Palmer Luckey’s booming defense company Anduril is expanding into the space business

• Anduril, Palmer Luckey’s defense technology startup, is focused on space.

• The seven-year-old company announced a new cooperation with the satellite equipment manufacturer Apex.

• Anduril also said it plans to launch a mission into space in 2025.

Defense technology startup Anduril is quickly gaining a reputation for disrupting the traditional defense industry with its futuristic flying and underwater autonomous devices.

Now it is also targeting the space market.

On Tuesday, Anduril announced that it has partnered with Los Angeles-based startup Apex, which produces satellite equipment.

It said it would use Apex satellite buses – the main body of a satellite that houses payloads and technology – to deploy its own artificial intelligence-based systems for missions, including space situational awareness and missile warning and tracking.

Apex’s delivery of off-the-shelf hardware would enable Anduril to implement “the rapid development and delivery of space systems to the United States and partners,” the company said in a news release.

Anduril, which was co-founded in 2017 by Oculus billionaire Palmer Luckey, also said it plans to launch its own self-financed space mission in 2025.

Anduril said the mission “will underpin Anduril and Apex’s commitment to regularly sending more mass into orbit.”

The partnership is just one arm of Anduril’s foray into space. Last week, the company signed a $25.3 million contract with the U.S. Space Force, a branch of the military created four years ago to protect American interests in space.

Anduril has been awarded a contract to expand the use of Lattice’s AI-powered software across the Space Force’s Space Surveillance Network (SSN).

This would strengthen the network’s communications, providing “warfighters with the ability to leverage real-time data, autonomous satellite coordination and reliable communications capabilities,” the press release stated.

“Space is a contested domain of warfare, and we recognize the importance of equipping spacecraft with advanced autonomy and cutting-edge payloads,” Gokul Subramanian, vice president of space and engineering at Anduril, said in the announcement.

Last year, Anduril also secured key contracts to equip the United States Air Force and the Australian Navy and Air Force with autonomous systems.

The company positioned itself as the answer to the U.S. military’s production and procurement problems, arguing that future war success would depend on the ability to rapidly manufacture and produce advanced weapons at scale.

In August, after raising $1.5 billion in a Series F funding round, the startup announced it would build a five-million-square-foot factory that would “scale” defense manufacturing and “rebuild the arsenal of democracy.”

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