Satlyt, a new company co-founded by Kenyan American engineer Rama Afullo, has announced an $8 million seed funding round. The company, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, aims to build software that enables AI models to run on satellites.
Mr Afullo, who previously worked at Google's cloud computing business and SpaceX's Starlink, stated that his experiences convinced him of the potential for computers in space. Unlike companies such as SpaceX or Google, Satlyt does not plan to build its own spacecraft, focusing instead on software development.
Satlyt's software is scheduled to launch this Thursday on a SpaceX rocket. This mission will also include the first prototype for Google's space data centre effort, Project Suncatcher. The software will be onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup, and will serve three customers: NASA, Stellerian, and TakeMe2Space itself.
Earlier this year, Satlyt deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma AI model on a Momentus spacecraft. This model reportedly reduced the size of transmissions about onboard software errors by over 60%, which Mr Afullo suggests could save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite annually.