🚀 We’re thrilled to announce our investment in Samara Aerospace’s $10 million Seed round to help bring more stability to satellites in orbit and enable high-sensitivity radio frequency (RF) detection for defense (e.g. hypersonic missiles) and commercial (e.g. vessels) applications.
🎯 The round
The round was led by Balerion Space Ventures, with participation from Illinois Ventures, MFV Partners, Access Venture Partners, and others.
💡 Problem & Solution
Radio frequency (RF) emissions are the world’s invisible heartbeat. When viewed from orbit, RF emissions give a continuous, global perspective that is not affected by lighting conditions, cloud cover, or weather. This allows for the monitoring of air traffic, maritime activity, communications systems, and atmospheric events on a large scale. Satellites today generally use reaction wheels to position themselves in orbit. However, that legacy tech causes satellites to vibrate and jitter, risking blurry images and degrading accuracy for the reception of radio frequencies.
Samara, however, has a different take. Its Hummingbird satellite with its patented MSAC stabilization technology, will use solar panel hinges to move panels up, down, left, and right in a way that can maneuver the satellite. This tech can make platforms 1,000x more stable than traditional systems, and cut satellite size and weight without dinging performance. MSAC acts like an image stabilizer for space, keeping satellites perfectly steady to capture clean, high-precision data without the vibration or “blur“ that limits conventional platforms. By eliminating bulky moving parts such as reaction wheels and control moment gyroscopes, it enables smaller, lighter satellites that are more reliable, efficient, and cost-effective to build and launch.
🚀 Traction
The company recently launched its technology demonstration, “Cicada,” with SpaceX, satisfying its pre-mission goals. This progress is further validated by growing interest from NASA and the U.S. government, which have recently awarded Samara a $4m SpaceWERX Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) award and an official NASA Phase I contract. These are in addition to more than $800m in LOIs that Samara holds with aerospace contractors and companies. Samara plans to deploy a full constellation of this stabilized satellites, enabling faint radio signals detection for dual-use application:
- Defense: tracking fast-moving targets, including hypersonic missiles with precision beyond existing technology.
- Commercial/Civil: providing continuous monitoring and awareness of assets across the globe such as vessels and airplanes.
📈 What’s Next
Samara will use the funding to launch its first Hummingbird satellite in summer 2027. The funding will also allow the company to scale operations, supported by a 11,200-square-foot production facility, along with expanding the team.
🧠 The Team
Samara is led by Patrick Haddox (CEO & co-founder), an aerospace engineer from the University of Illinois who previously built satellite systems at Blue Canyon Technologies (acquired by Raytheon for $350M) and CU Aerospace, and worked with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory on advanced satellite dynamics simulation hardware.
Vedant (CTO & co-founder) obtained his PhD at the University of Illinois and later served as a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer at Planet, developing satellite attitude control algorithms across a 150+ spacecraft constellation.
You can read the full press release here.