K2 Space

Announced March 24, 2026, SES orders an initial 28 satellites from K2 for meoSphere, its next-generation medium Earth orbit network, slated to be in operation by 2030 and expected to grow toward 100 satellites. The network is designed for up to 1 Gbps Ka-band service to flat panels as small as 25 by 25 centimeters and up to 4 Gbps with parabolic antennas, with optical intersatellite links and hosted payloads for commercial and government missions.

K2's first full Mega Class satellite launches on a Falcon 9 on March 30, 2026 from Vandenberg, a roughly two-tonne spacecraft with a 40 metre wingspan when its arrays deploy and 20 kW of power for payloads. It carries 12 payload modules from several customers including the Department of Defense, backed by a $60 million Space Force STRATFI award, and begins using its 20 kW electric thruster to raise its own orbit from LEO toward MEO. SpaceNews reported the same launch as an initial SES-K2 meoSphere pathfinder.

In May 2026 K2 is named to the Anduril-led team developing space-based interceptors for the Golden Dome for America missile-defense program, supplying Mega Class spacecraft platforms alongside Sandia National Laboratories and commercial space firms including Impulse Space, Voyager Technologies, and Inversion Space. Contract value was not disclosed.

On June 11, 2026 the Space Force selects K2 as satellite-bus provider for SES's entry in Protected Tactical Satcom-Global, K2's first selection for a Pentagon program of record. SES and Viasat were picked as PTS-G prime contractors under a combined $437.7 million award to each build and operate a satellite for five years, delivering protected, anti-jam X-band and military Ka-band communications from geostationary orbit for a 2029 in-service date; Rocket Lab supplies the bus for Viasat's competing satellite.

Announced July 31, 2026, the Space Force awards K2 $22.9 million through 2028 under the Enterprise Space Terminal program, covering procurement of standardized laser-link terminals, integration with two K2 satellite buses, and launch. The optical crosslinks underpin the Space Development Agency's Tracking Layer in LEO and the Resilient Missile Warning-Missile Tracking network in MEO, both foundations of Golden Dome.

K2 closes a $500 million Series D on July 30, 2026 at a $6.8 billion valuation, more than double its December 2025 mark, co-led by Kleiner Perkins and ICONIQ with CapitalG, Lightspeed, Altimeter, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, ARK Invest, and T. Rowe Price accounts joining. Cumulative funding passes $1 billion against more than $1 billion in signed government and commercial contracts, and the money goes into scaling the 180,000 square foot Torrance factory toward 100 satellites a year.

Breaking Defense reported on August 3, 2026 that Gravitas, after launching to low Earth orbit on March 30, subsequently raised its orbit to medium Earth orbit in a self-funded demonstration - the commercial proof that a Mega Class satellite can ride a cheap LEO launch and climb itself to MEO on the 20 kW Hall-effect thruster. CEO Karan Kunjur had said on July 30 that Gravitas was about 120 days into its mission and performing well, past K2's own under-90-day raise target. K2's site still lists Gravitas as operational on orbit.

K2's first in-space demonstration mission, Heritage, launches in January 2025 and proves out components the company designed and built in house, including its flight computer, reaction wheel, embedded avionics, and flight software, all specified for the radiation environment of medium Earth orbit. The mission exists to take technical risk out of the far larger Gravitas satellite.

K2 test fires its krypton-fed 20 kW Hall-effect thruster at full power on the ground, the propulsion piece that makes the Mega Class architecture work: enough thrust for a Mega Class satellite to raise itself from low Earth orbit to MEO on electric propulsion in under 90 days rather than needing an expensive direct-inject launch.

A $250 million Series C closes in December 2025 at a $3 billion valuation, with more than $500 million in contracts signed at that point. It funds the Torrance factory buildout ahead of the first Mega Class launch.

Karan Kunjur (CEO) and Neel Kunjur (CTO) found K2 Space in 2022 around a contrarian premise: that the industry's move to ever smaller satellites had capped the power available to payloads, and that cheap heavy-lift launch makes big, high-power buses the better trade. An $8.5 million seed round follows.