JUN 2026ISSUE 07
Interlune's quiet SAFE round, and what the DOE delivery deadline really implies
Three liters by April 2029 sounds small. The cryocooler supply chain behind it doesn't. We map who else signed.
The intelligence brief for the space resources economy
The mining boom 280,000 km from the nearest analyst.
Asteroid metals, lunar helium-3, in-space propellant. A real industry is forming — $300M off-take deals are getting signed — and nobody covers it as a beat. We do. Funding rounds, missions, off-take contracts, and policy, every two weeks.
Free biweekly · Be an early subscriber — built for operators, VCs & mining majors' innovation teams
HE-3 SPOT $2,000–15,000 / L
SUPPLY GAP 22–30kL terr. supply vs 40–60kL demand
TRACKED COMPANIES 10 funded ventures
SECTOR 2030 $5.4B projected
NEXT MILESTONE AstroForge Vestri → 2022 OB5
INTERLUNE × BLUEFORS $300M+ off-take signed
DOE DELIVERY 3 L He-3 by APR 2029
KARMAN+ $20M seed closed
LAST ISSUE No. 41 · JUN 2026
Mission Watch — 01
Vestri departs for asteroid 2022 OB5.
AstroForge's third mission is the sector's nearest catalytic event: a sub-$10M spacecraft attempting rendezvous with a metallic near-Earth asteroid. A successful approach re-prices every cap table in this constellation. We'll be covering it hour by hour.
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02 Latest from the Brief
MAY 2026ISSUE 06
Vestri's docking target: why metallic asteroid 2022 OB5 was chosen
AstroForge's mission profile, its sub-$10M cost discipline, and what a successful rendezvous unlocks for the whole sector.
MAY 2026ISSUE 05
The helium-3 supply gap, quantified: 22–30kL terrestrial supply vs 40–60kL demand
Quantum computing's cryogenics appetite is the nearest-term business case for lunar extraction. The full math, sourced.
APR 2026ISSUE 04
Space Resources Week recap: the deals that didn't make the press releases
Luxembourg's annual gathering had a different energy this year. Procurement people showed up.
APR 2026ISSUE 03
Karman+'s $20M seed and the case for water before metal
Volatile-rich asteroids as propellant feedstock: the unsexy resource that pencils first. Inside the High Frontier architecture.
MAR 2026ISSUE 02
Who buys the first kilogram? A sober look at off-take demand, 2026–2032
We rank every plausible buyer of space-sourced material by urgency, budget, and signature authority. The list is shorter — and stranger — than you'd think.
MAR 2026ISSUE 01
After The Orbital Index: who's left covering the beat, and what we're building
A eulogy for the best newsletter in the sector, and a statement of intent. The desk is open.
04 Deal Tracker — Public Sample
Every dollar entering the sector, structured.
Rounds, grants, government contracts and off-take agreements — verified against filings and primary sources before they enter the ledger. Below: the five most recent public entries.
Ledger current to 09 Jun 2026
| Date | Company | Type | Value | Counterparty / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026·04 | Interlune | Off-take | $300M+ | Bluefors — multi-year He-3 supply for dilution refrigerators. Largest commercial agreement in sector history. |
| 2026·03 | Interlune | Gov contract | 3 L He-3 | U.S. DOE Isotope Program — lunar helium-3 delivery, deadline April 2029. First government purchase of an off-planet resource. |
| 2026·02 | Karman+ | Seed | $20.0M | Asteroid water extraction for in-space propellant. High Frontier demonstrator targeted 2027. |
| 2026·01 | AstroForge | Mission | <$10M | Vestri — rendezvous with M-type NEA 2022 OB5. Launch window late 2026; PGM assay objective. |
| 2025·11 | TransAstra | Gov contract | Undiscl. | NASA — inflatable capture-bag demonstration; dual-use debris / asteroid containment. |
Fields: round terms · investors · instrument · sources. Full ledger exports as CSV for Desk subscribers.
05 The Tracked Constellation
Ten funded ventures. One map.
Every company we track, charted by segment and stage — from asteroid prospectors to lunar extractors to the logistics layer between them. Each star carries a quarterly deep-dive on the Desk.
AstroForgeAsteroid · Ser. A
InterluneLunar He-3 · Ser. A
Karman+Asteroid H₂O · Seed
TransAstraCapture · Gov
Argo SpaceLogistics · Seed
StarpathLunar ISRU · Seed
HeliosO₂ from regolith
ispaceLunar lander · Pub.
Origin SpaceProspecting · CN
AMC LtdProspecting · UK
06 He-3 Market Monitor — Live Sample
The gap is the business case.
Helium-3 cools the dilution refrigerators every serious quantum-computing program depends on. Terrestrial supply comes almost entirely from tritium decay in weapons stockpiles — and it is structurally short. The Moon's regolith holds parts-per-billion concentrations across mare basalts. That delta, priced per liter, is why Interlune raised.
Terrestrial supply / yr22–30 kL
Estimated demand / yr40–60 kL
−30 kL/yr
Midpoint structural deficit. Every projected quantum data-center buildout widens it.
$2,000–15,000
Spot range / liter, grade-dependent
3 L / APR 2029
Interlune DOE delivery commitment
$300M+
Bluefors off-take, largest in sector
The Orbital Index signed off in January. The beat is open.
Own the desk before the first kilogram comes home.
One brief, every two weeks. The deals, the missions, the physics, the buyers — written for people allocating real capital against a trillion-dollar frontier.
Free forever · Upgrade to the Desk when you need the ledger
07 Corporate & Research Desk — Get in Touch
Talk to the desk.
Corporate research engagements, custom data pulls, citations, or a question for the analysts. We read every message and reply in writing — usually within two working days.