California startup Swarm Technologies was five days away from launching its first commercial tranche of satellites when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Europe to shut down the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, grounding an Arianespace Vega rocket, its ride to orbit.

Launch delays are nothing new in the space industry, but the economic and logistic challenges posed by COVID-19 closures are giving startups such as Swarm unplanned opportunities to test their business acumen.

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