Secretive moon startup led by ex-Blue Origin leaders raises new tranche of funding
Summary
A stealth startup led by ex-Blue Origin leaders, focused on harvesting resources from the moon, has quietly closed a sizable new tranche of funding, according to regulatory documents.Interlune, a startup thats been around for at least three years but has made almost zero public announcements about its tech, has raised $15.5 million in new funding and aims to close another $2 million. A representative for Interlune declined to comment on this story.This is the first public indication that the company has closed any funding since a $1.85 million seed round in 2022.Much of whats known about the startup was reported by GeekWire last October, when Interlune CTO Gary Lai briefly described the startup during a speech at Seattles Museum of Flight: We aim to be the first company that harvests natural resources from the moon to use here on Earth, he reportedly said. Hornsby previously held the position of general counsel at BlackSky and Spaceflight Industries, and also worked as an executive VP at Rocket Lab.What little else is known of Interlunes tech comes from an abstract of a small SBIR the startup was awarded last year from the National Science Foundation. Much of this is driven by NASAs stated priority to build a long-term human outpost on the moon via its Artemis program: The agency acknowledges that longer-term stays in space will require the ability to generate materials locally -- whether thats to build roads, produce breathable air or even make rocket propellants.But it isnt just startups that are trying to commercialize ISRU tech; last year, Blue Origin announced that it had made solar cells and transmission wires out of a material thats chemically identical to lunar regolith.In its February 2023 announcement on the tech, Blue Origin said, Learning to live off the land on the Moon and on Mars will require extensive collaboration across the ISRU community. The phrase is echoed in Interlunes abstract: The use of the Moons resources is a disruptive capability that will enable missions there to live off the land, making the development of this technology important for government agencies and industry alike.