John Gedmark

CEO @Astranis. Founder, aerospace engineer. Building real things to solve some of the world’s hardest problems

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

I'm excited to announce @Astranis has raised $450 million of new capital.

All of it so we can scale to meet surging demand for advanced high-orbit spacecraft— for GEO, MEO, and beyond.

This includes a Series E led by Snowpoint and Franklin Templeton, with Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity, BAM Elevate, Nimble Partners, and Friends & Family Capital, participating alongside many others, totaling $300 million.

A delayed-draw credit facility by Trinity Capital adds up to $155 million of additional capital to support the addition of new manufacturing capacity and support future growth.

This comes at a turning point in the space industry, and for higher orbits specifically.

In our commercial business, we've seen more demand than ever for sovereign systems. As countries and large enterprises need dedicated, secure communications infrastructure. Something that can only be provided from GEO.

For our US Government customers, Astranis has proven we can serve as a Neo Prime for some of the most important defense missions. And we are now spooling up to support multiple US Government Programs of Record simultaneously.

Astranis has now been selected as Prime for the initial phase of 3 separate Programs of Record— PTS-G, Resilient GPS, and RG-XX/Andromeda. And we’re just getting started.

This comes as Space Force is seeing one of the largest budget increases ever seen by a service branch with this year’s budget increasing to $71.1 billion. That is in direct response to new space threats posed by adversaries China and Russia.

With GEO being where our most critical national security space assets are, we can’t afford to delay. We need to get new capability deployed with incredible speed, and Astranis is ready to serve.

Special thanks to the Astranis existing investors who also participated in this financing round and have backed us from the beginning, including ACE, Elefund, Garage Capital, Helium-3, Liquid2, Metaplanet, and Uncorrelated. This brings Astranis’s total raised to more than $1.2 billion, and this capital goes straight to work.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

Sorry to see this. We know first hand space is incredibly difficult-- there really is nothing quite like it.

Shout out Blue Origin for doing the hard things.

[Jawwwn @jawwwn_]

My favorite part of this video is how they visualize new companies pushing out the legacy primes:

Out with the old fat guys in pinstripe suits.

In with the young tech bros in Patagonia vests.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

@DougPhilippone Thank you Doug! Super excited to be working with you

[Christian Keil @pronounced_kyle]

When it has your company's logo on the side

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

Today is a VERY good day for hard tech and manufacturing in America

[Jason Carman @jasonjoyride]

I am BEYOND excited to announce that after 1 year off, the best show in science & deep tech is BACK.

S3 returns this Saturday!

Bigger and better than before.

[Jackson Moses (🇺🇸,🇹🇼) @jamoses92]

FIXED IT

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

A huge congrats to @NASAAdmin and the entire NASA team from all of us here at Astranis.

Incredible to watch Artemis II splash down, with the United States going back to the Moon for the first time in 50 years.

Next time we go to stay.

Ad astra per aspera.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

@Bfaviero Swing by and see us at @Astranis

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

Gather round kids. We’re going to the Moon today!

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

@pronounced_kyle @DanielleFong 😂😂😂

[David Luan @jluan]

apparently this is what the chinese AI ecosystem thinks our grand american AI master plan is!

(this is not a joke! forwarded to me by an attendee at a real chinese ai conference!)

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

Over the last 2 years I've been getting to know four-star General John Hyten, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I'm very excited to announce that Gen. Hyten will be joining Astranis as Strategic Advisor, effective immediately, working directly with me.

Gen Hyten will also Chair a new Strategic Advisory Board we are announcing today, that will advise me and the Astranis executive team as we scale the business and expand our product offerings for commercial customers around the world and for the US government.

As the former Commander of US Strategic Command, and the former Commander of Air Force Space Command —the predecessor organization to US Space Force— Gen. Hyten is well-known as one of the most respected and admired leaders in the history of US military space. Indeed, he is something of a legendary figure in our industry. See bio below.

Famously, Gen. Hyten drew a line in the sand on legacy large satellites and kicked off the current wave of smaller, proliferated satellite systems, stating "I won’t support the development any further of large, big, fat, juicy targets. I won’t support that. We are going to go down a different path. And we have to go down that path quickly.”

At Astranis we build secure, resilient communications and space infrastructure for customers around the world and for the US military. With geopolitical conflicts on the rise, that is needed now more than ever.

Gen. Hyten brings a passion for innovative, fast-moving approaches and we could not be more honored and excited to have him supporting us at Astranis.

About General John Hyten
General Hyten served as the 11th Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, from 2019 to 2021.

General Hyten previously served as the Commander of United States Strategic Command, where he commanded 150,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. In that command, he was responsible for the nuclear triad that includes all operational nuclear weapons of the United States. He held direct responsibility for their readiness, their movements, and, if called upon, their strike capabilities. He was also responsible for all US missile defense, as well as all supporting space, cyber, and ground systems.

Prior to that, General Hyten served as the Commander of Air Force Space Command, the predecessor organization to the United States Space Force.

Gen. Hyten received his bachelor’s degree in engineering and applied sciences from Harvard University, on an Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship, and was commissioned a second lieutenant. The general’s career began in engineering and acquisition before transitioning to space operations.

General Hyten resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado with his wife Laura Hyten.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

This is where things could start to get pretty crazy.

The borders we’ve been used to seeing on a map our whole lives are about to be called into question.

[Mankosmash @Mankosmash]

@sentdefender Azerbaijan may invade Iran together with the Kurds, with 🇺🇸🇮🇱 support, and conquer the territory that is occupied by their own ethnic groups but ruled by Persians.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

Incredible

[Karoline Leavitt @PressSec]

🚨Statement from President Donald J. Trump

[Pinboard @Pinboard]

I like that the United States shares a space station with Russia, and so periodically there are spikes in the cabin air ethanol levels that NASA can never quite pin down.

[Christian Keil @pronounced_kyle]

My alma mater (@Astranis) is gonna be in a super bowl commercial! 😂

Thank you, my brothers in technology.

[John Gedmark @Gedmark]

@skupor @NASA @USOPM @USTechForce This is awesome

[Bridgit Mendler @bridgitmendler]

Today Northwood has raised $100M in Series B funding led by @WashingHarbour and co-led by @a16z to support a simple objective – take space missions further faster.

This financing follows millions in signed contracts including a $49.8 million contract with the Space Force to support the Satellite Control Network – critical infrastructure used for launches and early satellite operations, to track and control satellites, and to provide emergency support to tumbling and lost satellites.