Lodestar

Space research technology

Lodestar logo
1-20 employees
  • B2B
  • Automation
  • Aerospace
SoMa, San Francisco, CA

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Company mission

To deliver orbital defence as a service to high-value US and allied assets.

Our take

Satellites are critical for services ranging from GPS to disaster coordination. But they face significant vulnerabilities due to their inaccessibility, making them susceptible to technical issues and attacks. Addressing these concerns is essential for maintaining space infrastructure and national security.

Lodestar aims to revolutionise satellite maintenance and security with a "first responder" service in space, utilising advanced robotic sentries. Unlike competitors building entire spacecraft, Lodestar focuses on a platform-agnostic robotic system. Its initial product, a dexterous robotic arm, is designed to inspect and repair assets in orbit, offering scalable solutions for commercial and defence customers.

The company has continued to advance it s autonomous in-orbit capabilities, including Mithril, a sensing system using LiDAR, machine vision, adn AI to detec and respond to nearby spacecraft, with flight demonstrations planned for 2026. The company has also partnered with Momentus to integrate its robotic arm on partner spacecraft, expanding applications across commercial and defense missions. These developments reinforce Lodestar's role in delivering scalable, autonomous solutions for satellite inspection, maintenance, and security.

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Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Funding (2 rounds)

Dec 2025

$0.1m

GRANT

Jul 2024

$2.5m

SEED

Total funding: $2.6m

Leadership

Neil Buchanan

(Co-Founder)

Graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Previously founded endeavour where they served as Team Lead for 2 years. They also worked as a Business Development Specialist at Flowcopter.

Thomas Santini

(Co-Founder)

Previously Co-founded Dekked. They also worked as a Product Manager at Backslash Build and Nutribloc, and as an RDD New Product Design Engineer at Dyson.