TransAstra Corporation YC Application

Summer 2021Active

TransAstra Corporation went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2021 batch as a Industrials company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2021
Industry: IndustrialsAviation and Space
Team size: 8
Status: Active
Launched: 2021

Founders

Joel SercelFounder

What TransAstra Corporation does

With five issued patents covering our core business lines, and more than a dozen additional patents pending this year and more than $5M in revenue, TransAstra is developing the technologies that will drive the rapidly expanding space economy. Our breakthrough Omnivore propulsion system can propel spacecraft, including our Worker Bee commercial OTV with water or virtually any other fluid as a propellant using only concentrated sunlight as a power source. Omnivore is faster, cheaper, and more practical than electric propulsion while being substantially less expensive, safer, and more operationally flexible than legacy chemical propulsion systems. Our Sutter Telescope System can identify and locate resource-rich asteroids and orbital debris that existing technologies can’t find and works synergistically with our Worker Bee OTV for orbital logistics. For government customers, Sutter can identify dark fast-moving objects between Earth and the Moon which currently evade detection, a critical issue for national defense and a key need of the Space Force. We are already using Sutter in ground-based observatories and will begin commercial sales of Sutter SDA data next month having tracked dozens of faint moving objects in space already. Once launched into space, Sutter will be 300,000 times more cost effective than any other known telescope design and will revolutionize sense making in space.

TransAstra Corporation's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

TransAstra Corporation, Summer 2021 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

TransAstra Corporation

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Orbital logistics: Unleashing space industry, from Earth to asteroids

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We build the Omnivore propulsion system that uses concentrated sunlight to propel spacecraft with water or other fluids, making them faster and cheaper than electric or chemical propulsion. We also develop the Sutter Telescope System to detect hard-to-see asteroids and orbital debris for commercial and government customers, enabling new space logistics and safety capabilities.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in Los Angeles, CA, and plan to remain based there after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

Los Angeles is home to our team and close to the growing commercial space ecosystem we serve. It offers access to partners and resources essential to developing our propulsion and sensing technologies.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real TransAstra Corporation YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from TransAstra Corporation's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like TransAstra Corporation would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.