Startups

Top 5 of 2025: Out of Stealth

A rendering of Lux Aeterna's mission in space, against a black background with the curve of Earth visible in the distance.
A rendering of Lux Aeterna’s mission in orbit. Image: Lux Aeterna

The space industry is growing and growing—and today we’re looking at some of the companies that threw their hat in the ring in 2025. 

Here are just a handful of the new companies that emerged from stealth this year:

  • Exclusive: Reditus Space Unveils Plans For Reusable Reentry Vehicle: A new startup is challenging the idea that reentry from orbit has to be destructive. Reditus Space, founded by two Georgia Tech engineering grads, emerged from stealth with plans for a reusable reentry vehicle to offer quick-turnaround flights for microgravity researchers and in-space manufacturers.
  • Lux Aeterna Raises $4M for Reusable Sat Buses: The satellite bus goes up and down, up and down, up and down—at least, if Lux Aeterna has anything to do with it. The Denver, CO-based startup emerged from stealth with $4M in pre-seed funding to help it develop a fully reusable satellite bus that can fly a mission, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, and fly again.
  • Besxar Emerges From Stealth with SpaceX Launch Deal: Semiconductor manufacturing is big business, and a new startup from DC has plans to take it out of this world. Besxar Space Industries emerged from stealth with the announcement of a launch deal with SpaceX. The launch giant will fly a total of 24 of Besxar’s reusable in-space manufacturing payloads aboard 12 upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 launches.
  • Rendezvous Robotics Emerges With $3M: Rendezvous Robotics emerged from stealth yesterday, announcing its plan to send self-assembling tiles to the ISS in 2026. The Golden, CO-based startup also announced it had already flown two demos of its tech to orbit.
  • AscendArc Raises $4M for its Small GEO Sats: AscendArc emerged from stealth with $4M in funding to develop small GEO communication satellites.The Portland, OR-based startup is bucking the LEO trend, betting that low-cost and high-bandwidth small GEO satellites could offer superior cost-efficiency.

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