Power for Satellites: a Market in Orbit
Could beaming power to other spacecraft be the first commercial market for space power?
Chapter summary
possibly.
Key takeaways
- 1
Satellites are limited by the power their own arrays produce and by eclipses, when they run on batteries.
- 2
A power-beaming spacecraft could send light to satellites' existing solar arrays, raising their output, keeping them powered through eclipses or allowing smaller arrays.
- 3
Star Catcher, which raised an $88 million Series A, is building such a network; it reported a world record for optical power beaming and an on-orbit subsystem demonstration in 2025 and flew a payload, Protostar, on Transporter-18 in October 2026.
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