The US military has weapons in space, and—with the orbital arsenal expanding—security is becoming a top priority.
Fortastra, the CA-based startup building orbital-defense spacecraft, today announced a $30M Series A to fund its next-generation spacecraft, and meet the government’s demand for more space-based security systems.
First In led the round, which also included participation from Upfront, Space Capital, Rsquared, Side Door Ventures, and ATX Ventures as well as other new and existing investors.
Just in time: While the round was largely closed before Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed the existence of US space weapons last month, VP of Product Sahil Desai told Payload that he expects the comments will help ease the financial pathways for Fortastra to build a robust capability for the US military.
“The fact that it’s coming out in the open, and the government is feeling more willing to talk about [space weapons], helps us as a commercial business—and as a startup—be able to operate,” Desai said. “It’s giving a good signal to investors, [and] it’s giving good signals to [Fortastra] that we’re working on the right set of problems.”
Since its founding in 2025, Fortastra has launched two demo missions to validate its capabilities on-orbit, including one sat launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 this month. The next spacecraft, which Desai says could launch as early as Q1 2028, will be much closer to the final product.
While Desai declined to share details surrounding the spacecraft capabilities, he told Payload that the goal is to give troops multiple options when dealing with adversarial satellites—as opposed to solely building “high-escalatory” systems that threaten the safety of other sats in orbit.
“If you’re going to build a defensive capability, you can’t just have cameras,” Desai said. “You need to have the ability to deter, or ideally prevent, any further action from an adversary threat on orbit…From a payload and an effector perspective, that is like a front-and-center component to how we’re designing and building the spacecraft—in addition to the ability to move.”
Ultimately, Fortastra spacecraft will come equipped with:
- Sensors to determine their position relative to friendly assets and adversarial threats;
- Robust propulsion systems to move on orbit without regret;
- Capabilities to act against encroaching threats;
- Onboard autonomy to increase responsiveness on orbit.
What’s next: While the US government has had spy satellites in orbit for decades, the space-warfare domain—akin to dogfighting—remains relatively nascent. As such, the US government is attempting to build many options for its troops, using a mix of high-impact exquisite systems, and low-cost commercial solutions—similar to the roles drones and autonomous systems play in the air and sea domains, Desai said.
To meet this need in space, Fortastra plans to use its Series A funds to grow its engineering team, and expand its production capacity to meet the large-scale orders it expects from DoD. While the company’s short term goal is to launch about one spacecraft per year, the long-term vision is to ramp up the cadence considerably.
“Long term for the business [is] hundreds of spacecraft a year, potentially thousands,” Desai said. “Why do we need 1,000 security drones in orbit? It’s because that’s how quickly the threats are growing.”
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