Every satellite in orbit faces the same limitation: power.
The United States is currently leaving capital and critical capabilities on the table because of limited power availability. At a time when the world is more dependent than ever on space for communications, intelligence, and security, Star Catcher is positioned to provide the missing piece: the world’s first power grid for space.
Why Now?
Space is no longer a next-generation domain. It is an essential infrastructure layer for the modern economy and an increasingly strategic operating environment. As activity in space scales, reliable and flexible access to power is essential to both commercial and national security.
The growth of the satellite economy has been extraordinary. In 2020, roughly 3,000 satellites demanded around 10 megawatts of power. Today, more than 10,000 satellites demand over 50 megawatts. By 2030, analysts expect more than 70,000 satellites requiring nearly a gigawatt of power. The demand curve is steep and accelerating rapidly.
Yet the architecture underpinning how satellites generate and manage energy is stagnant. Most LEO satellites operate on just 1,000 to 1,500 watts — roughly the power draw of a household refrigerator — while enduring up to 15 eclipse periods per day as the Earth blocks the Sun. Every eclipse creates a constraint on capability, uptime, and economics.
The consequences are substantial. Direct-to-cell operators face bandwidth limitations. Earth observation platforms are unable to meet customer demand. Satellite operators are forced into constant tradeoffs over which systems can run, when, and for how long. And our military is forced to make tradeoffs.
Solidifying power infrastructure for space must be a national priority.
Why Star Catcher?
Star Catcher is working to build the first space power grid. Its orbital infrastructure platform will harvest solar energy, spectrally conditions it, and beam it directly into client satellites' existing solar arrays — delivering on-demand power in LEO with no retrofits, no custom receivers, and no hardware modifications required.
The key is their multi-wavelength laser architecture. Star Catcher's platform is interoperable: it transmits multiple tightly filtered wavelengths compatible with both standard silicon solar cells and the triple-junction gallium arsenide arrays common on both commercial and government satellites. That compatibility meaningfully expands the addressable market and lowers adoption friction for operators.
Star Catcher also will allow customers to buy power flexibly, on demand, instead of being locked into a fixed power availability architectures over the life of their mission.
What's Next?
Early traction demonstrates the urgent need for Star Catcher’s capabilities. Operators across remote sensing, telecommunications, mission integration, and emerging orbital infrastructure verticals have committed to the service, and early government contracts reinforce the platform’s relevance across both commercial and national security applications.
The company is now focused on scaling its on-orbit power-beaming capabilities through a series of demonstration missions and technical milestones designed to validate the platform and accelerate commercial deployment.
Star Catcher’s Series A funding will help position Star Catcher to become proto-flight mission ready, achieve commercial revenue, support expanded platform development, and solidify customer partnerships.
Who's Behind Star Catcher?
What has stood out is the team’s expertise and their ability to pair technical vision with commercial execution. The team has attracted early customers, government partners, and co-investors – including B Capital and Shield Capital – that reinforce the strength of the platform.
Andrew Rush, CEO and co-founder, and Michael Snyder, CTO and co-founder, previously helped build some of the most important businesses in the modern space infrastructure ecosystem. Together, they held leadership roles at Redwire Corporation and co-founded Made In Space, a leading in-space manufacturing and orbital robotics company. Their experience spans scaling complex space infrastructure platforms, deploying manufacturing technologies to the International Space Station, and advancing next-generation orbital systems.
Bryan Lyandvert, CBO and co-founder, complements that technical depth with operational and investment experience across frontier technology, including leadership roles at Amazon and prior investing roles at T-Bird Capital, Anthos Capital, and JUMP Investors.
Taken together, the team brings a distinct combination of deep technical expertise, operational experience, and commercial discipline that we believe is critical to building foundational infrastructure for the next era of space.
Final Thoughts
Space is no longer a distant frontier – it is a critical sector for global power competition.
The next generation of space capabilities are being built right now. Launch costs have fallen. Satellite constellations are proliferating. Data centers are envisioned in orbit. But the power constraint limiting nearly every capability in orbit has remained largely unsolved, not for lack of ambition, but because the enabling technologies have only recently matured enough to produce a scalable solution viable.
Just as on land, whoever controls the ability to power space will control the domain.
We believe Star Catcher is the best power solution at the right moment, with the right team, and with the right economic model.
We are excited to support Andrew, Michael, Bryan, and the Star Catcher team as they work to build the first power grid for space.
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