John Gedmark is an American entrepreneur and aerospace engineer. He is the co-founder and CEO of Astranis, and was the Founding Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.[1][2]
Early life
editGedmark was born and raised in Kentucky.[3] He graduated from Purdue's undergraduate Aerospace Engineering program in 2003,[7] and served as the President of his local Students for the Development and Exploration of Space (SEDS) chapter.[8] Gedmark earned his Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering at Stanford University.[9] While at Stanford, Gedmark co-founded the Roosevelt Institute, a public policy think tank for students, which grew to over 80 university campuses nationwide by 2012.[10]
Commercial Spaceflight Federation
editIn 2005, Gedmark and Peter Diamandis brought together commercial space industry leaders Elon Musk, John Carmack, Alex Tai, and others to promote industry collaboration. This informal industry group became the Personal Spaceflight Federation, and later rebranded to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Gedmark registered the new Federation as a non-profit dedicated to “resolving the regulatory, legal, political and broad strategic challenges the personal spaceflight industry faces moving forward.”[4]
Over the next five years, Gedmark served as the Federation's Executive Director and represented the shared interests of its members like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and others in Washington D.C. Gedmark was featured in Christian Davenport’s book "Space Barons" for this work.[4]
Astranis
editIn 2015, Gedmark and Ryan McLinko founded Astranis, with Gedmark as chief executive officer and McLinko as chief technical officer. The company was founded to get the next four billion people online by building smaller, cheaper satellites for broadband internet, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.[5]
Astranis was admitted into the Y Combinator startup accelerator's Winter 2016 cohort.[6] In early 2018, Astranis announced the successful launch and operation of its first demonstration satellite, a 3U cubesat with a software-defined radio payload and a $18 million Series A fundraising round from Andreessen Horowitz.[7][8] Astranis raised a Series B financing round of $90 million in 2020,[9] a $250 million Series C financing round in 2021, and a follow-on round of equity and debt financing of $200 million in 2023.[10]
Astranis launched its first commercial satellite in 2023, which had a malfunction in an externally-supplied solar array but which remained on orbit.[11] The company signed a launch contract in April 2022 for SpaceX for another batch of four satellites, which is expected to launch in 2024.[12][13]
References
edit- ^ "Commercial Spaceflight Group Hires New Director". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ Shieber, Jonathan (March 2018). "Astranis emerges from stealth with a new satellite technology for connecting the world". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ Terdiman, Daniel. "This Startup Says It Has The Most Efficient Plan Ever For Bringing Broadband To Billions". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
- ^ a b Davenport, Christian (20 March 2018). The space barons : Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the quest to colonize the cosmos (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-61039-829-9.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ DiFeliciantonio, Chase (26 December 2022). "Billions of people still lack high-speed internet. This S.F. company is building satellites to change that". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ "Astranis". Y Combinator. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023.
- ^ "DemoSat 2". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
- ^ Shieber, Jonathan (March 1, 2018). "Astranis emerges from stealth with a new satellite technology for connecting the world". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on March 1, 2018.
- ^ Henry, Caleb (14 February 2020). "Astranis raises $90 million in debt and equity ahead of first launch". SpaceNews. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ Chapman, Lizette (14 April 2023). "Andreessen Horowitz Leads Fundraising for Satellite Startup Astranis". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
- ^ Sheetz, Michael (July 21, 2023). "Astranis internet satellite malfunctions before beginning Alaska service, backup planned for spring". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
- ^ "Astranis Space Technologies Signs Contract with SpaceX for Dedicated Multi-Satellite Launch in 2023" (Press release). Astranis. April 5, 2022. Archived from the original on January 19, 2023. Retrieved July 22, 2023 – via BusinessWire.
- ^ "Astranis Block 2 Mission". NextSpaceFlight. Retrieved 10 July 2024.