Techstars Space Startup Digest

Cellular agriculture companies can use fermentation to grow meat, chicken, and fish from cell cultures in a lab-like setting, offering consumers—and astronauts—a sustainable source of nutritious foods without the animals.

Orbite Corp., a Seattle startup founded by American entrepreneur Jason Andrews and French entrepreneur Nicolas Gaume, announced plans July 14 to establish a Spaceflight Gateway and Astronaut Training Complex offering luxury accommodations, dining and recreation for commercial astronauts, their friends and families.

DARPA’s Pit Boss experiment, dubbed Sagittarius A*, is projected to launch in early 2021.

Exotrail has raised $13 million (11 million euros) for on-orbit transportation for small satellites. This Series A round was led by two European Venture Capital firms, Karista (through Paris Region Venture Fund) and Innovacom.

“We were looking at the telemetry and going — ‘This isn’t right. This isn’t right. Something is definitely going wrong,’” said Doug Liddle, CEO of In-Space, recounting what it was like to watch his team’s satellite be lost in real time. 

Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper said funds that had been allocated for small launch contracts were redirected to small business loans.