Former Google and SpaceX product manager Rama Afullo has secured an $8 million seed round for Satlyt. The startup operates out of Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi. Afullo previously pitched orbital computing internally at both Google and SpaceX. Both companies rejected the idea at the time. He then left SpaceX to co-founded Satlyt to build software for satellites. The software aims to let many spacecraft share large computing workloads in orbit.
Satlyt takes a hardware neutral approach
Satlyt does not build its own spacecraft. The company builds software to run artificial intelligence models on satellites. Afullo compares the approach to VMware and Snowflake. These platforms let users run complex software without managing underlying infrastructure. He describes SpaceX and similar companies building orbital data centers as the iPhone. Satlyt aims to build Android as a horizontally integrated and open ecosystem. The software is designed to work across many different companies satellites.
AI cuts transmission errors in orbit
Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. Spacecraft typically rely on ground flight controllers to solve problems. Downlinking data back to Earth is slow and expensive. Using artificial intelligence to make decisions on the spacecraft saves money on anomalies and sensor processing. Earlier this year, Satlyt deployed Google DeepMind Gemma AI model on a Momentus spacecraft. The model cut the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60 percent. Afullo states this efficiency saves hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year.
A new mission tests multiple customers
Satlyt software is launching Thursday on a SpaceX rocket. The flight carries a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds satellite computing hardware. The mission includes three customers. NASA is paying to test protocols for cloud computing in space. Stellerian wants to test image processing workloads for space surveillance. TakeMe2Space is testing whether the satellite can host other companies software. Houston based Non Sibi Ventures led the seed round. Partner Bernard Harris, a former NASA astronaut of more than 20 years, helped the firm gain conviction. Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas noted the business does not need space data centers to succeed. The growth can be driven by the rising number of satellites.
Few high powered GPUs currently exist in orbit. Satlyt plans to show it can create a shared computing cloud spanning two different satellites next year. Afullo aims for Satlyt to run on 20 percent of satellites by the end of the decade. He expects virtually every spacecraft builder to use GPUs and advanced processors by that time.
