Astranis

Astranis builds small geostationary communications satellites at its facility on Historic Pier 70 in San Francisco. The company was founded by John Gedmark and Ryan McLinko with the goal of bringing dedicated broadband to the roughly four billion people without reliable connectivity. Each MicroGEO satellite is roughly the size of a commercial washing machine, a fraction of the mass of a traditional school-bus-class GEO platform, and uses software-defined radios so payloads can be reconfigured on orbit. The first operational satellite, Arcturus, began providing service over Alaska, and follow-on missions have targeted regions including the Philippines, Mexico, and Peru. In late 2024 the company flew its first Block 2 mission, "From One to Many," carrying four MicroGEO spacecraft on a single Falcon 9. The company has raised more than $750 million and signed over $1 billion in contracts for a backlog of more than a dozen satellites.