Verified facts grounded in source documentation.
The Astra Spacecraft Engine was originally developed by propulsion startup Apollo Fusion, which Astra acquired in 2021.
The Apollo Fusion team being acquired includes individuals with experience from Google, Tesla, and SpaceX and individuals who have developed, designed, and manufactured hardware flying on over 2,000 satellites in orbit.
Apollo Fusion signed an agreement with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that gives Apollo Fusion an exclusive worldwide commercial license for JPL’s Magnetically Shielded Miniature (MaSMi) Hall thruster technology and a contract to provide JPL with three MaSMi-based thrusters.
Apollo Fusion plans to partner with an unnamed Silicon Valley aerospace and defense manufacturing company to have that partner handle manufacturing while Apollo Fusion focuses on qualification and acceptance testing.
Apollo Fusion raised $10,000,000 in a Series B round on 2018-07-11.
The 2018-07-11 Series B round brought Apollo Fusion’s total funding to date to more than $18,000,000.
Apollo Fusion will use the Series B funding to scale up manufacturing and testing facilities for its electric propulsion system called the Apollo Constellation Engine (ACE).