Ligado Networks LLC is nearing a new financing round to keep the satellite communications venture afloat and avert a near-term bankruptcy filing as it tries to monetize its wireless spectrum holdings, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Reston, Va., company is closing in on an agreement with top creditors to raise roughly $70 million in fresh capital to meet payments due to suppliers and its satellite-industry partner Inmarsat Global Ltd., the people said. Terms are still being negotiated and a final deal isn’t guaranteed, they said.

The financing deal aims to cool tensions with Inmarsat and give Ligado more time to pursue its business plan of providing wireless communications services on the ground as well as from orbit.

If the new loan closes, it would likely avert a near-term chapter 11 filing for Ligado, which warned investors last month it was running low on cash and needed an infusion to keep operating into 2023, people familiar with the matter said.

Ligado has spent most of the past decade seeking regulators’ approval to provide wireless communications services on the ground as well as from orbit. Its bonds and loans are considered some of the riskiest U.S. debt on the market because of uncertainty over its ability to overcome opposition from the Pentagon and other federal agencies that have raised concerns about interference with some GPS devices and other satellite services used by the military.

Last week, Inmarsat sued Ligado in a New York court after negotiations around Ligado’s request to defer some of its payment obligations fell through. Inmarsat said in the lawsuit that Ligado wasn’t holding up its end of the bargain under a cooperation agreement dating to 2007. Ligado denied breaching the cooperation deal and called the lawsuit meritless.

Write to Andrew Scurria at Andrew.Scurria@wsj.com and Drew FitzGerald at Andrew.FitzGerald@wsj.com