Vector, a Tucson-based micro-satellite launch company, announced it has landed $21 million in new investments to to help fund testing toward the launch of orbital customer missions in early 2018.
The Series A funding round was led by California-based Sequoia Capital, with participation from Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed, bringing Vector's total funding to date to $31 million, the company said.
The investment follows Vector's successful flight test of the full-scale prototype Vector-R launch vehicle in May, one of the first successful launches in the budding commercial space-launch industry. Vector also closed a $4.5 million bridge financing round in April.
Vector's next launch is planned for later this summer historic Spaceport Camden in Georgia, where NASA tested rocket engines in the 1960s.
The company says it also plans to develop its first GalacticSky satellites and break ground on a world-class rocket factory south of Tucson International Airport.
