Fortastra raises $30 million in Series A to build autonomous orbital security spacecraft

Torrance, California-based startup Fortastra closed a $30 million Series A on 8 October 2026, two weeks after its first pair of spacecraft reached orbit, to fund the next generation of autonomous vehicles designed to protect satellites in place^[1].

The funding round

The round was led by First In, with participation from Upfront Ventures, Space Capital, Rsquared, Side Door Ventures, ATX Ventures, and existing investors^[1]. The company, founded in 2025, has moved from a seed announcement to assets on orbit in under a year^[1].

The proceeds are earmarked for three areas:

• Expanding the engineering and operations workforce
• Increasing spacecraft development and testing capacity
• Advancing autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) software^[1]

Fortastra has also signed a memorandum of understanding with US manufacturer Hadrian covering precision machining and additive manufacturing for national security spacecraft^[1].

Watchdog V0 and what comes next

The company launched its first pair of Watchdog V0 spacecraft aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission on 1 October 2026 from Vandenberg Space Force Base^[1]. Those vehicles are technology demonstrators, intended to validate the propulsion, sensors, guidance, navigation and control (GNC), and onboard autonomy needed for more capable platforms^[1].

Founder and CEO Mike Smayda, a former SpaceX engineer, told Via Satellite that the Series A will fund two larger operational prototypes^[1]. Fortastra is targeting a launch of those vehicles as early as Q1 2028^[1].

Autonomy and the defence case

The core technical challenge Fortastra is working on is relative navigation - enabling a spacecraft to determine its own position and movement relative to other objects without continuous ground intervention^[1]. Alongside that, the company is developing perception software to identify nearby objects and classify potential threats^[1].

Vice-president of product Sahil Desai told Payload that the objective is to give military operators several response options for hostile spacecraft, rather than relying exclusively on highly destructive systems^[1]. Full capabilities of the Watchdog platform have not been disclosed^[1].

The longer-term commercial ambition is volume manufacturing - potentially hundreds or thousands of spacecraft annually - though deployment at that scale remains a future objective^[1]. Commercial satellite operators are identified as a secondary customer base once national security requirements are met^[1].

The immediate question is whether Fortastra can translate Watchdog V0's on-orbit data into a credible operational prototype by early 2028, and whether the 18-person team can scale manufacturing fast enough to meet both government timelines and the growing commercial demand for on-orbit security coverage.