D-Orbit raises $128 million in the first tranche of Series D funding to enhance its orbital logistics infrastructure and expand services.

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Now, a startup has landed a big round of funding to tap that opportunity. The Milan-based company said another $50 million will be added to the Series C in the first half of this year. This investment currently stands as one of the largest raised by a space tech company in Europe and it comes on the heels of the company last year securing some €60 million in contracts from space agencies (a key customer segment, accounting for about half of its overall business today), and triple-digit revenue growth (but no disclosure of revenue numbers).That Tapping into both government space projects as well as the fast-growing commercial space sector, the company said that it has already deployed 100 satellites across 13 missions and 42 hosted payloads. That will change how these companies can operate, and raise financing in the future: just recently Planet announced layoffs of 10% to focus on more immediate ROI opportunities. Today, the company already provides a couple of ways to decommission satellites, either by helping them break up in the atmosphere (in the case of low-earth-orbit satellites); or by moving satellites at the end of their life to get out of the way of other active craft by moving them into “graveyard orbit” 300 kilometers further away, Rossettini said. Image Credits: D-Orbit (opens in a new window) under a license. D-Orbit claims that its scaled-up delivery and operational model (grouping multiple customers together, and bulk-procurement around launches and other services) saves 40% on costs and 85% on time.