Space has an energy problem. As ambitions for orbital data centres, AI computing in orbit, and space-based manufacturing grow more serious, the gap between what satellites can generate and what these operations actually need keeps widening.
Solar panels and batteries have physical limits — and launching more of them means heavier, more expensive spacecraft with less room for the hardware that actually matters.
A Florida startup called Star Catcher thinks it has the answer. Today, it launched a prototype satellite designed to test something that has never been done before: beaming power from one spacecraft to another using lasers.
The Orbital Power Grid
The concept behind Star Catcher is straightforward in principle, if technically demanding in practice. Its satellites — which the company calls “power nodes” — collect sunlight through an array of concentrating lenses, convert it into laser light tuned to wavelengths that solar panels absorb efficiently, and beam that energy to other spacecraft in orbit.
The key insight is that the receiving satellite doesn’t need any special modifications. Standard solar panels already fitted to most satellites can absorb the beamed laser light and convert it to electricity — the same way they handle ordinary sunlight, just far more intensely. Star Catcher claims this approach could allow satellites to generate up to ten times more power than they would from standard solar illumination alone.
The implications extend beyond simply keeping the lights on. Satellites whose panels and batteries have degraded over years in orbit could be kept operational far longer. New spacecraft could be designed with smaller, lighter power systems from the outset, freeing up mass and space for more capable instruments, sensors, or computing hardware.
Building Up to Today
Star Catcher hasn’t arrived at this launch without groundwork. In 2025 the company set a record by beaming 1.1 kilowatts of power to solar panels at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — a significant demonstration of the core technology working at a meaningful scale. Later the same year, it tested its satellite tracking software in orbit, proving the system could locate and lock onto a target in space.
Today’s launch of its Protostar satellite is the first time the entire system will be tested end-to-end in the actual environment it’s designed for. Protostar will attempt to collect solar energy, locate and track a small cubesat that launched alongside it on the same mission, and beam power to it as the two spacecraft drift apart. The team will compare received power levels against their models to validate whether the physics and engineering are performing as expected.
“Every major application driving the space economy — from real-time national security intelligence to AI-powered orbital computing and Earth observation — is limited by power,” said cofounder and CEO Andrew Rush. “We are closer to activating an orbital power grid than most can imagine.”
The Challenges Ahead
The honest picture is that Protostar is a demonstration, not a finished product, and the gap between a successful demonstration and a commercial orbital power grid is substantial.
The 1.1 kilowatts Star Catcher beamed in its ground test, while record-breaking for optical power beaming, is still well below what large commercial satellites actually need. Tracking a moving target in orbit with the precision required to maintain a focused laser beam is an ongoing engineering challenge. Heat management — the laser system generates significant thermal load — must be solved for hardware expected to survive years in space. And space-hardened equipment that functions reliably across the temperature swings and radiation environment of orbit is a demanding engineering bar.
Researchers tracking the field have noted these challenges candidly. The physics of power beaming work; the engineering of making it reliable, scalable, and economical at orbital scale is where the real work remains.
The Commercial Bet
Despite those challenges, the commercial interest is notable. Star Catcher says it has already signed ten power purchase agreements with companies, alongside more than 40 letters of intent — a signal that potential customers are taking the technology seriously enough to make commitments, not just express curiosity.
The company is already working on a follow-up satellite designed to deliver what it describes as “operational levels of power” — a step change above the demonstration capabilities of Protostar.
The broader significance of what Star Catcher is attempting is worth pausing on. Every satellite launched today carries a fixed power budget determined at launch — the solar panels and batteries it arrives with are essentially what it will have for its entire operational life. A working orbital power grid would change that fundamental constraint. Satellites could be topped up, extended in life, or upgraded in capability without any physical intervention. The power supply would become, for the first time, something that can be delivered on demand from elsewhere in orbit.
That’s a genuinely different kind of space infrastructure. Whether Protostar’s laser finds its target will be the first real indication of whether that infrastructure is coming.