Acquisition
Jan 2026Turion acquired Los Angeles-based Tychee Research Group to integrate its Tychee Mission Planning Library into STARFIRE; financial terms were undisclosed. Tychee founder Rob Brady became Turion Chief Product Officer.
SourceMoving Things Around in Space, Imaging Space Objects When We're Not
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Aug 2, 2026
Overview
Turion Space is a privately held space-infrastructure and defense/aerospace company founded in 2021. It builds and operates maneuverable spacecraft, payloads, and mission software for space-domain awareness, national-security operations, orbital logistics, and longer-term in-space resource utilization.
Primary product
The primary product platform is the DROID family of maneuverable satellites, paired with STARFIRE mission software for mission planning, tasking, command and control, autonomous operations, and space-domain-awareness imagery. Turion also markets DROID Alpha spacecraft buses and payload-hosting/remote-sensing capabilities.
Founded
2021
Headquarters
Irvine, California, United States
Team size
200+ employees (company-reported in 2026)
Industry
Aerospace and defense / defense and space manufacturing
Sub-industry
Space infrastructure; satellite manufacturing; space-domain awareness; in-orbit servicing and logistics; mission software
Offices
Irvine, California, United States
Washington, DC, United States
Business model
Government and defense contracts
Sale or deployment of DROID spacecraft and satellite platforms
Space-domain-awareness and resolved non-Earth-imaging data/services
Mission software and satellite command-and-control platform licensing/services
Payload hosting and remote sensing
Future in-space logistics and resource-utilization services
Funding
Stage
Series B / venture-backed private company
Total raised
$112M
Latest round
Series B · Apr 2026
Latest amount
$75M
Apr 2026 · Washington Harbour Partners
Apr 2025 · Washington Harbour Partners
Dec 2024 · Veteran Ventures Capital
Nov 2021
Pre-seed / YC SAFE or pre-seed financing
Jun 2021 · Y Combinator
People & investors
Leadership
CEO & Co-Founder
Co-Founder & President
Co-Founder & CIO
Rich Minford
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Product Officer
Thomas Cooley
Chief Scientist
Investors
Aurelia Foundry
Center15 Capital
Critical Software
Forward Deployed VC
Forward VC
FoundersX Ventures
Gaingels
Harvard Management Company
HOF Capital
Imagination Capital
Imagination VC
Industrious Ventures
Magnetar
Magnetar Capital
Mercury Fund
Pi Campus
Reinforced Ventures
S2 Capital
S2G? / S2 Capital
Soma Capital
TRAC VC
Veteran Ventures Capital
Washington Harbour Partners
Y Combinator
Zillionize
Work & culture
The careers page emphasizes “Hardcore Engineering,” transparency, and meritocratic decision-making, with speed treated as a feature and competence valued over tenure. The company highlights mission ownership, operational spacecraft, and work spanning propulsion, avionics, GNC, software, and operations.
Compensation
Public benefits pages indicate equity and a 401(k) employer contribution. No reliable public Turion-specific compensation bands were found; a visa/labor-data source reported no H-1B LCAs in the prior fiscal year but some prevailing-wage activity, which is not confirmation of sponsorship.
Benefits
Company equity
401(k) with a 3% employer direct contribution
DoD SkillBridge program for service members in their final 180 days
Hands-on work with operational spacecraft
Veterans welcome
Product & market
Pricing
Not publicly disclosed. A third-party technical feature reported DROID Alpha spacecraft pricing starting around $4 million for purchase; treat that figure as an external estimate, not an official price list.
Differentiators
- —Vertically integrated spacecraft, propulsion, payloads, flight software, ground software, and operations
- —Operational DROID spacecraft and demonstrated on-orbit imagery and maneuvering
- —First U.S. commercial provider licensed for resolved non-Earth imaging, according to company materials
- —Combination of maneuverable spacecraft with STARFIRE software and autonomous mission operations
- —Defense-oriented government-contract execution and national-security focus
- —Ability to support third-party payloads/software and multi-sensor missions across LEO and GEO
Technology
DROID maneuverable spacecraft
STARFIRE mission-planning, tasking, command-and-control and autonomous-operations software
Resolved non-Earth imaging (NEI)
Space-domain-awareness sensors and imagery processing
Rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO)
Iodine electric propulsion
Optical communications terminals
On-orbit compute and third-party software execution through Starfire Nexus
Astrodynamics and mission-planning algorithms / TMPL
Ground and flight software
Verticalized spacecraft manufacturing
Customers
U.S. Space Force / Space Systems Command
NASA
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
DARPA
U.S. and allied government and defense operators
Tychee Research Group (historical Starfire Nexus customer and later acquired)
Critical Software (Starfire Nexus customer)
Competitors
Northrop Grumman
Astroscale
ClearSpace
Orbit Fab
Impulse Space
Exoanalytic Solutions
LeoLabs
True Anomaly
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
$5 million-$25 million annually (third-party estimate; not company-reported audited revenue)
Estimated monthly visits
13.4K
Traffic estimate as of Aug 2026
Signals & risks
Other
Apr 2026DROID.001 was deorbited after completing a three-year mission; DROID.002 remained operational. This is a normal mission lifecycle event, not reported as a shutdown or failure.
SourceLatest news
Turion Space / U.S. Space Command LinkedIn · Jul 2026
Turion reported that DROID.002 performed a live evasive maneuver during a multinational exercise in response to a simulated threat.
Turion Space · May 2026
Turion announced recognition as a performer for space-based-interceptor work, extending its defense and tactical-space program portfolio.
PR Newswire / Turion Space · Apr 2026
Turion announced a $75M+ Series B led by Washington Harbour Partners to expand its DROID fleet, increase production capacity, and scale STARFIRE.
SpaceNews · Apr 2026
Coverage detailed the Series B, DROID.002 operations, DROID Viper development, planned manufacturing expansion, and the company's government-contract base.
SpaceNews · Jan 2026
Strategic acquisition of Tychee Research Group, bringing mission-engineering capability into Turion's Starfire software ecosystem.
Jobs and careers at Turion Space
1 job at Turion Space
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
On-site
Manufacturing Engineering
Irvine, CA
2mo ago
On-site
Full-time