NorthStar Earth & Space has announced a definitive merger with Viking Acquisition Corp. to become a publicly traded company on the NYSE under the ticker NSTR, with closing expected in the third quarter of 2026.

The SPAC deal will value NorthStar at a pre-money of $300 million and includes a fully committed $30 million common stock PIPE anchored by Cartesian Capital Group, aiming to raise at least $30 million in gross proceeds.

The transaction is designed to accelerate the deployment of NorthStar’s space-based sensor network for space situational awareness, expanding capabilities to monitor orbital activity and detect threats.

NorthStar demonstrates full custody tracking for the U.S. government by successfully tracking a 10 cm object in orbit over 26 hours.

Funds from the deal will finance constellation build-out, payloads and sensors, spacecraft integration and deployment, and non-recurring engineering work.

NorthStar’s history includes early satellite work with Thales Alenia Space, a shift to smaller cubesats with Spire, a failed Virgin Orbit plan, and Electron-launched NorthStar satellites with mixed results from a Spire-controlled batch.

NorthStar provides space domain awareness by integrating ground and space data to monitor orbital activity, including maneuver detection and patterns-of-life analysis, serving commercial and government customers.

Advisors to NorthStar include Cohen & Company Capital Markets and Greenberg Traurig; Viking is advised by KingsRock Advisors and Nelson Mullins.

The deal includes a $30 million PIPE and describes potential gross proceeds of at least $30 million, with investors including major Canadian and U.S. institutions.

NorthStar has raised about $100 million to date, including support from Quebec and Luxembourg, strengthening the $300 million pre-money valuation.

The PIPE and transaction are intended to fund constellation expansion, including sensors, spacecraft integration, deployment, and non-recurring engineering.

The merger is expected to unlock access to capital to scale operations amid rising satellite launches and a growing space economy projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035.