The June Recap

Space Dirt is six months old! Thank you for giving us a chance and sticking with us as we find our footing and evolve.

In this issue, we share some real estate highlights and recap notable partnerships, acquisitions, and fundings. Plus, I share what I’ve been reading, watching, and enjoying.

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Argo Space opened its office at 601 Cypress Ave., Hermosa Beach. (source: Me). Argo was founded by a trio of SpaceX veterans — who happen to be brothers — aims to build an in-space transportation network, using reusable spacecraft propelled by water harvested from the moon. To read more about them, check out this TechCrunch article.

Soaring relocated its headquarters to 300 Continental Blvd., El Segundo. I’m proud to have represented Soaring in securing its new HQ, moving from Pasadena down to El Segundo. As always, if you need some help with your real estate, I know a guy! (source: Me). To learn more about how Soaring is helping to build the future of automated flight, check out https://soaringtech.ai/.

PARTNERSHIPS, ACQUISITIONS, AND NOTABLE FUNDINGS

💲 Boston-based startup Fortify raised $12.5 million from investors, including Lockheed Martin Ventures and Raytheon Technologies’ RTX Ventures. With the additional funding, Fortify plans to accelerate the development of its Digital Composite Manufacturing platform, which prints composite materials designed down to the nanoscale for high performance. (source: SpaceNews)

➕ Defense technology company Anduril Industries has acquired Adranos, a startup that manufactures solid rocket motors for in-space and terrestrial applications. Indiana-based Adranos’ solid rocket motor propulsion systems are designed for tactical missiles, hypersonics and space launch vehicles. Adranos has also developed a solid rocket fuel called Alitec, which has been tested in partnership with the U.S. Army. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. (source: TechCrunch)

🤝 Defense technology company Anduril Industries and Hadrian, a leader in advanced manufacturing, have announced a strategic partnership in which Hadrian will supply and manufacture precision parts for Anduril’s suite of autonomous systems. Through the Anduril-Hadrian strategic partnership, Anduril will accelerate its production of key components and precision parts at scale, leveraging Hadrian’s proprietary design excellence and manufacturing competencies to reduce cost and lead time. Hadrian’s automated, software-first approach will provide Anduril with higher flexibility and improved scalability not seen with traditional defense manufacturing. (source: Medium)

🫵 Vast selected Impulse Space, a leader in the development of in-space logistics services, to provide its Haven-1 Space Station propulsion system. Impulse Space and Vast will work closely to integrate the propulsion system as a key subsystem of Haven-1, scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit in August 2025 and is expected to be the world’s first commercial space station. (source: VastSpace.com)

🤝 Two companies developing drone-frying technologies, Epirus, a U.S. company specializing in directed energy, and DroneShield, an Australian firm involved with electronic warfare, announced the successful marriage of the former’s Leonidas high-power microwave kit and the latter’s sensing-and-jamming DroneSentry. (source: C4ISRNET)

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!)

❗️I watched a terrific in-depth interview with the star of our April newsletter, Phantom Space’s CEO, Jim Cantrell. I was lucky enough to visit his office in Tuscon, take some pics, and learn about his very interesting journey. You can watch his latest interview on Youtube: From SpaceX to Phantom, with Jim Cantrell (Phantom Space).

🪐 Deloitte’s NeXT team put together a solid, if not comprehensive, report on the burgeoning space economy. You can download it here. And if any of this info was to find a way into your investor decks, my lips are sealed!

🇬🇧 Space Dirt went all fancy and recommends a piece from the tony pink paper (the Financial Times). Note the British spelling of “defence” in the story title, Silicon Valley VCs rush into defence technology start-ups

ABOUT LAST NIGHT 🍻

I wanted to thank everyone who came out to our aerospace networking gathering last week at Upshift Brewing. It was great to meet new people as well as catch up with some old friends. If you couldn’t make this one, don’t worry, we’ll have another event in the fall!

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Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled, let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the many different components of the space business.

As always, I’m here to help with your real estate needs.

Over and out.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
(c) +1 424.241.4795
[email protected]