New Space Companies

Launch costs have fallen more than 10x since 2006, and a startup can now launch a satellite on a seed round. YC asks what businesses cheap, routine space access unlocks.

YC notes that the cost of reaching orbit has fallen more than 10x since SpaceX's first launch in 2006, and that a startup can now build and launch a satellite on just a seed round.

YC asks founders to imagine how much payload will be launched in one, five and ten years. If reaching space becomes as routine and cheap as commercial air travel, shipping or trucking, what new businesses does that make possible?

YC argues a space company is not necessarily harder to build than a software company. It says the space companies it has funded, including Astranis, Relativity Space and Stoke, have succeeded at a rate no lower, and maybe higher, than its other companies.

The ask: new space companies built for a world of cheap, routine access to orbit.

Read the full request on YC →