Space Exploration Startups

Stoke Space develops fully reusable rockets for space transportation and mobility services. The company focuses on rapid iteration from prototype to launch, with a mission to enable seamless mobility to, through, and from space.

53 investors

Astranis designs, builds, and operates small geostationary communications satellites that provide dedicated, secure network connectivity to large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the US military. The company operates its satellites globally from its Northern California headquarters.

40 investors

Relativity Space designs, builds, and launches rockets, including Terran 1 (a 3D-printed rocket) and Terran R, a reusable medium-heavy lift launch vehicle. The company uses a vertically integrated approach combining 3D printing, AI, and autonomous robotics to manufacture launch vehicles with fewer parts.

37 investors

Turion Space builds space infrastructure spanning maneuverable spacecraft, mission planning software, and orbital logistics such as refueling and servicing, with capabilities for space domain awareness and rendezvous proximity operations. The company also develops technology aimed at extracting resources by mining near-Earth asteroids.

27 investors

AstroForge is a space mining company that extracts platinum group metals and other valuable materials from asteroids to integrate into Earth's supply chains. The company aims to reduce reliance on terrestrial mining by developing commercial deep-space resource extraction missions.

22 investors

Epsilon3 provides a software platform for creating, reviewing, and executing operational procedures, serving teams that need to develop and iterate processes at scale.

11 investors

Momentus builds and operates in-space transport and service vehicles using water plasma propulsion technology, offering foundational infrastructure services for satellite companies, government agencies, and research organizations. It operates in the space infrastructure industry.

11 investors

Exosat designs and builds low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations for sovereign operators, offering direct-to-cell, IoT, and broadband connectivity. It uses ITAR/EAR-free supply chains to let operators lease network capacity or buy turnkey constellations, serving enterprise customers across sectors like maritime, aviation, logistics, and agriculture.

7 investors

Spaceium builds in-orbit refueling stations that store fuel and supply it to spacecraft, aiming to enable longer missions, larger payloads, and farther travel. The company operates in the space infrastructure sector.

7 investors

Quindar provides ground software for satellite operations monitoring and automation, serving governments and defense organizations in the space sector.

6 investors

EPIC AEROSPACE builds last-mile delivery for satellites, providing in-space transportation to move payloads to their final orbits for the commercial space launch market.

5 investors

TransAstra develops propulsion systems and telescope technology for space operations. The company's Omnivore propulsion system uses concentrated sunlight to power spacecraft with various propellants, while its Sutter Telescope System locates asteroids, orbital debris, and fast-moving objects for commercial and defense applications.

5 investors

Care Weather operates a low-cost flat-panel radar satellite system that gathers high-precision weather observations for governments and maritime shipping operators. The satellite design achieves cost advantages through vertical integration, improved power generation, and orbital positioning closer to Earth's surface.

4 investors

A company that repurposes Earth observation satellites using software to capture images of other orbiting satellites for government and defense customers.

4 investors

Pacific builds modular, containerized supercomputers ("pods") that deploy onto stalled construction sites with existing grid connections to provide AI compute infrastructure. It offers below-market hosted compute (GPU hours, tokens, training capacity) as well as managed on-premise pods for defense and regulated (CUI, CMMC) customers, including aerospace companies.

4 investors

Instinct Space develops lunar lander and orbital transfer vehicles to deliver cargo to the Moon, enabling rideshare-style launches from any orbit and landing payloads on the lunar surface.

3 investors

SpaceRyde builds a space cargo transportation system that uses a stratospheric balloon to launch a reusable, multi-functional rocket, aiming to reduce emissions from reaching orbit. After an initial mission the vehicle stays in orbit as part of a rocket network for tasks such as refuelling, deep space missions, and space junk removal.

3 investors

Bagaveev Corporation designs, builds, and tests 3D-printed aerospike rocket engines for a small launch vehicle intended to deliver 10-12 kg nanosatellites to low Earth orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit.

2 investors

Orca Aerospace develops onboard AI systems that operate spacecraft directly from the vehicle, using large language models paired with deterministic tooling to make mission-level decisions while keeping execution controlled by safety-focused systems. It serves the satellite and spacecraft operations market.

2 investors

Tesseract develops low-cost propulsion components and systems for spacecraft, including commercial Earth-orbiting satellites, robotic exploration missions, and human spaceflight.

2 investors