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General Galactic
General Galactic is an El Segundo, California deep-tech startup building water-based propulsion and propellant-generation systems for spacecraft. Its Genesis platform splits water via electrolysis into hydrogen and oxygen, powering a multimode engine that pairs high-thrust chemical burns with efficient electric maneuvering. Founded in 2023 by Stanford-trained, ex-SpaceX and ex-Varda engineers, the company frames itself as the future 'energy and logistics company' of the solar system - and is applying the same electrolysis reactor tech on Earth to turn waste CO2 into fossil-free natural gas.
Starpath
Starpath is a Hawthorne, California space company building robotic factories that mine water ice from the Moon and refine it into rocket propellant. Founded in 2022 by former SpaceX engineers, the company designs fleets of autonomous mining rovers, on-site refineries, and liquid oxygen (LOX) storage systems to produce fuel where rockets actually need it - off Earth. The bet is simple and audacious: if you can make oxidizer on the Moon, you can make deep space travel affordable and turn humanity into a multi-planet species. Starpath raised a $12M seed round in 2024 co-led by 8VC and Fusion Fund.
Halen Mattison
Halen Mattison is the co-founder and CEO of General Galactic, an El Segundo space-propulsion company building Genesis, a water-fueled engine that aims to combine hydrazine-level thrust with xenon-level efficiency. A former SpaceX engineer who worked on propellant generation for Starship, he left after being told his Mars-fuel vision was too long-term, studied at Stanford, and started the company to build the propulsion and propellant infrastructure he believes will become a railroad to Mars. The company raised roughly $9.9M across pre-seed and seed rounds and first emerged converting CO2 into methane on Earth before sharpening its focus on high-agility spacecraft and water-based propulsion.