Rendezvous Robotics Exits Stealth With $3m To Build Reconfigurable Space Infrastructure

For decades, engineers designing abstraction structures person been constrained by nan rocket fairing: only hardware that tin beryllium folded up to fresh wrong tin spell to orbit.

This makes in-space assembly clip intensive and expensive. The International Space Station, nan largest azygous entity humanity has built successful space, was assembled complete dozens of launches and costs complete $100 billion. And, of course, location is nary measurement to modify aliases change nan building erstwhile it has been assembled.

Rendezvous Robotics wants to alteration that.

“If you’re designing a abstraction ngo and trying to get a capacity to space, you’re constrained by 2 things,” co-founder and President Joe Landon said successful a caller interview. “One, you person to build thing that tin either fresh aliases fold into a rocket, and you besides person to constrain yourself by what outer autobus you’re going to spell on. We saw that increasingly, missions request much standard and much size … larger antennas, higher power, and pinch higher power, nan request for larger radiators.”

Instead of astronauts and robotic arms, Rendezvous is betting connected autonomous swarm assembly and electromagnetism. The institution is commercializing a exertion called “tesserae,” flat-packed modular tiles that tin motorboat successful dense stacks and magnetically latch to shape structures connected obit. With a package command, nan tiles are designed to unlatch and rearrange themselves erstwhile nan ngo changes.

“They find each other, they communicate… they put themselves, travel together utilizing magnetic docking and past latch together,” Landon said. “If you want to alteration that statement aliases switch thing aliases upgrade, you tin conscionable nonstop a bid … unlatch, move complete here, spell into retention aliases travel retired of retention and we tin alteration nan arrangement.”

The existent tiles are astir nan size of a meal sheet and astir an inch thick, though nan squad envisions scaling tiles to nan diameter of a rocket fairing. Each tile has its ain processor, a assortment of sensors and a battery. These are “pretty simple” devices designed for wide manufacturing astatine debased cost, Rendezvous CEO and co-founder Phil Frank said.

The exertion was invented by Ariel Ekblaw during her clip astatine MIT, and incubated astatine Aurelia Institute, nan nonprofit statement she founded. She teamed up pinch Frank, a telecom veteran, and Landon, a longtime abstraction executive, to rotation nan tech retired of Aurelia and return it to nan commercialized marketplace.

The institution was formalized astir Thanksgiving 2024, and nan squad has been engaged “evangelizing nan solution and nan technology” since, arsenic Frank puts it.

Landon, who started his profession arsenic an technologist successful Boeing’s commercialized satellites business and later led R&D astatine Lockheed Martin Space, said nan institution is headquartered conscionable extracurricular of Denver.

Rendezvous closed a $3 cardinal pre-seed led by Aurelia Foundy and 8090 Industries, pinch ATX Venture Partners, Mana Ventures, and angel investors. The information willbe utilized to prosecute much labor and thief move nan tech from demo to a full-scale merchandise connected orbit.

The institution is first targeting missions “where beingness scale, beingness size is going to thrust performance,” Landon said, for illustration missions that request ample star arrays aliases ample antenna apertures. On nan commercialized side, nan attraction is connected communications missions that request ample antenna apertures to pass pinch mini antennas connected nan ground, for illustration phones aliases cars. For nationalist security, it’s distant sensing that benefits from very delicate discovery systems.

tesserae connected committee nan iss. image credit: rendezvous robotics

Tile prototypes person already flown connected Blue Origin’s New Shepard and connected 2 missions aboard nan International Space Station. The ISS demonstrations proved retired nan autonomous docking, self-correction, and reconfiguration capabilities.

Looking ahead, nan institution is aiming to behaviour a demo connected nan ISS successful early 2026, followed by a ngo extracurricular nan ISS successful precocious 2026 aliases early 2027. That will beryllium followed by “a existent ngo that shows ngo utility,” Landon said, building an antenna aperture successful space.

“We’re not building a circumstantial thing,” he said. “We’re providing a caller measurement to build. It’s nan ‘how’ you build, not nan ‘what’ you build.”