Amazon Web Services Selects 14 Startups For 2023 Space Accelerator

Amazon Space Sustainability cohort
Credit: Amazon Web Services

COLORADO SPRINGS—Amazon Web Services (AWS) has selected 14 startups to participate in its 2023 Space Accelerator course.

The four-week program includes business mentorship and consulting on how to use the company’s cloud computing applications, AWS said on April 18. For this latest cohort, AWS selected startups whose products are focused on space sustainability.

Though best known for cloud-computing services on Earth, AWS sees the space industry as offering growth opportunities. The company has several initiatives underway, including on-space demonstrations, to introduce the space sector to its computing products.

“The AWS Space Accelerator is part of our ongoing commitment to help startups succeed, and is intended to help spur innovation within the global aerospace and satellite industry,” says Clint Crosier, director of the company’s aerospace and satellite business.

AWS will provide companies with business development and strategy support as well as technical training on its cloud-computing and machine-learning programs. Participating companies do not necessarily need to have experience using AWS products. The course comes with up to $100,000 in AWS computing credits.

The curriculum begins in May. On July 19, startups are scheduled to showcase their cloud-computing applications at the 2023 AWS Space Accelerator demonstration day in San Francisco.

This AWS Space Accelerator cohort will be the third. Twenty startups have participated in the accelerator since it was launched in 2021.

Startups that were selected for this year and their projects are:

• Delta-V Analytics of New Castle, Delaware, cloud-based software for automating management of satellite constellation operations with a digital twin.

• GATE Space of Vienna,  plug-and-play thrusters for satellites and orbital transfer vehicles.

• GRASP of Lille, France, satellite instruments and software to observe and analyze the Earth’s atmosphere and surface for climate science.

• In Orbit Aerospace of Torrance, California, spacecraft and re-entry-vehicle manufacturing in space.

• Integrate of Seattle, program logistics software for space hardware development and deployment.

• Kawa Space of San Francisco, signals-intelligence, electronic-intelligence and maritime domain-awareness software.

• Little Place Labs of Houston, machine-learning software to analyze remote sensing data on satellites.

• Lunasonde of Tucson, Arizona, is developing a satellite with a low-frequency radar capable of identifying objects hundreds of meters below the ground.

• Nominal of Austin, Texas, continuous-validation software for testing and deploying complex hardware.

• Raven Space Systems of Kansas City, Kansas, 3D printed re-entry capsules.

• Rogue Space Systems of Laconia, New Hampshire, robotic arms for space.

• Space Kinetic of Albuquerque, New Mexico, an electromechanical propulsion system.

• Violet Labs of Minneapolis, software to connect various hardware development software.

• Xona Space Systems of Burlingame, California, commercial global navigation satellite system satellite network.

Garrett Reim

Based in the Seattle area, Garrett covers the space sector and advanced technologies that are shaping the future of aerospace and defense, including space startups, advanced air mobility and artificial intelligence.