A pair of brothers is aiming to challenge the way spacecraft are built, by going against the industry trend and designing massive satellites in a bet that towering rockets such as SpaceX’s Starship are the way forward.Los Angeles-based startup K2 Space, co-founded by CEO Karan Kunjur and CTO Neel Kunjur, is setting out to build satellite buses — the physical structure of a spacecraft that provides power, movement and more.While manufacturers have recently pushed to optimize spacecraft by designing as light and compact as possible, with small satellites in the range of tens to hundreds of kilograms, K2 is going the other way and designing systems that would be on par with some of the largest spacecraft ever built.“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 told CNBC.The cost per kilogram to deliver spacecraft to orbit has also come down, thanks to increased competition in the rocket launch market the past few years. And K2 sees opportunity beyond just Starship, from rockets in the “heavy” and “super heavy” classes, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy, to those in development like United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, or Relativity’s Terran R.“We’re really building this thing to be launch vehicle agnostic, planning for a world where there are going to be multiple launch providers,” Karan Kunjur said.K2 Space, a play on the brothers’ surname and a nod to astronomer Nikolai Kardashev’s scales of civilization, marks Karan and Neel’s first venture together and fuses their previously divergent careers. The former spent 10 years at Boston Consulting Group engaged in company turnarounds and acquisitions, before becoming a vice president at artificial intelligence startup Text IQ before it was acquired in 2021. The latter cut his teeth at SpaceX, where he spent about six years developing systems for its Dragon spacecraft, which now fly cargo and crew to the International Space Station. Then he went to electric aircraft company Kittyhawk for a couple of years before realizing that he wanted to return to the space business.“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 said.Since its incorporation in June, K2 has raised $8.5 million in a seed round led by First Round Capital and Republic Capital, and joined by Countdown Capital, Boost VC, Also Capital, Side Door Ventures, Earthrise Ventures, Spacecadet VC and Pathbreaker Ventures. Its backers have invested in a variety of space companies previously, such as First Round’s early backing of now public satellite company Planet.The brothers have hired seven people so far to join them — bringing on talent with prior experience at SpaceX, Maxar, Arianespace, Blue Origin and more — and are in negotiations to secure a 15,000-square-foot factory in the Torrance, California, area.K2 has also built an enviable roster of advisors, such as former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, former SpaceX director of the Commercial Crew and Cargo program Abhi Tripathi, former SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell, and Lee Rosen, former U.S. Air Force space launch group commander and SpaceX vice president of mission and launch operations.For K2, the company is targeting prices that would be unheard of for satellite buses of these sizes. So far it’s planning to build the K2 Mega, a class for up to one ton of payload mass at $15 million each, and the K2 Giga, a class for up to 15 tons of payload at $30 million each. They believe they can achieve those price points by developing new systems such as power, attitude control, thermal control and more.“Our spacecraft are very, very different than any of the large or small satellites that exist today. We have to go relook at the components and do a lot of in-house development to design new technologies to trade mass and cost in a new way,” Neel Kunjur said.K2 has so far received a pair of small development awards from the government and said potential customers for commercial, science, and defense applications have signed early agreements.“We envision a future where we’re the platform that allows them to relax those constraints and be able to build the payloads that they’ve always wanted to that sit on top of this platform,” Karan Kunjur said.The company plans to launch its first Mega class spacecraft in 2024, before going for a first flight with customers in 2025.“Knowing firsthand from SpaceX the importance of iteration, we want to improve our learning cycles so that we can get to space, learn from those components, see how they operate in the space environment, and tweak those designs in anticipation of our full launch in 2025,” Neel Kunjur said.“If we get this right there’s a potential for a step change in how we operate in space,” Karan Kunjur added.
Exclusive – Meet K2 Space, the startup led by brothers Karan & Neel Kunjur, designing and building massive spacecraft:“With the new launch capabilities of vehicles like Starship, there's actually an interesting opportunity to go the opposite direction.”
.@K2SpaceCo is designing two classes of satellite busses:Mega, for up to 1 ton of payload mass at $15mGiga, for up to 15 tons of payload mass at $30mFrom the company’s pitch deck:https://cnbc.com/2023/03/10/k2-space-startup-building-massive-spacecraft.html
Incorporated last June, K2 is 9 strong so far.It's also built a roster of enviable advisors: Lori Garver, Abhi Tripathi, Rob Lillis, Lee Rosen, and Martin Halliwell.https://cnbc.com/2023/03/10/k2-space-startup-building-massive-spacecraft.html
A new startup is coming out of stealth to build satellite busses for Starship-sized payloads: their K2 Mega bus is for one-ton satellites and will cost $15M, while their K2 Giga bus is for 15-ton satellites and will cost $30M.https://www.k2space.com/
Introducing K2 Space: Building Satellites for a Post-Starship FutureBreathtaking images from The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are unlocking breakthrough science for the world. While JWST is the most advanced telescope ever developed, it's easy to forget that the road to its launch was filled with a series of tradeoffs driven by harsh mass and volume constraints. These constraints imposed complexity, cost, and development time which ultimately contributed to a 20+ year timeline and $10B program cost. The mass and volume constraints that plagued the JWST program continue to shape satellites today. Satellite operators face two choices:-Large, exquisite satellites with high payload mass and power but high cost-Small, low-performance satellites with low payload mass and power but low costThese restrictions hold back humanity’s ability to deploy even more ambitious spacecraft to survey the galaxy, explore other planets, and deliver meaningful services for everyone on Earth.We’re about to move from an era of mass constraint to mass abundance.A single Starship launching at a cadence of three times per week is capable of delivering more mass to orbit in a single year than humanity has launched to date. Multiple Starships operating at even higher cadences offer the potential to exceed this delivered mass by almost two orders of magnitude.This staggering launch capacity raises important questions: What exactly is going to be in all of these Starships? Starlink will certainly consume some of this capacity, but how will the rest of the space industry tap into this incredible capacity? If SpaceX delivers on the cost and performance targets of Starship, the satellite industry is not prepared to make full use of it.Breaking the correlation between mass and costAt K2 Space, we are developing large satellites for a post-Starship world. We’re going to forever break the close correlation between satellite size and cost in order to open up a third and better option: highly capable, low cost satellites.Developing a satellite that breaks off the mass and cost curve requires re-thinking its entire design from the reaction wheel up. We’ve applied a new philosophy of trading mass and cost to develop novel attitude control systems, high power systems, and highly capable thermal systems that all operate in a regime far outside of the capabilities of small satellites today.Our satellite buses are designed to allow operators and payload designers to abandon the game of tradeoffs that has stunted many applications to date. Our Mega Class satellite bus will offer the payload mass, power, and volume of today’s exquisite large satellites at the price point of today’s small satellites. Our Giga Class satellite bus will push this concept even further as the largest and highest power commercial satellite ever deployed in space. These satellites will unlock the full capability of LEO, MEO, GEO, and beyond when paired with launch vehicles like F9, Starship, and New Glenn.Making previously impossible missions possibleThe K2 Space satellite buses will allow mission designers to tap into the full capabilities of these new launch vehicles:-Large commercial operators will finally be able to make the business case close on a 20kW+ satellite constellation in LEO or MEO (where the price per unit is $15M instead of $150M)-New space companies will finally have an option to operate at scale, deploying remote sensing payloads, robotic servicing platforms, and other infrastructure that will provide the foundation for future space development-Scientists will be able to deploy powerful, low cost probes to explore the solar system and develop cost effective telescopes that use the full 8m volume of Starship to examine the stars-Defense end-users will be able to develop resilient space architecture, achieving proliferation through affordability without sacrificing performance or speed of delivery (we’ve received a Phase I SBIR and STTR, multiple customer memorandums and five letters of support so far) We see K2 as the bedrock for these future space applications, helping make previously impossible missions possible.From an idea on (wall)paper to an experienced team We’re brothers, and as kids we moved into a new house where one bedroom had an entire wall covered with a wallpaper depiction of the Earthrise (the Earth rising over the moon). We fought over that prized room. Eventually, big brother (Karan) privileges prevailed, but it was little brother (Neel) who dedicated his life to endeavors in space. He spent five years at SpaceX, helping develop the avionics systems for each Dragon spacecraft and acting as a Mission Director for several missions. Meanwhile, Karan built new businesses, most recently helping scale an AI startup from seed through successful exit. With K2, we’ve brought together a team of engineers who’ve worked on Dragon, Starlink, and Kuiper with advisors across science (former Deputy Administrator of NASA), defense (former Space Launch Group Commander at the USAF) and commercial (former CTO of SES). We’re excited to introduce each of them over the coming weeks. We’ve raised an $8.5M seed round co-led by First Round Capital and Republic Capital, with participation from leading deep tech investors Boost VC, Also Capital, and Countdown Capital among others. Our cap table includes ex-SpaceXers, founders, and investors who are all excited by the potential for K2 Space to change the way we operate in space. Accelerating the sci-fi future that was always promisedOur plan is to tackle discrete, concrete steps in order to build a practical path to a sci-fi future. We’re starting with components, developing prototypes of the reaction wheel, power systems, avionics, and other systems. We’re going to take these components and put them in space in a 2024 demo mission, getting heritage on these systems while taking an important step towards being a real space company. From there, we’re targeting a 2025 launch of our mega class satellite to show what’s possible with this new design paradigm. The astronomer Nikolai Kardashev famously came up with the Kardashev scale as a measure of a civilization’s technological advancement. A Kardashev Type I civilization, or K1, is able to harness all of the energy that reaches its planet. A Type II civilization, or K2, can harness the energy radiated by its star. We’ll never be able to build the superstructures envisioned for a K2 civilization (like a Dyson sphere) in the old mass constrained way. It's only by breaking the correlation between spacecraft size and cost that we can achieve this future, which is why we call ourselves K2 Space. It’s going to be a wild ride — reach out if you’re interested in becoming a part of the journey.
Quote from: trimeta on 03/10/2023 02:51 pmA new startup is coming out of stealth to build satellite busses for Starship-sized payloads: their K2 Mega bus is for one-ton satellites and will cost $15M, while their K2 Giga bus is for 15-ton satellites and will cost $30M.https://www.k2space.com/1 and 15 tons of payload, which I'd estimate means that the whole satellite could weigh up to ~5 tons for the Mega and maybe ~50+ tons for the Giga. A useful payload is usually just a small fraction of a satellite's total launch mass, on the order of 10-30% IIRC.
Oh, for the ~50+ tonne K2 Giga satellite, would really need some sort of large space tug for orbit raising. Maybe a stripped down and reduce length Starship variant.
and we're live! come hang out with @KaranKunjur from @K2SpaceCo to talk about real big chonker sat busses
K2 Space has closed a Series A funding round, raising $50M.https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/startup-k2-space-raises-50-million.html
Nearly two years since founding, K2 co-founders and brothers CEO Karan Kunjur and Chief Technology Officer Neel Kunjur expect to launch their first satellite on a demonstration mission later this year.
In an interview, Karan and Neel Kunjur, the cofounders of K2 Space, said their first spacecraft is scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-12 rideshare mission, planned for October.
The company was selected for a $3.8 million Tactical Funding Increase, or TACFI, award from the Space Development Agency and Space System Command’s Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power program executive office.
K2 Space has a separate cooperative research and development agreement, or CRADA, with the Air Force Research Lab.
The company has signed its first commercial contract with an undisclosed customer that Karan described only as a “large telecommunications operator.”
We signed a $60M STRATFI contract with the US Space Force to fly our first satellite in MEO. With this mission, scheduled to launch in Q1 of 2026, we'll fully de-risk the K2 bus performance in the MEO environment. This mission will represent the first step towards a proliferated MEO architecture.
That mission, called Gravitas, will fly no earlier than February 2026. The satellite will fly on SpaceX’s Transporter-16 rideshare mission, where it will carry multiple national security payloads. The spacecraft will conduct operations in low Earth orbit (LEO) before raising its orbit to medium Earth orbit (MEO). MEO, which is between LEO and geosynchronous orbit, has “historically been an incredibly challenging orbit to operate in,” K2 Space co-founder and CEO Karan Kunjur said in an interview.
The company will also fly several technology demonstrators on SpaceX’s upcoming Transporter-12 mission in January, for a mission duration that is expected to last no more than a few months.
K2 aims to disrupt this ecosystem. For example, the reaction wheels that Honeywell Aerospace sells to Lockheed cost approximately $500,000 to $1 million apiece. K2 is now on its fourth iteration of an internally built reaction wheel and has driven the cost down to $35,000. Kunjur said about 80 percent of K2's satellite production is vertically integrated.The company is now building its first "Mega Class" satellite bus, intended to have similar capabilities to Lockheed's LM2100: 20 kW of power, 1,000 kg of payload capacity, and propulsion to move between orbits. But it's also stackable: Ten will fit within a Falcon 9 payload fairing and about 50 within Starship's fairing. The biggest difference is cost. K2 aims to sell its satellite bus for $15 million.[...]"We looked at the decadal studies and saw all the mission concept studies that were done," Kunjur said. "There were maybe 50 studies over a 10-year period. And we realized that if NASA funding remains level, we'll be able to do one or maybe two of these. So we decided to go after one of the big problems."
[10:10] SpaceX's Starshield was originally called "Deluxe Bus" in 2019.[14:40] Mega satellite costs >=$15 million compared to $100-200 million from competitors.[15:00] Stackable design allows 8-10 sats per launch, first mission in February 2026.[15:30] Next gen Giga class satellite will be 115-150 kW, launching 2-3 years from now.[19:50] 80% of the satellite is vertically integrated (e.g. hall thrusters, batteries, reaction wheels, etc).[26:10] Sat has a 20 kW Hall thruster (4-5x more powerful than previous best), enabling it to raise from LEO to MEO.[36:00] Employee count reached >160 people.[38:30] Mission 2 "Gravitas" in Q1 2026 in cake topper slot on Transporter-16. Will insert in SSO then orbit raise to MEO. First company to do this. Launching 12 payloads (DoD and commercial ). Will pause orbit raises at 2000, 4000 and 6000 km to collect data. Could raise in 2.5 months without pause. [42:10] Aiming to produce 100 satellites per year in the factory.[56:00] K2 is a reference to Kardashev Type II civilization, Logo is a Dyson sphere.
Eric Berger@SciGuySpaceImpressive fundraise by K2, which is seeking to dramatically reduce the cost of manufacturing medium- and large-sized satellites.
K2 Space Raises $250M at $3B Valuation to Roll Out a New Class of High-Capability Satellites
K2 Space today announced a $250 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation, accelerating delivery of a new generation of spacecraft built for the heavy-lift era. The financing follows $500 million in signed contracts across commercial and U.S. government customers and is led by Redpoint, with participation from accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and from Hedosophia, Altimeter, Lightspeed, and Alpine Space Ventures.[...]Four months to launch: The Mega Class satelliteIn March 2026, K2 will launch GRAVITAS, the company's first production of its "Mega Class" satellite. While small relative to what K2 is designing next, the Mega Class satellite is on par with the largest satellites that have ever been produced. Mega is designed to fly on today's workhorse rockets, including Falcon 9, Vulcan, and Ariane 6, while delivering approximately 10× the power of other satellites in its class. Built from the outset for multi-orbit operations, Mega is hardened for some of the harshest environments in the solar system and engineered with redundancy and reliability techniques historically reserved for human-rated vehicles like Dragon and the Space Shuttle.The mission represents K2's first spaceflight of the fully integrated, in-house system and will open a comprehensive test campaign: • The first in-space firing of a 20 kW Hall-effect thruster – roughly 4× more powerful than anything flown to date. • The first deployment of the large twin 10 kW solar arrays on the platform (20kW total). • The first on-orbit exercise of K2's high-voltage power system paired with radiation-tolerant avionics."GRAVITAS brings our full stack together for the first time," said Karan Kunjur, Co-Founder and CEO. "We are validating the architecture in space, from high-voltage power and large solar arrays to our guidance and control algorithms, and a 20 kW Hall thruster, and we will scale based on measured performance.""We pushed our propulsion hard on the ground and were thrilled to hot-fire at the full 20 kW," added Rafael Martinez, who leads K2's high-power electric propulsion program. "Now we're eager to characterize the thruster's performance in space."From first flight to full-rate productionFollowing Mega's launch, K2 will ramp manufacturing at its 180,000 –sq.-ft. Torrance factory, sized to produce 100 high-power satellites per year. That capacity will be needed as K2 starts delivering against $500 million in signed commercial and government contracts. Customers include large operators like SES, who recently announced plans to partner with K2 on its future MEO network. Multiple launches across 2026-2027 are planned, with operational commercial and national security constellations beginning deployment starting in 2028."K2 is bringing something brand new to the space industrial base: low cost, high power satellites produced at speed and scale," said Dr. John Plumb, Head of Strategy at K2. "Our innovative approach will enable entire satellite constellations of exquisite payloads – something unimaginable due to its prohibitive cost before K2 showed up."Next up: Giga, built for super-heavy liftWith Mega establishing the production baseline, K2 will next unveil plans for designing Giga: its large-class spacecraft designed specifically for Starship and New Glenn. Giga will deliver 100kW of power per satellite, enabling missions that previously only existed in science fiction: • AI scale compute on orbit • High-throughput networks spanning orbits – and planets • Mass-produced giant telescopes to vastly expand scientific return from across the solar system and beyond
