A Denver-based startup just emerged from stealth with a radical solution to space construction's biggest problem: size limits. Rendezvous Robotics raised $3 million to commercialize magnetic tiles that autonomously assemble into large structures in orbit, then reconfigure themselves on command.
Rendezvous Robotics is tackling one of spaceflight's most fundamental constraints: the rocket fairing. For decades, everything sent to orbit had to fold up small enough to fit inside a rocket's nose cone, making large structures like the $100 billion International Space Station require dozens of launches and years of assembly.
The Denver startup's solution sounds like science fiction but has already been tested in space. Their "tesserae" technology consists of dinner plate-sized magnetic tiles that launch in dense stacks, then autonomously find each other and dock to form larger structures. When mission requirements change, ground controllers can command the tiles to unlatch and reconfigure into entirely new arrangements.
"They find each other, they communicate, they arrange themselves, come together using magnetic docking and then latch together," co-founder and President Joe Landon told TechCrunch. "If you want to change that arrangement or replace something or upgrade, you can just send a command."
The technology emerged from MIT researcher Ariel Ekblaw's work at the Aurelia Institute before being spun out commercially by Landon, a former Lockheed Martin R&D executive, and CEO Phil Frank, a telecom veteran. The company formalized around Thanksgiving 2024 and has been quietly building partnerships while developing the technology.
Rendezvous just closed a $3 million pre-seed round led by Aurelia Foundry and 8090 Industries, with participation from ATX Venture Partners, Mana Ventures, and angel investors. The funding will accelerate hiring and help transition from tech demonstrations to operational missions.
Each tile contains its own processor, sensors, and battery - "pretty simple" devices designed for mass manufacturing at low cost, according to Frank. The current prototypes are roughly an inch thick, but the team envisions scaling to tiles as wide as rocket fairings themselves, enabling massive structures that would be impossible to launch as single pieces.
The startup is targeting missions where "physical scale is going to drive performance," Landon explained. That includes communications satellites needing large antenna apertures to connect with phones and cars on Earth, plus defense applications requiring sensitive detection systems with substantial solar arrays.
