Founded in 2026 by Rick Röthlisberger, Simi Y. Wespi, Victor Elliesen, and Patrick Egli, Stellar Alpina develops rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs) and in-space vehicle architectures aimed at orbital mobility, high-energy transfers, and future deep-space infrastructure. The company argues that detonative propulsion can extract more energy from the same amount of propellant than conventional deflagration engines, enabling smaller, lighter, and higher-performance systems. Within 82 days of incorporation it built test infrastructure and completed a full engine test campaign for Engine 0, conducting eight detonative hotfires and capturing footage showing up to five stable detonation waves. The article highlights these tests as the first known commercial RDRE hotfire milestones in Europe. Stellar Alpina positions its technology to address gaps in in-space mobility for satellite repositioning, in-space servicing, and lunar transfer architectures. The company plans to use the pre-Seed funding to turn its test momentum into engines designed for the next era of in-space mobility.

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2026