🏢 AstroForge Company Profile
Company Overview
- Huntington Beach, CA — Founded Jan 2022
- First commercial asteroid mining company
- Target: Platinum-group metals from M-type NEAs
- Funding: ~$53M+ ($13M seed + $40M Series A)
- Founders: Matt Gialich (CEO), Jose Acain (CTO)
Key Capabilities
- In-house spacecraft bus (~100kg class)
- Vaporization-based metal refining (PGM extraction)
- Spectroscopy / asteroid characterization sensors
- Autonomous deep space navigation
- Solar electric propulsion
Mission History
- Brokkr-1 (Apr 2023, LEO) — 6U CubeSat, metal refining test FAILED — Comms
- Odin (Feb 2025, Helio) — Asteroid flyby of 2022 OB5 FAILED — Comms
- Vestri (H1 2026, IM-3) — First asteroid landing attempt PLANNED
Critical Needs
- 🔴 Deep space comms partnerships (0/2 missions lost to comms)
- 🟡 Flight heritage & successful demo
- 🟡 NASA credibility / government customer
- 🟡 ISRU technology validation
- 🟡 DSN access or commercial deep space relay
⭐ Top AstroForge-Relevant Opportunities
📈 SAM.gov Summary Stats
Full dataset includes 3,178 active NASA opportunities. Showing AstroForge-relevant subset and aggregate statistics.
Opportunities by Type (3,178 total)
Opportunities by NASA Center
📅 ROSES-2025 Timeline
| Program Element | Status | Due Date | AstroForge Relevance |
|---|
🎯 Strategic Recommendations
🔥 Priority Actions (Ranked)
- Fix comms infrastructure — Explore DSN access, commercial deep space relay partnerships. This is existential.
- Prepare SpaceTech-REDDI proposal — Submit under Tipping Point appendix via REDDI-2026 NRA. Asteroid ISRU demo, $1-20M potential. Highest-value opportunity.
- Submit Moon to Mars architecture study — NextSTEP-3 Appendix B due Feb 20. Position asteroid ISRU as Mars enabler.
- Monitor SBIR reauthorization daily — Be ready to submit Phase I/II on Day 1 when BAA drops.
- Respond to open RFIs — CNS&S Roadmap, Lunar Wi-Fi — shape future solicitations toward AstroForge's needs.
- Join LSIC / ISRU working groups — Influence future solicitation topics.
📆 Application Timeline
- NOW (Feb 2026): PRISM Step-2 (due Feb 28!), M2M Architecture Study (due Feb 20!), RFI responses (due Feb 26), LSIC membership
- 3 months: SBIR Phase II (if reauthorized), SpaceTech-REDDI Tipping Point appendix prep, ROSES planetary science with university PI partner, STRIDE proposal (due Apr 1)
- 6 months: NextSTEP-3 new appendix responses, SpaceTech-REDDI submission, CIS comms architecture proposal
- 1 year: Full SpaceTech-REDDI Tipping Point submission, SBIR Phase I under new BAA, NextSTEP-3 ISRU appendix response
🤝 Partnerships to Pursue
- University PIs: MIT, U of Arizona (planetary science), Colorado School of Mines (space mining) — for ROSES co-proposals
- Prime contractors: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman — for NextSTEP teaming
- Intuitive Machines: Deepen relationship beyond rideshare — joint CLPS-style proposals
- DSN / Comms: Atlas Space Operations, KSAT, or NASA DSN commercial services
- Space Force: Follow up on Maj Gen Purdy interest — strategic minerals angle
⚠️ Critical Watch Items
- 🔴 SBIR Reauthorization: Expired Sep 30, 2025. No new awards until Congress acts. Phase II targeting Feb 19 – Apr 6 (contingent). Check weekly.
- 🔴 Comms Problem: 0/2 missions lost to communications. NASA partnerships (DSN access, comms tech SBIR) could be the solution. Without fixing this, no proposal is credible.
- 🟡 Vestri (IM-3): Success here changes everything — transforms AstroForge from "0/2 failures" to "proven deep space operator." Every proposal gets stronger.
- 🟡 FY27 Budget: NASA budget under pressure. White House requested $18.8B (−25%) but Congress enacted $24.4B. Watch for STMD funding levels.