Star Catcher Prepares Orbital Power Beaming Demonstration For Launch
‘Protostar’ Power Node Prototype Ready to Launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base
Jacksonville, FL – September 28, 2026 – Star Catcher Industries, Inc. (“Star Catcher”), the pioneering energy company building the first power grid in space, has its prototype power node, Protostar, prepared for launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Launching aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission scheduled for October 2026, the Protostar mission aims to conduct a landmark power beaming demonstration between two untethered spacecraft, a feat that has never been achieved. This mission is a key milestone in actualizing the orbital energy infrastructure that will power the next era of space operations and exploration.
Since the company’s founding in 2024, Star Catcher has successfully demonstrated its power beaming technology terrestrially, including setting a world record for optical power beaming at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. In late 2025, the company also completed Sextant Alpha, an on-orbit demonstration mission of their proprietary spacecraft acquisition and tracking software. Star Catcher leveraged the data from these demonstrations to build and ship Protostar on an accelerated timeline.
“It takes an extraordinary engineering team to build, validate, and ship a space-qualified orbital power beaming spacecraft within two years of inception,” says Michael Snyder, co-founder and CTO of Star Catcher. “This mission will yield critical operational data in real-world orbital conditions that will directly support the build out of our commercial power grid in space.”
Protostar is the first end-to-end prototype of the company’s core technology stack on orbit: energy harvesting, satellite acquisition and tracking, and energy transmission. Following launch and commissioning, Protostar will deploy and track a CubeSat, to which it will beam measurable power to off-the-shelf solar panels, validating commercial power beaming operations.
Upon completion, this will be the world’s first optical power beamed between two free-flying spacecraft — a technological advancement that will enable on-demand wireless power transmission and act as the foundation of Star Catcher’s orbital power grid.
“Every major application driving the space economy — from real-time national security intelligence to AI-powered orbital computing and Earth observation — is limited by power,” said Andrew Rush, co-founder and CEO of Star Catcher. “We are closer to activating an orbital power grid than most can imagine; flying this prototype in only two years is meaningful evidence of the capability of our team and what’s to come.”
Star Catcher has publicly announced ten major commercial Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with leading space companies such as Starcloud, Loft Orbital, Astro Digital, and Aethero. These agreements, along with over 40 Letters of Intent (LOIs), a $60M Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) Award from the United States Space Force, and $88M in venture capital, have enabled Star Catcher’s rapid technology advancement. The company has already begun development on its follow-on satellite to beam operational levels of orbital power, is actively recruiting to more than double its team size, and is building out a new 100,000 square foot headquarters in Jacksonville, FL.
For more information, please visit www.star-catcher.com
For press inquiries, please contact Daniel Sherman at press@star-catcher.com
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About Star Catcher
Star Catcher is an energy company building a power grid in space, providing the infrastructure to enable the next generation of spacecraft and advanced missions. Star Catcher removes power as a limiting factor for spacecraft, allowing continuous mission execution, increased operational endurance, and the ability to support higher power payloads without redesigning existing platforms. Founded in 2024 by Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder (Made In Space, Redwire), alongside Bryan Lyandvert (T-Bird Capital, Amazon), the company has raised $88M to date from B Capital, Shield Capital, Cerberus Ventures, Initialized Capital, among others. Based in Jacksonville, FL, the company currently holds the world record for optical power beaming.