Tag: Startups
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Starfish Space brings in new funding as it gears up for orbital inspection and docking
Artwork shows the Otter spacecraft in orbit near another satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration) Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space is bringing in more funding after announcing several agreements to use its Otter spacecraft for missions ranging from inspecting dead satellites to extending the life of an operational satellite. Starfish reported that it has raised nearly $21 million…
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Radian Aerospace completes its first round of ground testing for prototype space plane
Radian Aerospace’s subscale prototype for its Radian One space plane sits on a runway in the United Arab Emirates. (Radian Aerospace Photo) Seattle-based Radian Aerospace has finished the first round of ground taxi testing for a prototype aircraft that’s meant to blaze the trail for a first-of-its-kind, single-stage-to-orbit space plane. Radian said the low-speed runway…
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Mars Society gains foothold in AI, robotics and biotechnology to clear a path to space
NASA engineer Christine Gregg inspects an experimental construction robot. (NASA Photo / Dominic Hart) The Mars Society says it’s making progress on launching a startup incubator in the Seattle area, with artificial intelligence and biotech as its first targets. Its long-term goal? To make a profit, yes, but also to support the development of technologies…
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Portal Space Systems comes out of stealth with satellites that’ll be fired up by the sun
An artist’s conception shows Portal’s Supernova satellite bus in orbit, using a propulsion system that focuses sunlight on a heat exchanger to produce thrust. (Portal Space Systems Illustration) A Seattle-area startup called Portal Space Systems is emerging from stealth to share its vision for a type of satellite that’s apparently never been put into space…
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Radian Aerospace updates its space plane design and hints at coming attractions
A Seattle-area startup called Radian Aerospace is fine-tuning the design of its orbital space plane, with an eye toward building a subscale prototype as early as this year. The company is also in the midst of a fresh round of fundraising, following up on $27.5 million in investment that was announced in 2022, according to…
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Interlune comes out of stealth with its plan to harvest helium-3 and more on the moon
An artist’s conception shows Interlune’s robotic harvester on the moon. (Interlune Illustration) Seattle-based Interlune officially lifted the curtain today on its plans to build a robotic harvester that could extract helium-3 from moon dirt and send it back to Earth for applications ranging from quantum computing to fusion power. Rob Meyerson, a co-founder of the…
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Lumen Orbit emerges from stealth and raises $2.4M to put data centers in space
An artist’s conception shows Lumen Orbit’s satellite in space. (Lumen Orbit Illustration) Bellevue, Wash.-based Lumen Orbit, a startup that’s only about three months old, says that it’s closed a $2.4 million pre-seed investment round to launch its plan to put hundreds of satellites in orbit, with the goal of processing data in space before it’s…
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Former Blue Origin president’s startup raises funding to go after moon resources
Space industry executive Rob Meyerson speaks at a 2016 space conference. (ISPCS via YouTube) A stealthy space venture co-founded by the former president of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture says it’s raising funds to move ahead with its plan to harvest resources on the moon and bring them back for use on Earth. Former…
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Fuse leads $6M round for Quindar, which uses AI for satellite support and is partnering with KSAT
A screenshot shows Quindar’s spacecraft management platform at work. (Image via Quindar) A space-centric startup called Quindar says it has successfully closed an oversubscribed $6 million funding round that will give a boost to its cloud-hosted, AI-supported software platform for satellite management. The seed extension round was led by the Seattle-area venture capital firm Fuse,…
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Three Pacific Northwest space companies win awards from Space Force venture fund
An artist’s conception shows Gravitics’ space module in orbit. (Gravitics Illustration) SpaceWERX, which essentially serves as a venture fund for the U.S. Space Force, has awarded contracts worth as much as $1.7 million each to 18 companies — including three startups headquartered in the Seattle area. The Washington state awardees are Marysville-based Gravitics, which is…