You may not have known that space shuttles were needed, but now you do — and Atomos Space has closed a $16.2 million Series A investment that will allow the company to complete a demonstration mission that will demonstrate its docking and towing capabilities. The company is developing a series of Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTV) that will enable it to maneuver satellites in space. The theory is that by enabling flying objects to move into different orbits without having full navigational capabilities, they would be able to turn around. Turn around and turn around. The company says its presence will cut launch costs for satellite operators in half.
The company is excited to share that it is pioneering high-energy electric power generation systems and views those propulsion systems as a stepping stone to nuclear OTV options, which can travel faster and further and provide commercial mobility services. The company is positioning itself to use these technologies for asteroid isolation, putting Harry Stamper out of business.
“I’ve done launch vehicle design, then spacecraft propulsion system design, and also some advanced technology for space propulsion, and I quickly realized that how we do space logistics is very good. The best example we use is with an airplane. Imagine you have a single-use airplane, a single passenger. You are, and because you can’t shop on the road, you have to take everything with you. So if you want to drive to your final destination, you have to take the car and get gas,” said Vanessa Clark, CEO and founder of Atomos Space. “Finally, it’s very expensive and limited. We need space.” It’s a hub and spoke logistics model. This allows us to do commercial missions like Earth observation, global communications, broadband Internet, but it also allows us to take the next step as a species and do more things that make sense from an economic and scientific perspective in deep space,” he said.
This is the company’s third round of VC funding and has yet to get it off the ground. The next big step is to fly the first vehicle.
“THis is a lot of autonomy. We are working to have a self-driving satellite that can locate, navigate and safely capture a customer. As a launch vehicle, we have the ability to optimize our propulsion system to operate in space, as opposed to having to design it to get there. in Place” Clark highlights the company’s competitive advantage. “This means we can go forward and use less propellant. With this new round of funding, we are completing the construction of our first two vehicles and have a launch site in less than 12 months. It will be an exciting mission to fly two full-size commercial vehicles.”
The first use of the technology is to take satellites to their final destination and to fix the satellites mid-mission. At the end of their service life, vehicles can be sent to a graveyard orbit or to a disposal orbit to burn up in the atmosphere.
“Our goal as a company is to make any orbit as low Earth orbit (LEO) accessible. On Earth, if you want to send something overseas, it’s as easy as sending a package to the next town. You just go to the post office. We want that to be possible for space,” Clark said. “We want to serve a wide range of mission-capable orbital transit vehicles in Earth’s orbit for a wide range of customers, spacecraft operators, space station operators, as well as companies and agencies that want to explore beyond the atmosphere,” he explains.
The company is particularly excited about nuclear propulsion in space, and they’re investing heavily on that front, which he tells us will command a modest improvement in speed and payload capacity.
With the current funding, the company says it will double the size of the team and launch the first two OTVs in early 2024. The investment was led by Cantos Ventures and Yamauchi No. 10 Family Office (which is the same family that founded Nintendo), with participation from Upheaval Investments, Dolby Family Ventures, Arden Road Investments, Elefund and Techstars.
