JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Friday marked a successful day in technological space advancements for a newly-founded Jacksonville-based company.
Star Catcher, established in 2024, completed its first public demonstration of its space-based power-beaming technology at EverBank Stadium.
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Co-founder and CEO Andrew Rush called the accomplishment a “really big deal.”
The demonstration captured sunlight and sent it over 100 meters to multiple off-the-shelf satellite solar arrays that deliver power.
Rush said this advancement would one day give satellites more power and power inputs.
“We are building the world’s first energy grid in space,” Rush said.
COO Bryan Lyandvert described how the company is working to streamline efficiency for the space industry to eliminate power constraints for satellites.
“One of the core things that we’re trying to do is bring down the cost of power in space, because by beaming power, it’s, fundamentally a more kind of shared and generalized way of doing power delivery,” Lyandvert said.
The space company’s next step is to continue preparing for the first large-scale test in the summer at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility.
But until then, the company is steadily expanding its Jacksonville roots.
In the nine months since its inception, the company has grown its staff from “three folks in a garage” to thirty employees.
“Jacksonville is an amazing place to build a technology company,” Rush said. “[It has] an overall quality of life that is really wonderful for folks to who want to come and work and build something transformational for the space.”