The reusable rocket has transformed the space industry over the past decade, and a new startup led by a SpaceX veteran wants to do the same for satellites. Brian Taylor, who helped build satellites for networks like SpaceX's Starlink and Amazon's Leo, founded Lux Aeterna in December 2024 to develop satellite structures with a built-in heat shield that will allow them to return to Earth with their payloads intact.
The company announced a $10 million seed round Tuesday morning led by Konvoy, with participation from Decisive Point, Cubit Capital, Wave Function, Space Capital, Dynamo Ventures, and Channel 39. The capital will support the design and construction of Lux Aeterna's Delphi spacecraft, which has a confirmed spot on a SpaceX rocket expected to launch in the first quarter of 2027.
Currently, satellites only have a useful life of five to ten years due to some combination of component failures, running out of propellant, or becoming obsolete. After that, they are destroyed in the atmosphere or sent to a graveyard orbit out of the way of normal space activity. Lux Aeterna's bigger idea is making communications and Earth observation satellites reusable.
Taylor described the potential for a "dynamic upgrade capability," saying that if you have a payload component like a compute system or camera, you can update it annually rather than building new satellites and leaving old ones in orbit. However, the economic reality will have to add up. The value those new payloads can create will have to be more than the added cost of building, launching, returning, and refurbishing a reusable satellite.
The concept has captured attention from defence and commercial sectors seeking rapid access to orbit. Though Delphi's mission is primarily a technology demonstrator, it will carry a number of payloads up and back down to Earth. Lux Aeterna is not releasing details about the manifest, but "it does include a cross section of civil defence and commercial customers that are all taking part in this mission," Taylor said.
The regulatory path favours Australia. Lux is headed to Australia because obtaining a reentry license to land in the US right now isn't easy. Varda, which returned the first commercial spacecraft to land on US soil in 2024, saw its plans delayed for several months as it worked to convince the FAA that its returning capsule wouldn't threaten people or property on the ground below. Its subsequent missions have returned to Australia. Varda's capsule landed safely at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch, completing a dual-purpose mission with payloads from the Air Force and NASA.
Taylor says that the pace of regulatory approvals won't be a bottleneck for the next three or four years, but expects the FAA to learn alongside the nascent reentry industry and allow for an increased return cadence.