacturing	bus maker	confirmed · primary	second raise in under a year (after $104M Oct 2025); European newspace funding past EUR1B for the month — EnduroSat press release via GlobeNewswire (brief 2026-09-17T1523Z)
2026-07-03	Hongqing Technology	$191M	0.191	Venture equity	Manufacturing	bus maker	confirmed · secondary	Landspace affiliate; Chinese satellite manufacturer — SpaceNews (Andrew Jones) (brief 2026-07-07T0630Z)
2026-09-25	Ispace China	$148.6M	0.149	Venture equity	Launch	heavy lift	estimated · secondary	~CNY1bn raised so far toward a ~CNY7bn (~$1.04bn) Series E target for Hyperbola-3 mass production, JD-2 engines and sea-recovery assets; USD figure desk-converted at the dossier's own implied CNY7bn=$1.04bn rate (~6.73); Hyperbola-1 has not flown in over a year; distinct from the Japan-based lunar-lander company ispace — china-in-space.com, "iSpace Raising More Capital Amid Lengthy Launch Gap" (2026-09-25), citing Securities Times; single-origin, not found in any brief; dossier chinese-bri-digital-silk-road TRACKED SERIES
2026-09-07	Pixxel	$100M	0.100	Venture equity	Earth observation	hyperspectral	confirmed · secondary	Series C co-led by Temasek and Seraphim Space; India's largest space-tech round to date — Pixxel press release, per briefs 2026-09-07T1526Z and 2026-09-08T1521Z
2026-07-16	SWISSto12	$70M	0.070	Venture equity	Manufacturing	bus maker	confirmed · secondary	Series C; small-GEO satellite manufacturing — Evertiq, brief 2026-07-17T0649Z; dossier sovereign-geo-capacity
2026-09-03	HyImpulse	€50M	0.054	Venture equity	Launch	small launch	estimated · secondary	Series A extension; EUR50M+ (50 is lower bound); JOIN Capital/Ace Capital co-led; total EUR125M+ — HyImpulse announcement; Payload Space, europeanspaceflight.com (brief 2026-09-04T0350Z)
2026-10-01	Northstar Earth Space	$30M	0.030	Public equity	Earth observation	SPAC	confirmed · primary	PIPE cash at SPAC-merger close with Viking Acquisition Corp I/KingsRock Advisors; deal valued NorthStar at $300M pro forma, not cash, excluded; began trading as NSTR on NYSE American 2026-10-02 — NorthStar Earth & Space/Viking Acquisition Corp I business-combination press release (SEC exhibit, accession 0001213900-26-104115); SEC Form 8-A12B, Viking Acquisition Corp I (CIK 0002080023), filed 2026-10-01; corroborated satellitetoday.com, Bloomberg, spaceq.ca

Source: funding.raised in data/series/funding.jsonl, as of 5 Oct 2026. Corrections are appended rows; the ledger shows the latest value per event.

Read with care: debt and equity are separate tags — AST's convertibles are debt; OHB's capital increase is public equity. "Sovereign money" here is a China SOE fund; the European public money is pledged, not raised, and sits on Board 3.

Bus makers: the [sub:bus] tag marks companies that sell platforms to others, whatever segment funded them. It answers the money side of the bus-supply question the end-to-end-convergence dossier leaves open (OPEN QUESTIONS #6); unit capacity against launch slots is data/series/manufacturing.jsonl, not this board.

Currency: EUR rows converted at 1.08 USD/EUR, the desk's stated rate; native amounts are in the ledger.

BOARD 5 · OLD MONEY, CHANGING HANDS

$44.8B moved without any new money entering the industry

Every event the desk logged that failed the three-question test — cash from outside, a new claim issued, net of what it replaced — and why. Tracked for who owns what; never in a total. A table, because the point is the reason column, not the size.

Transfers and capital-in rows excluded by use, largest first. USD billions at 1.08 USD/EUR for EUR rows.
Date	Event	Kind	USD B	Why it is not new money	As recorded
2026-07-28	EchoStar · $22.65B	spectrum sale	22.65	an asset moved between two companies; the industry's cash did not grow	AT&T spectrum sale close, distinct from the SpaceX spectrum.deal_value rows (2025-09-08/2025-11-05); proceeds fund debt paydown, not a specific segment
2025-11-05	EchoStar · $19.6B	spectrum sale	19.60	an asset moved between two companies; the industry's cash did not grow	SpaceX 10-Q states ~$19.6bn, EchoStar 10-Q states ~$20bn; $19.6bn adopted as the FCC 26-51-corroborated figure
2026-09-15	Rocket Lab · $1.944B	acquisition financing	1.94	raised from investors and paid straight out to the target's holders	ATM equity offering; finances $8B Iridium buyout; replaced $3.6B bridge loan
2026-06-09	ICEYE · €550M	secondary sale	0.59	existing shares changed hands; no cash to the company	secondary placement inside the EUR1.0B June 2026 round: existing shares changing hands, no cash to the company; derived as headline minus the EUR450M primary tranche

Source: spectrum.deal_value, transfer.secondary and funding.raised rows tagged [use:refinancing|acquisition] in data/series/funding.jsonl, as of 5 Oct 2026.