Nasa too will want to review the flight data before deciding whether to release more seed funding to Orbital, and to clear the company for a Cygnus freighter demonstration mission to the ISS. All being well, this next demonstration could occur in late June or early July.
Combined with a new survey of the top 30 US angel investment groups that shows a marked increase across the board in seed stage valuations for startups, it is clear that the innovation economy is continuing its steady growth that began over three years ago.
There is also the caveat that the nature of VC deals is shifting and the old demarcations between seed funding and the next level up, Series A funding, may be less clear.