Space solar arrays that grow to the size of a football field in orbit
TL;DR We’re building deployable solar arrays that expand from the size of a dining table to a football field in orbit. We already have several LOIs from Space companies totaling over $175M and are planning our first in-space demo flight for Q2 2027.
The Problem:
Just like the trunk of your car on a road trip, a rocket ride to space is volume-constrained.
But the critical systems that enable Space services — solar arrays and thermal radiators — get better as they get bigger. Power generation and heat dissipation both require a large surface area, and both must be tightly packed for launch.
As space infrastructure scales, power demands per launch are rising fast. That means more watts generated and rejected. Existing deployable structures don’t scale to meet this demand - they’re unreliable, too expensive, take up too much volume, and, importantly for controlling the satellite, too flimsy after deployment.
Power generation and heat dissipation are becoming the limiting factors for larger, more capable spacecraft.
The Solution:
Beyond Reach Labs builds solar panels and thermal radiators for space that grow from the size of a dining table to a football field in orbit, supporting the growing demand for power from orbital data centers, commercial space stations, and lunar outposts.
Our patented deployable structures dramatically improve both stowage efficiency and structural stiffness, enabling kilometer-scale systems from a single launch.
We’re starting with deployable solar arrays, where we’ve already secured several multi-million dollar LOIs from customers building next-generation space platforms.
Our first flight demonstration is targeted for late Q2 2027.
Why now?
Power demand in orbit is exploding… scaling from ~50 Megawatts today to >500 Gigawatts by 2035 (a 10,000x increase), driven by mega-constellations and in-space data centers - and the deployment bottleneck is becoming critical.
Why us?
Pele Collins: ~7 years at SpaceX leading parachute engineering & production, supporting 30+ Dragon missions — designing, qualifying, and flying mission-critical space hardware.
Dr. Mitchell Fogelson: PhD from Carnegie Mellon focused on the design, optimization, and simulation of large deployable space structures with NASA - and the inventor of BRL’s core technology.
We’ve been building together since freshman year at UPenn (2013).
Long-term vision
Near-term: Make deployables boring, trustworthy, and scalable for today’s missions.
Long-term: Enable kilometer-scale space infrastructure — including artificial-gravity stations and persistent human presence in space.
If this resonates, please reach out to us here: founders@beyondreachlabs.io
Links
Website: https://www.beyondreachlabs.com
