Santa Fe’s Solstar enters $15 million partnership with Momentus for in-space communication services

One small step for man, one giant leap for Solstar Space Co.

The Santa Fe-based company on Monday entered into a $15 million partnership with Momentus, a group based in California offering commercial satellite buses and in-space infrastructure services.

“This is just a fantastic opportunity for us to test our first commercial product, that’s the Deke Space Communicator, on board with real customers,” Solstar CEO and Founder Brian Barnett said.

The Deke Space Communicator is a lunar Wi-Fi system created by Solstar, which has been working on it over the past few years. The wireless system will provide connectivity to astronauts, surface vehicles and moon orbiting assets from Earth. Now, Barnett said, Solstar is ready to test out what the company’s been envisioning for years.

Momentus CEO John Rood said the three-year reciprocal agreement will see activity and investments from both companies. Solstar will provide its communication services and products to Momentus’ customers while Momentus will offer logistics, launch opportunities and control of the spacecraft once in orbit.

The combined services will drive customer growth for both companies, which are looking to launch the Deke Space Communicator on Momentus’ next mission in February 2026, Barnett said. The spaceflight collaboration will support NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and commercial in-space missions, officials said.

The companies first began working together in March, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding, which Rood said outlined the intention to collaborate on a variety of activities. Barnett said Monday’s announcement is a sort of follow-on, seeing as Solstar and Momentus were well aligned in their missions.

“It was fairly early in our relationship, it’s a little bit like we’re dancing,” Rood said. “You dance a little further apart, get a little closer and pretty soon you’re cheek-to-cheek — in terms of business relationships — so that’s what we’re trying to do here in our partnership.”

The news follows Solstar’s announcement in September of a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract from NASA. The six-month agreement is aiding Solstar in completing preliminary designs of its lunar Wi-Fi technology.

Rood said Momentus aspires to be the “UPS of space,” where it can carry and deliver all sorts of supplies to space missions. This partnership with Solstar is a “perfect fit,” he added, considering the strategic vision of the companies and being able to enhance one another’s services.

“This is just the next step in many, many demonstrations (showing) the usefulness of our products and services in how it can help other companies to do the things they want to do,” Barnett said.