Tag: Startups
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A taste of space on Earth: Astronaut training startup raises $4M to market way-out experiences
Brienna Rommes, Orbite’s chief astronaut trainer, guides participants in the Astronaut Orientation program through a presentation on spaceflight. (Photo Courtesy of Magali Maricot) Seattle-based Orbite says that it’s completed a $4 million funding round and sealed a strategic deal with Accor, one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, to advance its plans for offering space-oriented…
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Starfish Space raises $29M to bankroll development of orbital servicing vehicles
An artist’s conception shows an Otter spacecraft in orbit. (Starfish Space Illustration) Tukwila, Wash.-based Starfish Space today announced that it has raised $29 million to support the development of its first three Otter orbital servicing vehicles for missions serving the U.S. Space Force, NASA and Intelsat. The investment round was led by Shield Capital, a…
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Startup Trek: Blue Origin vets go to the frontiers of space and tech with new studio
Andrew Woodfield and Chris Le are the founding partners of Actuate Ventures. (Photo Courtesy of Chris Le) Two former employees of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company are striking out on their own with Actuate Ventures, a venture studio that specializes in supporting startups in the space industry and other deep-tech markets. Actuate’s founding partners,…
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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…