Meet The Startup Developing The Next Generation of Satellite Technology

As the commercial space industry shifts into rapidly reusable launch vehicles, the satellite industry has been lagging behind with slow and costly development. K2 Space wants to shock the industry and develop platforms to fully utilize the new age of spaceflight, with Starship and Falcon 9 being major targets for K2’s satellite buses.

K2 was founded by a pair of brothers - Neel and Karan Kunjur, but the company has a strong workforce made up of former SpaceX, Maxar and Blue Origin employees who aim to redefine the satellite industry.

Satellite Buses

K2 satellite bus design

K2 is developing a platform for a new age of satellite development through their Mega and Giga Satellite buses. These buses are platforms specifically designed to be able to support a wide range of satellite roles with very minor changes. These changes can range from installing science experiments to communications arrays. Being able to be launched on all major launch platforms and work in all orbits, K2’s satellite buses are embracing the near future of space access to its fullest potential.

The two major bus designs proposed by K2 are the one ton, “Mega” design and the fifteen ton “Giga” design. Per kilogram, K2 is targeting $15,000 and $3,000 for the Mega and Giga satellite platforms respectively, bringing down the traditional cost of satellite busses down from nearly $100,000 per kilogram. To achieve this, K2 will be utilizing ‘off the shelf’ and commercially available parts to develop their buses. This will allow for not only cheap satellite buses, but a quicker manufacturing time and product output, making the buses viable for large-spanning constellations and programs.

Planning on being a forerunner in the “Post-Starship Future”, K2 designs have been focused around maximizing the capabilities of the new age of heavy lift launchers, with the Falcon, Starship, Vulcan, and New Glenn rockets all being contenders in the future of spaceflight. K2 is hoping to utilize these new technologies to their fullest potential, and to streamline the satellite development industry into the future.