This agreement marks the 10th major commercial customer for the orbital energy grid

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Star Catcher Industries, Inc. (“Star Catcher”), the leading energy infrastructure company building the first power grid in space, has finalized a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Aethero, a developer and service provider of space-rated high-performance compute. Following successful technology demonstrations by both companies, this agreement advances the foundational energy layer required to scale advanced computing and artificial intelligence in orbit.

Under this agreement, Aethero will draw on-demand power from the forthcoming Star Catcher Network, unlocking higher power concentrations and increasing operational uptime. Historically, satellite operators have been forced to design spacecraft around peak-power loads, which require large, heavy solar arrays and battery systems, driving up costs and expanding a satellite’s size. By offloading peak power demands to Star Catcher’s energy grid, Aethero can minimize its power hardware footprint, reduce orbital collision risk, and reallocate spacecraft mass directly toward its core product: compute.

Eliminating the Power Bottleneck in Orbit

Aethero’s focus on scalable Space Data Centers and Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) reflects a surging demand for space-based compute as well as data networks. Dynamic power availability is a critical enabler for these capabilities, allowing data to be processed in real time on orbit rather than transmitting raw data back to Earth through limited space-to-Earth data highways. Applications span defense, AI-assisted Earth observation, and dynamic telecommunications routing — fields where compute capacity in space is currently constrained only by the ability to power it.

Star Catcher’s orbital power grid utilizes wireless optical power beaming to harvest solar energy and beam concentrated power directly onto existing satellite solar panels. With no retrofit or specialized receivers required, spacecraft can generate up to 10x more power on demand.  Internal research indicates that offloading peak power needs to Star Catcher’s grid yields a 1.9x to 3.5x revenue multiplication for orbital compute architectures.

“The infrastructure we are building at Star Catcher is foundational to any future we can imagine in space, and this partnership proves that future is arriving now,” says Andrew Rush, co-founder and CEO of Star Catcher. “During my time leading space infrastructure projects at Made In Space and Redwire, the primary wall we kept hitting was power. That wall is now coming down.”

Traction and Upcoming Milestones

This agreement marks the 10th major commercial customer to sign definitive agreements to purchase power from Star Catcher’s orbital energy grid, representing more than $60M in backlog. It comes as both companies prepare for key operational milestones:

• Aethero will deploy its next-generation NxA-ECM compute module this October aboard its Titan mission, bringing unprecedented supercomputer- and data-center-class processing directly to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to power space-based cloud infrastructure and CDNs that deliver high-demand data directly to users on the ground.

• Star Catcher, which holds the world record for optical power beaming, is preparing for its first-ever in-space power beaming technology demonstration later this year, with a subsequent mission already in development.

“As we prepare to deploy our Titan mission and scale our vision to our constellation offerings, locking in the critical infrastructure necessary for long-term success is essential,” said Amit Pinnamaneni, CEO & co-founder of Aethero. “We are confident that Star Catcher is the right partner to meet our operational energy requirements, allowing us to focus entirely on building the best computers possible.”

Both companies are working toward activating the PPA over the coming years as their respective orbital networks expand.

Read more about Aethero at www.aethero.com.

Read more about Star Catcher at www.star-catcher.com.

For press inquiries, please contact Daniel Sherman at press@star-catcher.com.

About Star Catcher

Star Catcher is the energy company building a power grid in space, providing the infrastructure to enable the next generation of spacecraft and advanced missions. Star Catcher removes power as a limiting factor for spacecraft, allowing continuous mission execution, increased operational endurance, and the ability to support higher power payloads without redesigning existing platforms. Founded in 2024 by Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder (Made In Space, Redwire), alongside Bryan Lyandvert (T-Bird Capital, Amazon), the company has raised $88M to date from B Capital, Shield Capital, Cerberus Ventures, Initialized Capital, among others. Based in Jacksonville, FL, the company currently holds the world record for optical power beaming.

About Aethero

Aethero is a space compute infrastructure provider that engineers and deploys high-performance processing modules, making advanced in-orbit edge AI and distributed computing deployable at scale for space missions globally. Aethero delivers robust end-to-end on-orbit data processing capabilities—transforming satellites into highly autonomous orbital data centers and supercomputers—through a flexible (CaaS) Compute-as-a-Service or (Paas) Platforms-as-a-Service model designed to support next-generation sensor processing, data processing or storage, and telecommunications.

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SOURCE Star Catcher Industries, Inc.