Fortastra

Los Angeles-based space defense startup building autonomous escort satellites to defend critical orbital assets. Founded by SpaceX veteran and Hermeus co-founder Mike Smayda in 2025. Closed USD 8M seed round led by Upfront Ventures with participation from Bloomberg Beta, Generational Partners, Forward Deployed VC, and Wave Function Ventures. Developing maneuverable satellites with high delta-v propulsion for orbital security.

Fortastra has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Orbital Defense Satellite (Fortastra builds physical robots).

No. Fortastra is privately held and not publicly traded, per the DEPLOY registry.

On the DEPLOY registry, peer companies to Fortastra building in the same form factors include Impulse Space, AstroForge, Astrobotic Technology, China National Space Administration.

Mike Smayda is the ceo of Fortastra, per the DEPLOY registry.

Fortastra is a private company; its shares are not available on public markets, so retail investors cannot buy the stock today. It has raised $8M in disclosed funding.

Fortastra is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Fortastra has raised approximately $8M in disclosed funding on record in the DEPLOY registry.

Fortastra is privately held and venture-backed ($8M raised); ownership sits with its founders and private investors.

Fortastra is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.

On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, funding, hiring, media, safety, and IP signals, Fortastra ranks in roughly the top 78% of companies tracked by the registry.

Fortastra was founded in 2025.

Fortastra has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.