Star Catcher to test space laser energy beaming for the first time
Original: Space Lasers Are About to Get Their First Real Test Generating Energy
Why This Matters
Space compute demand is surging; a working orbital power grid would remove a core infrastructure bottleneck.
Florida startup Star Catcher is launching its Protostar prototype aboard a SpaceX rocket this week to beam concentrated solar energy via laser to a separate cubesat in orbit — what would be the first wireless energy transfer between two untethered spacecraft. The company has raised $65M and holds 10 power purchase agreements.
Star Catcher, based in Jacksonville, Florida, is betting that space has a power problem — and lasers are the fix. The startup's Protostar satellite is launching on a SpaceX rocket this week, carrying a system that collects sunlight through an array of lenses, refines it into specific wavelengths, and fires a laser beam at a companion cubesat launching on the same mission. If it works, it will be the first time energy has been wirelessly transmitted between two separate, untethered objects in space.
The concept isn't new — Isaac Asimov sketched it in a 1941 story, and NASA studied it in the 1970s — but falling launch costs are what make it viable now. CEO Andrew Rush frames the current orbital environment bluntly: 'There isn't a power grid in space. Everybody just goes on these little camping trips.'
Star Catcher claims its concentrated laser beam can deliver up to 10 times more power than diffuse sunlight, potentially letting satellite operators shrink batteries and load more instruments — or, in the case of space data centers, more GPUs. Google's first space-based data center is riding the same SpaceX mission, underlining how quickly orbital compute ambitions are materializing.
The company secured a $65 million funding round earlier this year and a $30 million US Space Force award, and it holds 10 power purchase agreements alongside 40 letters of intent. Rush says Protostar is a small-scale precursor to full commercial nodes, with meaningful orbital power services targeted before 2030.