UK-based Lodestar secures €2.3M to safeguard all off-earth operations; here’s how

London-based Lodestar Space, a company building tools for the new space age, has closed its $2.5M (approximately €2.30M) pre-seed funding round.

The round was co-led by deep tech venture capital funds Inflection.xyz and Lunar Ventures. Other participants included Charlie Songhurst, Zehan Wang, Mehdi Ghissassi, and the UK Space Agency, which provided non-dilutive funding.

Capital utilisation

With this new funding, Lodestar Space plans to develop technology to safeguard crucial space infrastructure. It is also recruiting talent for engineering and commercial positions. 

According to TC, the grant from the UK Space Agency will help develop a flight-ready robotic arm to fly on a partner space tug next year. Lodestar also plans to expand to the US, aiming to attract the Department of Defense’s attention.

Autonomous dexterity for the space domain

Founded in 2023 by engineers Thomas Santini and Neil Buchanan, Lodestar Space is developing a platform-agnostic robotics system, beginning with a dexterous robotic arm designed to inspect and repair orbiting assets.

The startup provides autonomous, highly dexterous capabilities to inspect, protect, and repair critical assets in orbit. Its technology is designed for the harshness of space, enabling delicate tasks in microgravity, withstanding radiation and extreme temperatures, and maintaining precision. 

Using a “state-of-the-art” computer vision system with a proprietary neural net model, Lodestar’s systems can autonomously interpret and respond to target structures and materials.

The company collaborates with commercial and government partners worldwide to safeguard the assets crucial to democracies and ways of life.

Recently, the team conducted its first zero-gravity test of electrical, mechanical, and vision systems in microgravity with the Aurelia Institute and MIT. They aim for an in-orbit demonstration with an uncooperative space asset by the end of 2025.