U.S. robotics startup Icarus Robotics has begun preparations to send robots to the International Space Station. The news comes after the firm secured $6.1 million in an oversubscribed seed round a couple of months ago.
Icarus on Monday announced it had tapped Voyager Technologies in a new mission management contract to demonstrate their free-flying robotic platform, Joyride, in the space station.
The startup targets 2027 as the year to fly its robots to the state station. “The robots that we make this year will fly on the ISS next year and work alongside astronauts, doing the things that take up all their time,” Icarus co-founder Jamie Palmer precisely noted.
More space robots, more humans
The Joyride flight with Voyager, planned for early 2027, will test how well the robots can work in a live space station environment, according to the announcement. It will specifically focus on maneuverability, autonomous navigation, and operational performance.
Voyager will coordinate the robot launch, safety approvals, and other operational needs under the contract agreement.
The news of the mission management contract comes after Icarus raised $6.1 million in a seed round last September. The round was funded by Soma Capital and Xtal, among others, with a focus on building robots that handle a full range of space labor.
“I think space is the most exciting place to have robots,” Palmer said, explaining that robots can go out in space, to places that humans can’t survive and build infrastructures that would allow humans to inhabit. “[…] the more robots that we have in space, the more humans we can have in space.”
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk shares a similar idea and also wants to send Optimus to Mars.
Elon Musk plans to send Optimus robot to Mars
Last year, Musk said there is a chance Tesla’s Optimus explorer robots will fly aboard Starship to Mars in a mission slated to happen by the end of this year. However, he mentioned that a lot needs to go right for Optimus to fly in that mission.
“If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely,” Musk wrote in March.
Starship will hopefully depart for Mars at the end of next year with Optimus explorer robots! https://t.co/8dzlxzFg0h
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2025
The SpaceX chief engineer has repeatedly hyped Optimus for space use. He said in February that Optimus will be the first Von Neumann machine that can build civilization by itself on any viable planet, and even replicate itself using raw materials from space.
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