Catalyx Space

Catalyx Space is a San Francisco-based startup, founded in 2024 by co-founder and CEO Rifath Shaarook (previously known for developing KalamSat, reported as one of the smallest satellites ever flown, as a teenager), building a satellite bus called Cosmotron and a reentry cargo capsule called ReX intended to bring payloads back from low Earth orbit. The company is also building a manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, India, and describes its broader goal as making it easier to deploy manufacturing, communications and materials-science applications in space through a standardized backend.

Catalyx has raised a $1.7 million pre-seed round in January 2025 and a $5.4 million seed round in October 2025, backed by lead investor Outlander VC along with Arka Venture Labs, Lex Reddy, KDX Management, Together Fund, Higher Life Ventures, Nivesha Ventures, Prana Tech Ventures, Bria, the HF0 residency program and Techstars. The company has flown hardware already: its first spacecraft launched with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) carrying two customer payloads, and it has tested a version of its ReX reentry capsule via an airplane drop test. A second, larger spacecraft launch was planned for around December 2025-January 2026, with a roughly 100-kilogram spacecraft launch planned for later in 2026.

Catalyx's combination of an early ISRO-launched satellite bus and a reentry-capsule product places it among a small group of young companies, alongside firms like Germany's ATMOS Space Cargo, pursuing low-cost, frequent return-from-orbit capability rather than one-way satellite deployment alone.