Tesseract develops compact, lower-toxicity chemical rocket engines and propulsion systems intended to sit between toxic hydrazine systems and low-thrust electric options. Its two announced products are Polaris, a kickstage powered by larger Rigel engines for delivering satellites to higher orbits (one customer plans a Moon mission), and Adhara, a turnkey propulsion bus for smallsats with Lyla thrusters. The company says it has identified a cheap, high-performance alternative propellant (kept as a trade secret) that can be handled with much lower safety overhead than hydrazine. Tesseract was part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 class and currently has seven full-time employees. It has conducted fire tests earlier this year and emphasizes faster orbit transfers and quicker deorbiting compared with electric propulsion while avoiding hydrazine’s toxicity. Commercial traction includes first customers and a $100 million letter of intent from Space Systems/Loral.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jul 2019