Astroport Space Starts European Subsidiary

Excavating for Moon dust
Credit: NASA

Astroport Space Technologies, a Texas startup developing a system of baking Moon dust into lunar roads and rocket pads, says it has partnered with Interflight Global Europe to create a joint venture on that continent.

Astroport Europe will be headquartered in Luxembourg, making it eligible for European government funding among other things. The subsidiary’s activities are expected to complement Astroport Space’s regolith melting technology and robotic bricklaying system for lunar infrastructure construction, the company says.

“With a focus on ‘regolith works’ for bulk regolith excavation and conveyance, we see Luxembourg and its thriving space entrepreneurial ecosystem as the perfect place for developing new uses and new regolith-based products from stockpile accumulations of feedstock during excavation phases in our site-preparation construction,” says Sam Ximenes, Astroport founder and CEO.

“We are thrilled to be officially part of the Luxemburg space community and look forward to forging new relationships and continuing building on collaborations we established with local space companies during our participation in the European Space Resources Innovation Center (ESRIC) Startup Support Program,” says Emilio de la Guardia, Astroport Europe partner and general manager .

Astroport was one of five companies competitively selected last year by ESRIC for its first cohort to undergo the three-month pre-incubation course.

Interflight Global is a commercial air and space transportation industries advisory, consulting, brokerage and finance firm.

Astroport is targeting its offering to NASA and allies as part of the U.S. Artemis program.

Michael Bruno

Based in Washington, Michael Bruno is Aviation Week Network’s Executive Editor for Business. He oversees coverage of aviation, aerospace and defense businesses, supply chains and related issues.