Company

Fortastra

space fortastra.com

Los Angeles-based space defense startup building autonomous escort satellites to defend critical orbital assets.

Track Fortastra

Founded: 2025
HQ: Los Angeles, California, USA
Status: Private

CategorySpace

Funding

$8.0M

Models

Employees

Overview

Los Angeles-based space defense startup building autonomous escort satellites to defend critical orbital assets. Founded by SpaceX veteran and Hermeus co-founder Mike Smayda in 2025. Closed USD 8M seed round led by Upfront Ventures with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Generational Partners, Forward Deployed VC, and Wave Function Ventures. Developing maneuverable satellites with high delta-v propulsion for orbital security.

Reality check

Seed investors (company-claimed)

Led by Upfront Ventures with Generational Partners, Forward Deployed Venture Capital, Bloomberg Beta and Wave Function Ventures.

Use of funds (company-claimed)

Validate sensor hardware and build integrated software and autonomy for protect-and-defend maneuvers.

Planned capabilities (company-claimed)

Remote sensing, autonomous operations, and an end effector to handle third-party hardware in vacuum.

Market view (company-claimed)

Smayda sees an emerging commercial orbital-security market beyond DoD; Upfront's Nick Kim says government budget can sustain R&D.

Verified record

Verified deployments: None on file
Active incidents: None on file

Key facts

Mission

Develops orbital defense spacecraft to provide physical security to government and commercial satellites.

Founder background

Founder Mike Smayda is a SpaceX veteran and Hermeus cofounder.

Data & sources

Web sources

1 source backing this record.View all →

Models (1)

View all models →

Current platform

Orbital Defense Satellite

Maneuverable spacecraft designed for space domain awareness and orbital defense of assets in orbit. It is a robotic system designed for physical AI applications. Key specifications include Form Factor: space, Maturity: prototype.

spaceView model →

Fortastra on the deployment map

View the global map

Fortastra has no verified deployments on the DEPLOY registry yet. Explore the deployment map by place and type.

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The global deployment map →

No verified deployments for Fortastra on the DEPLOY record yet. Track Fortastra to know the moment the first one is verified.

Relationships

BBloomberg BetaInvestor UUpfront VenturesInvestor GGenerational PartnersInvestor FForward Deployed VCInvestor WWave Function VenturesInvestor

Current leadership (1)

Mike Smayda CEO & Foundersecondary-verified

Founders (1)

Mike Smayda

See all founders across the registry →

Safety record

No incidents on record for Fortastra.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Recent coverage

Fortastra in third-party press

Fortastra Expands Leadership Team with Defense and Intelligence Veterans

Apr 2, 2026

Fortastra Lands $8M Seed to Develop Orbital Defense Sats

Dec 14, 2025

Peers

56 peers across 1 segment. Every Fortastra competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.

space(56)

36 companies in this segment · low_concentration (HHI 1188.742650389188) · leader K2 Space at 2172%

Mentioned on (2)

Registry pages whose text names Fortastra.

Robots and products (1)

Orbital Defense Satellite

People (1)

Mike Smayda

Financial state

Total funding: $8.0M
Employees: 10

Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Funding rounds (1)

Seed2025-12-14
Investors: Bloomberg Beta (follow), Upfront Ventures (lead), Generational Partners (follow), Forward Deployed VC (follow), Wave Function Ventures (follow)

See the full valuations ranking →

Timeline

Every recorded move in Fortastra’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.

Funding roundSeed funding round
2025-12-14
Seed

Recent activity

Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.

Record createdAug 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry

Full change history →

Sources (1)

https://payloadspace.com/fortastra-lands-8m-seed-to-develop-orbital-defense-sats/

Common questions

What is Fortastra?

What does Fortastra make?

Fortastra has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Orbital Defense Satellite (Fortastra builds physical robots).

Is Fortastra publicly traded?

No. Fortastra is privately held and not publicly traded, per the DEPLOY registry.

Who competes with Fortastra?

On the DEPLOY registry, peer companies to Fortastra building in the same form factors include Impulse Space, AstroForge, Astrobotic Technology, Blackswan Space.

Who is the CEO of Fortastra?

Mike Smayda is the ceo of Fortastra, per the DEPLOY registry.

How can I invest in Fortastra?

Fortastra is a private company; its shares are not available on public markets, so retail investors cannot buy the stock today. It has raised $8M in disclosed funding.

Where is Fortastra headquartered?

Fortastra is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, USA.

How much funding has Fortastra raised?

Fortastra has raised approximately $8M in disclosed funding on record in the DEPLOY registry.

Who owns Fortastra?

Fortastra is privately held and venture-backed ($8M raised); ownership sits with its founders and private investors.

Where does Fortastra operate robots?

Fortastra is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.

Is Fortastra a top robotics company?

On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, funding, hiring, media, safety, and IP signals, Fortastra ranks in roughly the top 84% of companies tracked by the registry.

When was Fortastra founded?

Fortastra was founded in 2025.

Is Fortastra safe?

Fortastra has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.

Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-13

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-10-13

Sources by quality tier

1: unclassified; Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Peer companies

Impulse Space6 models
AstroForge3 models
Astrobotic Technology3 models
Blackswan Space3 models
China National Space Administration3 models
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory3 models

Fortastra

Overview

Reality check

Key facts

Data & sources

Models (1)

Orbital Defense Satellite

Fortastra on the deployment map

Relationships

Current leadership (1)

Founders (1)

Safety record

Recent coverage

Peers

space(56)

Mentioned on (2)

Financial state

Funding rounds (1)

Timeline

Recent activity

Sources (1)

Common questions

Peer companies

In the press

Fortastra Expands Leadership Team with Defense and Intelligence Veterans

Fortastra Lands $8M Seed to Develop Orbital Defense Sats

Machine-readable surfaces

Peer companies