Summary
Lux Aeterna builds satellite buses that are designed for re-entry, making them the first fully reusable satellites in the traditional sense. The first vehicle, 'Deli,' weighs ~200kg (400 lbs) with a 30kg (60 lb) payload capacity, sized to fit SpaceX Transporter rideshare slots. The satellite includes solar arrays, propulsion, attitude control, and avionics — a full satellite bus that can host a variety of payloads.
The near-term commercial use case is in-space manufacturing: processing pharmaceuticals, biotissue, and semiconductors in microgravity and returning the refined atoms to Earth. Longer-term, Taylor envisions a constellation that enables new mission architectures — rather than maximizing satellite longevity (the current only design knob), operators could design around 6-month, 1-year, or 3-year refresh cycles, unlocking applications that don't make sense when a satellite must last 5 years. The fleet would host defense, commercial, and Earth observation payloads from multiple customers, with Lux Aeterna as the fleet operator. The $10M seed round funds the company through its first demonstration launch; the team is 14 people in Denver growing to ~25 by launch.