BusinessVC/PE

Lunar Resource Extraction Startup Interlune Raises $15.6M

Image: NASA

A stealth startup led by a who’s who of veteran space executives is beginning to stir. 

Interlune, an in-space resource mining startup operating in stealth, has secured $15.6M of funding and is targeting an additional $2.1M, as revealed in a recent SEC filing first reported by TechCrunch

The Seattle-based business is led by Blue Origin’s former long-time president Rob Meyerson, and counts Blue Origin’s ex-chief architect Gary Lai and former Rocket Lab EVP Indra Hornsby as cofounders. 

Shhhh: The company was founded in 2020 and has operated in hush-hush ever since. While details on the venture are scant, the company’s website describes the startup as “harvesting natural resources from space to benefit Earth and establish an in-space economy.”  

Panning for regolith: One of the company’s projects is lunar regolith sorting. Interlune won an SBIR Phase I award last year to develop and demo tech that can sort lunar regolith by size for oxygen extraction systems and 3D printing on the Moon.

  • The proposed system would be more reliable and have 5x lower mass than traditional sieves. 
  • The tech plans to use centrifugal motion to guide the particles through a screen.

The company also hopes to mine lunar resources for use on Earth.

In-situ: Living off the land is key to NASA’s goal of establishing a permanent lunar settlement. NASA has targeted setting up camp at the lunar south pole, a region that may contain water ice deposits that could be extracted for various life support applications. Other companies, like Austin-based ICON, are developing technologies to use lunar regolith for in-situ manufacturing. ICON won a $57.2M NASA contract in 2022 to 3D print large-scale habitats on the Moon using lunar regolith. 

Related Stories
BusinessMilitary

Booz Allen Preps for the Golden Dome

The president wants a Golden Dome missile defense system, and the space industry is standing ready to get him one. Booz Allen Hamilton is the latest space firm to publish a concept for a distributed satellite system that could identify and help to intercept missile attacks in their tracks. The constellation design, which the company […]

BusinessPolicy

State Looking For Industry Input In Colorado Springs

The State Department is asking industry how it can better support American space startups, and it’s looking to kick off the conversation at Space Symposium next month. 

BusinessCivilPolicy

AIA Shares Top Space Priorities For 2025

The list includes nearly three dozen to-dos for government agencies ranging from the DoD to the FAA to NASA.

AnalysisBusinessCivil

US Space Companies Make a Run at Europe

After years of investor malaise and memes about the region’s lack of innovation, investing in the EU is suddenly back in vogue.