Torrance Startup Raises $30 Million to Build Bodyguards for Satellites

Fortastra, which already has two Watchdog spacecraft in orbit, plans to double or triple its 18-person staff, its founder says.

Two small spacecraft called Watchdog V0 rode a SpaceX rideshare rocket into orbit at the start of October. The Torrance company that built them has 18 people on its payroll, its founder told the trade publication Via Satellite.

That company, Fortastra Corp., now has $30 million to build a lot more of them, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported Monday. Its business is guard duty in orbit: spacecraft that can steer themselves alongside valuable satellites, keep an eye on whatever drifts close and react if something comes at them.

It's an old idea in a new place. You put a guard next to anything worth breaking or stealing, and Fortastra is betting orbit has finally filled up with enough of those things to need one.

Michael Smayda, Fortastra's founder and chief executive, says none of this should surprise anyone. "I don't think it's super controversial to say that space is becoming more contested and congested," he told the Business Journal, likening the job to protecting undersea cables or data centers on the ground.

The Air Force made a similar point in September. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, giving a keynote at the Air and Space Cyber Conference in Maryland, said "the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action," the Business Journal reported. Smayda pointed Via Satellite to that speech, which it described as the first public confirmation of American weapons in orbit, as a sign that interest in his line of work is rising.

First In led the round, which Fortastra announced Oct. 8; Upfront Ventures of Santa Monica, ATX Ventures, Space Capital, Rsquared and Side Door Ventures put in money too. Smayda told Via Satellite it'll pay for the next two spacecraft, which he called bigger and more capable prototypes, and that he plans to double or triple the staff and move to a new building.

The company's announcement says the hiring will focus on flight software, guidance and navigation, and autonomy, the code that lets a spacecraft pilot itself, plus a production line for a modular spacecraft body it can turn out in volume. It also says Fortastra has already landed its first government contracts.

Fortastra is also leaning on a neighbor. In July it signed a memorandum of understanding with Hadrian Automation, another Torrance startup, whose AI-driven factories make custom parts for military and aerospace buyers. The point, according to the Business Journal, is smaller satellites, and smaller satellites cost less to launch.

Smayda started Fortastra in 2025, after nearly five years as an aerodynamics engineer at SpaceX and a turn as co-founder of Hermeus, which builds high-speed aircraft. The company's seed round went public last December, and Via Satellite put the gap between that announcement and hardware circling the planet at under a year.

The long-term plan, the Business Journal reported, is a large constellation of these guards. For now it's two Watchdogs in orbit and 18 people in Torrance, and Smayda wants both numbers to grow.

Source: labusinessjournal.com, retrieved October 20, 2026. Other sources: satellitetoday.com, fortastra.com.