ExLabs wins funds to accelerate space robotics
Top Stories Tamfitronics Exploration Labs' render of Arachne, a spacecraft designed for large debris capture. ExLabs' Autonomous Capture & Acquisition Robot and Space Exploration Research Vehicle are combined in Arachne. Credit: ExLabsExploration Laboratories, a startup focused on space resources, will accelerate work on technology to autonomously capture space objects, thanks to a $1.9 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) from SpaceWERX. Southern California-based ExLabs announced a$1.7 million SpaceWERX Small Business Innovation Research contractin 2023 for autonomous capture and acquisition technology. The additional $1.9 million, split between government and private investors, “facilitates our transition to prototype development and testing of the ACQR platform, paving the way for its orbital test flight,” Matthew Schmidgall, ExLabs CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews by email. ACQR is ExLab’s autonomous capture and acquisition robot. ExLabs also is developing Space Exploration and...