Former SpaceX Engineer’s Startup Aims To Build Massive Satellites Fit for Starship

Startup K2 Space has inched closer to its goal of building massive satellite ‘buses,’ bagging an additional $7 million capital to bring its plan of regularly blasting powerful, large equipment into space aboard large rockets like SpaceX’s Starship at a low price. 

The startup, founded by brothers Karan Kunjur and Neel Kunjur, a former SpaceX engineer, seeks to deliver very large satellites faster than the old-guard space companies and at less than a fourth of the average cost, according to its website. It’s a sharp contrast to the prevailing trend in satellites, which has seen the machines get smaller and lighter so they cost less to send into space. 

But it also speaks to how bullish the Kunjur brothers are on SpaceX’s Starship, a reusable mega-rocket which has never successfully made it to orbit — if it does, it could significantly drop the cost of sending heavy payloads to space at a regular cadence. 

“The only path to go cheaper over the last decade was to go smaller. What we’re finding is that, with the new launch capabilities of vehicles like Starship, there’s actually an interesting opportunity to go the opposite direction,” Karan Kunjur said earlier this year.

“Our goal is to follow similar engineering principles that we followed at SpaceX but apply them at a different scale that really hasn’t been explored before in the industry,” Neel Kunjur explained.

The new capital brings K2’s total funding since inception to $16 million, including an $8.5 million round announced earlier this year. Over the last three months, the company has also secured three Defense Department contracts worth $4.5 million.

K2 Space is developing two satellite buses. The Mega class, which can hold a one-ton payload, and the Giga class, which can hold several tons and still fold up to fit into SpaceX’s Starship. K2 Space is looking to test the Mega satellites next year before beginning commercial flights by 2025.