SAN FRANCISCO – Southern California startups Exlabs and Antares announced a strategic partnership March 19 to develop a nuclear-powered spacecraft for deep-space missions.
Exlabs’ initial missions, including its 2028 campaign to rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis, will not rely on nuclear power. But, the company’s modular spacecraft, called Science Exploration and Resource Vehicle (SERV), will be designed to accommodate Antares microreactors.
“Nuclear is key to enabling extended, long-duration missions,” Matthew Schmidgall, ExLabs CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews. “It provides high power and consistent energy for larger propulsion systems and larger payloads. Solar panels cannot provide the type of power that’s required for our envisioned future operations.”
Exlabs plans to send a spacecraft equipped with an Antares’ nuclear microreactor to geostationary orbit in late 2028 or 2029.
“This mission will serve as a critical validation for space-based nuclear power and set the stage for broader adoption of nuclear technologies” for missions beyond geostationary orbit, according to the news release.
Time to Build
The Exlabs-Antares partnership “pairs two companies with an ambitious vision and pragmatic roadmaps to bring space nuclear technologies to bear,” Will Madsen, Antares head of mission engineering, said in a statement. “For too long, space nuclear power has solely existed in conceptual studies – now it’s time to build.”
Nuclear-power has faced technical, regulatory and safety hurdles for terrestrial and space applications. In recent years, companies large and small have invested in reducing the size and increasing the safety of nuclear reactors.
The first Trump Administration issued a policy directive in 2021 promoting development of small nuclear reactors for space and defense applications.
“We see a growing interest in the national security space in extended-mission vehicles which require nuclear capabilities,” Schmidgall said. “National security and cislunar infrastructure are going to require these capabilities.”
Nuclear power also is a core element of Exlabs’ long-term roadmap. The startup was founded in 2023 to help pave the way for space-resource utilization.
“The design of our spacecraft and the technology that we’re building needs to support that nuclear future,” Schmidgall said.
