Jacksonville Sends A Power Grid To Orbit

Happy Tuesday.

The build this week: Jacksonville's Star Catcher has a flight-ready power node at Vandenberg Space Force Base for a first-of-its-kind orbital power-beaming demonstration.

Underneath: a $20.7 billion missile award, $240 million in solar-module orders, $150 million for physical-AI chips and $140 million for maritime sensors.

The Lead

The big picture: Spacecraft power has traditionally been fixed at launch. Star Catcher is building a different model, with free-flying power nodes that send concentrated solar energy to satellites already in orbit.

Driving the news: The Jacksonville company shipped Protostar to Vandenberg Space Force Base for an October launch on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission. After commissioning, the node is designed to deploy and track a CubeSat, then beam measurable power to its off-the-shelf solar panels.

Why it matters: Star Catcher is pairing flight hardware with the pieces of a commercial platform. It has announced ten power purchase agreements, more than 40 letters of intent, a $60 million Space Force STRATFI award and $88 million in venture capital. In Jacksonville, the company is recruiting to more than double its team and building a new 100,000-square-foot headquarters.

What's next: A successful transfer between two free-flying spacecraft would give customers and suppliers a concrete demonstration of the network Star Catcher wants to build. The next milestones are launch, commissioning, CubeSat deployment and a measured beam.

Read Star Catcher's official Protostar announcement.

Defense & Space

• Raytheon received a five-year AMRAAM production contract worth up to $20.7 billion that supports at least 1,900 missiles a year and hundreds of U.S. suppliers.

• Zulu Pods completed altitude testing at the Air Force Research Laboratory for its fluid-delivery system for expendable and attritable aircraft.

• MagLev Aero secured two DARPA contracts to advance electric propulsion for the next generation of U.S. drones.

• Sidus Space booked LizzieSat-4 and LizzieSat-5 on SpaceX's Bandwagon-6 mission as the Cape Canaveral company expands its data constellation.

• Assertive Professionals won a $14.7 million DCSA task order for business-operations support.

Maritime & Shipbuilding

• Quartermaster secured $140 million to expand its maritime sensor network, which now puts SmartMast hardware on more than 650 vessels across 25 countries.

• Nauticus Robotics signed a non-binding letter of intent for up to $50 million to advance its Houston-built autonomous subsea systems.

Semiconductors & Electronics

• SiMa.ai raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.45 billion valuation to scale chips and software for robots, drones and other edge systems.

• Overlord Labs closed an oversubscribed seed round that brought total funding to $10 million for battery-intelligence silicon used in edge-AI devices.

Manufacturing & Automation

• TOYO signed about $240 million in binding U.S. solar-module supply agreements that will run through its 2-gigawatt Houston plant and roughly 600-person workforce.

• Schneider Electric introduced software-defined medium-voltage switchgear designed to cut manufacturing time by threefold and commissioning time by half for data centers.

• Feather Robotics raised a $7.6 million pre-seed round after booking more than $1 million in revenue for its modular $30,000 humanoid platform.

• Dozuki launched Forge AI for factory knowledge and frontline workflows, giving manufacturers a new way to capture expertise and improve work instructions.

• Alloy Holdings completed its acquisitions of GSM Metals and Cimini & Associates, building a roughly 450-person Rhode Island platform across precious metals and advanced electrical materials.

Energy & Materials

• Ameren Missouri updated its 20-year energy roadmap to guide new generation and grid investment as industrial demand grows.

• The American Infrastructure Alliance launched a nationwide labor-business partnership to coordinate data-center construction, power and workforce development.

• Daedal Systems raised $4.035 million to fund its first standardized plasma-diagnostic deployments for fusion developers.

• Schneider Electric unveiled new automation and energy systems for water infrastructure as utilities modernize increasingly complex treatment operations.

Supply Chain & Freight

• AAR agreed to acquire a controlling interest in MRO Holdings, expanding its aviation repair and aftermarket platform.

• Trimble introduced a new AI-powered transportation platform to connect carrier planning, fleet execution and freight visibility.

• TurningPoint Financial Group launched the Maryland Food Exchange to build a regional market and distribution network for producers and institutional buyers.

Dealbook

• AMD agreed to acquire World Labs for $8.2 billion to add world-model technology used to train robots and other physical systems.

• Quartermaster combined $100 million in equity with a $40 million debt facility to scale maritime sensing and data services.

• SiMa.ai raised $150 million in a Fidelity- and Amplify-led Series C.

• Feather Robotics raised $7.6 million to expand its modular humanoid hardware and developer platform.

• Extend Robotics closed a £2.6 million pre-Series A for industrial teleoperation sold by production outcome.

• Daedal Systems raised $4.035 million for standardized fusion-measurement infrastructure.

• Overlord Labs brought total funding to $10 million for battery intelligence at the chip level.

• Alloy Holdings acquired GSM Metals and Cimini & Associates to deepen its metals and critical-energy materials platform.

• Complete Production Resources received a strategic investment from Fifth Ocean Capital and Tartan Investment Partners to support growth in industrial production services.

• Nauticus Robotics signed a non-binding investment letter for up to $50 million for its subsea autonomy platform.

Back Thursday.