Angeline Leishman
A business accelerator as part of the U.S. Space Force’s SpaceWERX initiative has chosen from its 2021 cohort six winning pitches that are aimed at supporting U.S. efforts in space.
Three startups and three university teams won a combined $100,000 in prize money to speed up their efforts in securing potential opportunities for space technology development with the government, Hyperspace Challenge said Thursday.
The 2021 winners from the startup section are:
- Varda Space Industries for orbital return capsules
- SCOUT for collision avoidance and in-space object detection sensor
- Neutron Star Systems USA for superconductor-based electric propulsion systems
Meanwhile, the university section winners are:
- Stevens Institute of Technology for artificial intelligence-powered edge-computing router
- State University of New York Polytechnic Institute for on-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing neural networks
- Texas State University for heavy-metal fluoride glass
Created in 2018, the Hyperspace Challenge is an annual competition under the SpaceWERX program and is managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and Central New Mexico Community College Ingenuity.
