Comments on: Space station startup Voyager Technologies about to go public

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Wed, 21 May 2025 10:34:45 +0000

The lack of any bent metal is, for sure, not a good look. Gravitics, a company that is not on NASA's CLD list, has, like its fellow non-CLD-er firm Vast, actually built some prototype test articles. At least one of these was of Starship-compatible diameter.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:58:07 +0000

In reply to Richard M.

Richard M: I agree with you on all points. Nonetheless, the lack of any real construction hurts this project when compared with all the others, at least in terms of getting that big NASA contract.

Starlab’s fall back position could be however the ties it has fostered with Europe. It is very possible if NASA doesn’t pick it then ESA will step up to develop it instead.

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 20 May 2025 19:24:07 +0000

I think the problem is that they don’t have much of their own money to invest in bending metal in the first place: “The company reported $144.2 million in revenue in 2024 and a net loss of $65.6 million, versus $136.1 million in revenue and a net loss of $25.2 million in 2023. The company also reported revenue of $34.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, and a net loss of $27.9 million.” And they have no mega-billionaire owner to get ’em over the hump.

There’s a lot that I like about the Starlab project. The new design is a big improvement. I like that it is “single launch” and that that launch will be on a Starship. I like that they have aggressively moved into Europe to court European customers. But I think they needed more startup capital and a more aggressive, more agile strategy. Imagine if they had gone the Vast/Haven route of getting a minimum-viable-product up in orbit as fast as possible. Might make it easier to attract more investment capital and (non-NASA) customers.