Exclusive: Space Kinetic Awarded $50M for Space Maneuverability

Space Kinetic announced a fifty million dollar award from the Space Force on Thursday to develop Whirlwind, its space maneuverability system. Rather than relying on thrusters alone, Whirlwind uses centrifugal acceleration to fling small, self-propelled microsatellites from a host spacecraft—applying what the company frames as 'drone economics' to orbit. The vision: payloads cheap enough to be useful for just thirty minutes instead of years. Having raised twelve million dollars in its seed round last year, the startup is already working with DARPA and Los Alamos National Laboratory to mature the technology.

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