Series A
$6M
Iron Prairie VenturesNM Vintage FundBoston Global Space Tech Investors · LeadBlackbird Capital GroupPurdue Research FoundationSpaceFund
Open roles0
Total raised$6M
Team size11-50
Founded · Stage2018 · Series A
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About the company
What they build and who they serve.
Rhea Space Activity is a Washington, D.C.-based space-technology startup developing AutoNav, an optical-celestial navigation system that lets spacecraft fix their position by photographing moving in-orbit and celestial objects — satellites, moons, planets, asteroids, comets — and matching the imagery against cataloged data, rather than depending on GPS. The underlying autonomous-navigation approach traces to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Rhea has been adapting it for defense reentry vehicles and cislunar missions where GPS and radio signals are jammed, unavailable, or blocked by plasma blackout. The company flies hosted payloads on Varda Space Industries reentry capsules under Space Force and AFRL sponsorship, and has separately announced plans to fly a navigation payload on a lunar lander.
Why it matters
Signals from funding, traction, and product direction.
- Investor base is defense-adjacent and regional rather than generalist VC — Boston Global Space Tech Investors, Iron Prairie Ventures, Blackbird Capital Group, Purdue Research Foundation, NM Vintage Fund and SpaceFund — signalling pipeline into national-security and state-research customers.
- AutoNav heritage traces to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the underlying autonomous-navigation approach already drives the Perseverance rover on Mars.
- Payload flown on Varda Space Industries W-6 reentry capsule on 30 March 2026 via SpaceX Transporter-16 from Vandenberg — W-6 experiment was funded by the Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory, positioning AutoNav as test-ready for hypersonic glide and reentry weapons use cases.
- System matches onboard imagery against the U.S. Space Force Unified Data Library; passive operation means it cannot be jammed and emits no signal revealing vehicle position to adversaries.
- Separately announced plans to fly navigation payloads on a lunar lander mission, extending the same optical-celestial approach beyond Earth orbit where GPS was never an option.
Funding history
Rounds and investors over time, newest first.
In the news
Press, announcements, and coverage about this company.
Investors
Iron Prairie VenturesNM Vintage FundBoston Global Space Tech InvestorsBlackbird Capital GroupPurdue Research FoundationSpaceFund
Focus areas
Series ADefenseSpace Technology
No open roles on the board yet
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