The Space Robotics Company
Launch YC: General Astronautics — Robots for Space
TL;DR: General Astronautics builds autonomous robots for research and manufacturing in space. Microgravity unlocks better pharmaceuticals, purer semiconductors, and flawless optical fibers. The bottleneck was never the science, it was the labor to do it.
Advantage of Microgravity
Microgravity changes what's physically possible. Proteins crystallize with fewer defects, critical for drug development. Semiconductors and optical fibers form without the flaws that gravity creates. Pharma and tech companies are already investing in orbital research.
The Problem
But astronaut time is expensive, and there's not nearly enough of it. On ISS, NASA estimates crew time at $130K per hour. On commercial stations, it's more than three times that. Crews have to sleep, rotate home, and pick and choose which experiments to run. Most of the work that could happen in space simply doesn't.
The Solution
We're building robotic systems that handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing, with the precision and autonomy to operate without crew. The goal is simple: make microgravity research and manufacturing scalable, not bottlenecked by how many people you can put in orbit.
Our team comes from SpaceX, Caltech, and Carnegie Mellon. We've spent our careers on robotics, spacecraft systems, and the intersection of both. We started General Astronautics because the limiting factor in space was never the science, it is the capacity to do it at scale.
The Ask
If you have connections to pharma or biotech companies interested in space-based research, whether protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing, we'd love an intro.
Connect with us: founders@generalastro.com
X: https://x.com/GenAstronautics
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/generalastronautics
