Star Catcher Industries to create ‘world’s first’ space-based energy grid

Star Catcher Industries, a Florida-based startup focusing on space-based energy generation, has closed a $12.25 million seed round to construct what they are calling the world’s first space-based energy grid.

Once constructed, the Star Catcher Network will be a first-of-its-kind energy grid, says the startup in a release, able to beam significant levels of broad-spectrum energy to spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond.

With the seed funding, Star Catcher’s immediate focus will be on validating and demonstrating its power beaming services for customers, beginning with ground demonstrations, followed by an on-orbit demonstration in late 2025 and deployment of commercial service.

Once deployed, satellite operators can shift to a shared infrastructure mindset, where power consumption will not be constrained by what satellites bring with them.

The network will deliver energy on demand and at higher concentrations of energy than the Sun to the existing solar arrays of client spacecraft, enabling them to generate up to five to ten times the amount of power they would generate otherwise without retrofit.

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According to the company, demand for high-performing, power-intensive applications in space, including space-based telecommunications, on-orbit computing, remote sensing, human spaceflight and national security applications, is growing exponentially.

With LEO projected to host more than 40,000 satellites by 2030, Star Catcher anticipates a need for 840MW of power generation to operate these systems, compared to the tens of megawatts of power generation capacity in space today.

By providing spacecraft with higher concentrations of energy to state-of-the-art solar arrays, the Star Catcher Network aims to significantly magnify space-based power generation to meet this growing demand and enable satellite operators to expand capabilities and uptime while reducing upfront spend.

The company reaching for the stars

Alongside participation from Rogue VC, Initialized Capital and B Capital co-led the seed round for Star Catcher, which was founded this year by multiple time successful space entrepreneurs Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder and experienced VC and operator Bryan Lyandvert.

Andrew Rush previously served as CEO & President of in-space manufacturing company Made In Space, where he led the company through its successful sale to Redwire Corporation in 2020. Following the sale, Rush became Redwire’s founding President and COO.

Michael Snyder, the 2022 recipient of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award for notable contributions made to the aerospace industry, served alongside Rush as co-founder and chief engineer of Made In Space and chief technology officer of Redwire.

Bryan Lyandvert on the other hand is a well-known space investor with extensive experience in early stage investing and capital formation from his time at MetaProp Ventures and T-Bird Capital.

According to Star Catcher, since its founding this year, the company has to date made significant technical progress and has achieved early traction, securing more than half a dozen letters of intent from commercial space companies spanning the remote sensing, national security, human habitat and telecommunications verticals.

Commented Rush in a statement: “Power infrastructure is the foundational building block of civilization and industry; our goal is to expand that foundation into LEO and beyond with our in-space power grid and service.”

“Being able to buy power for your spacecraft whenever and wherever you need it in LEO will expand opportunity and accelerate humanity realizing the potential of the second golden age of space.”