AstroForge, a California-based startup focused on asteroid mining, has announced plans to launch its third spacecraft in 2025.
The spacecraft will be launched alongside Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 lunar mission based in Houston. This launch will carry AstroForge’s Vestri, a 200kg spacecraft, to a metal-rich asteroid near Earth.
Illustration of asteroids flying in space. (Photo: dotshippo/iStock)
“If successful, this will be the first private mission to land on a celestial body outside the Earth-Moon system, bringing us closer to realizing the mission of providing humanity access to extraterrestrial resources,” AstroForge stated in its announcement.
AstroForge was founded in January 2022 with the goal of mining resources from asteroids to create sustainable and cost-effective extraction solutions, supplement resources, and protect the future of Earth. This startup focuses on metals, taking a different approach from some previous space mining startups that targeted water on asteroids.
Water can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, the main components of rocket fuel. Mining space water has the potential to build “gas stations” for spacecraft, providing fuel for deep space flights in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
AstroForge’s first launch occurred in April 2023, deploying the Brokkr-1 spacecraft, roughly the size of a toaster, into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The primary goal was to demonstrate the company’s refinement technology in space, but this did not happen as planned. The mission team could not activate the filtering equipment of Brokkr-1 as intended.
The second spacecraft, named Odin, is scheduled for launch later this year, “flying together” with Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 lunar mission. Odin weighs around 100kg and is entirely manufactured at AstroForge, except for the scientific instruments.
Odin will pave the way for Vestri by collecting images of the asteroid Vestri intends to land on. AstroForge has not yet disclosed the name of the target asteroid. “The information that Vestri collects about the composition of the target asteroid will help us understand the quality and quantity of valuable elements on that asteroid,” the startup stated. Actual mining operations may take place in future missions.
