AstroForge

AstroForge

Company type	Private
Industry	Aerospace, Space mining
Founded	January 10, 2022 (2022-01-10)
Founder	Matthew Gialich, Jose Acain
Headquarters	Huntington Beach , United States
Area served	Space mining
Key people	Matthew Gialich, Jose Acain
Products	Asteroid mining technologies, spacecraft (Brokkr-1, Odin, Vestri)
Number of employees	20+ (2023)

AstroForge is an aerospace firm located in Huntington Beach, California, specializing in the development of asteroid mining technologies with the ambition of becoming the pioneering commercial company to extract resources from asteroids. To date, no private entity has successfully mined asteroids, although governmental space missions have retrieved samples from these celestial bodies.

History

Established on January 10, 2022, by Matthew Gialich and Jose Acain, AstroForge secured approximately $13 million in initial funding aimed at advancing technologies for processing materials obtained from asteroids. By the year 2023, the organization had expanded its workforce to more than twenty employees.

In April 2023, AstroForge initiated its inaugural mission via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter-7 rideshare. The 6U cubesat Brokkr-1, constructed by OrbAstro, was deployed into Low Earth Orbit to experiment with refining precious metals such as platinum derived from asteroid-like substances. However, the mission was unsuccessful due to communication failures. On October 18, 2023, the company achieved a successful test of the propulsion system intended for their subsequent spacecraft, Odin.

The Odin mission launched on February 27, 2025, as part of a rideshare on the IM-2 lunar endeavor but encountered failure attributed to ground station and communication complications.

Goals

AstroForge’s objective is to mine, process, and commercialize platinum-group metals (PGMs) extracted from near-Earth M-type asteroids. These asteroids generally range between 20 and 300 meters in diameter and constitute roughly 3-5% of all Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs). The company has pinpointed five candidate asteroids suitable for mining operations. Unlike competitors concentrating on harvesting water ice for interplanetary fuel infrastructure, AstroForge focuses on the established market demand for PGMs rather than speculative fuel resources.

While robotic missions such as JAXA’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, along with NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, have successfully returned samples from asteroids—primarily targeting C-type asteroids—commercial extraction efforts from M-type asteroids have yet to be realized.

Spacecraft

AstroForge assigns names to its spacecraft inspired by characters from Norse mythology.

Brokkr-1

Brokkr-1 was AstroForge’s first orbital spacecraft—a 6U cubesat manufactured by British company OrbAstro—designed to validate metal extraction techniques by vaporizing simulated asteroid material and separating metals.

Launched on April 15, 2023 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-7 rocket, Brokkr-1 faced deployment difficulties. Its magnetic refining apparatus interfered with the attitude control system, leading to issues with solar panel deployment and antenna alignment. Although this interference was identified before launch, it was accepted to avoid a nine-month delay and increased expenses.

Post-launch, AstroForge encountered challenges locating Brokkr-1 among approximately fifty other satellites but collaborated with space organizations possessing ground station capabilities to assist in identification. On May 5, 2023, reception of telemetry confirmed that despite earlier problems, the satellite remained functional.

Odin (Brokkr-2)

The second demonstration spacecraft from AstroForge—initially named Brokkr-2 and subsequently renamed Odin—was also built by OrbAstro utilizing a larger satellite bus weighing about 100 kilograms and representing a significant investment by the company. Odin’s mission involved conducting a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid to analyze its metallic content. Launched as part of a rideshare on the IM-2 lunar mission on February 27, 2025, Odin’s satellite bus had been reconstructed internally after failing vibration tests. On January 29, 2025, AstroForge announced that Odin would target near-Earth object , chosen for its anticipated metallic composition and favorable proximity during a December 2025 encounter. Following launch, Odin experienced communication disruptions; on March 6, 2025, AstroForge declared the spacecraft lost due to ground station malfunctions despite intermittent signals received through an AMSAT amateur radio operator based in Germany.

Vestri

Vestri, the third demonstration vehicle, is designed to rendezvous with the specified metallic asteroid and perform a landing or docking maneuver. Its launch is planned aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 mission, anticipated to take place during the early part of 2026.