SAN FRANCISCO – Samara Aerospace is preparing for spaceflight testing of its satellite-pointing technology with funds raised in a pre-seed investment round.
The funding “unlocks near term milestones,” Patrick Haddox, Samara Aerospace CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews. “We will launch our technology-demonstration payload and we plan to send an engineering unit of our full satellite on a Zero-G flight.”
Samara Aerospace is not disclosing the size its pre-seed round led by R7 Partners. Mana Ventures, Illinois Ventures, Tech Stars, and What If Ventures contributed to the round.
The technological underpinning for Samara Aerospace, called Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control (MSAC), was patented by Samara Aerospace co-founder and chief technology officer Vedant and James T. Allison, director of the Engineering System Design Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. With MSAC, Samara Aerospace intends to produce a flat satellites, called Hummingbird, with piezoelectric actuators embedded in solar panel hinges.
“We have this value-add in terms of attitude control and we can redefine how spacecraft are made,” Vedant said. “We can rapidly stabilize and reconfigure flat panels.”
Flight Testing
Samara Aerospace’s technology demonstration is scheduled to reach low-Earth orbit in October as a hosted payload on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare. That flight will provide “validation on the core fundamental technology,” Vedant said.
Then, “it’s pedal to the metal trying to get our engineering unit off the ground literally,” Haddox said.
Hummingbird is scheduled for testing on a Zero-G flight in November. Then, Samara Aerospace plans to send a 50-kilogram Hummingbird into orbit in late 2026.
“We have 15 kilograms of payload space on that tech demo and are actively looking for payloads,” Vedant said. “We are hoping to get customers interested.”
If customer demand is strong, Samara Aerospace would be “more than happy” to double the size of its Hummingbird, Vedant said.
