SAN FRANCISCO – Northern California startup iMetalX Inc. emerged from stealth to announce a collaboration with Psionic, a Hampton, Virginia, company focused on autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments.
Pairing Psionic’s Space Navigation Dopper Lidar with iMetalX’s Asgard data and simulation platform offers customers the ability to create accurate 3D models of resident space objects (RSOs) within minutes, Nehal Gajjar, iMetalX founder and CEO, told SpaceNews.
“We’ve got high-fidelity, high-integrity data that provides a full RSO characterization and Psionic has the sensing capabilities,” Gajjar said. “Together, we can deliver high-speed, precise navigation for autonomous operations.”
“By combining Psionic’s sensing and navigation technologies with iMETALX’s battle management software, we’re giving operators the ability to understand, decide, and act in space faster than the threat can evolve,” Stephen Sandford, Psionic CEO and co-founder, said in a LinkedIn post. “Our combined technologies produce a new capability that is more than the sum of the parts. What we’re building is designed to plug directly into” U.S. Space Force and Space Development Agency architectures.
Hard Pivot
Before pivoting to develop software for space battle management, iMetalX was focused on 3D printing and metallurgy, winning a 2013 Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy contract for titanium production. The company also developed technologies for autonomous aircraft and underwater vehicles before pivoting toward the space sector after participating in the 2019 Hyperspace Challenge.
“We see that the budget has increased and there’s a potential for companies like ours to get funded,” Gajjar said.
To date, iMetalX has brought in $6.2 million in funding from military contracts, including AFWERX and SpaceWERX Small Business Innovation Research awards.
Now, iMetalX is focused on dynamic space operations and orbital warfare with Asgard, a data and simulation platform, and Thor, an artificial intelligence platform designed to create accurate 3D models.
In 2026, customers will begin using iMetalX products on the ground to create accurate computer-aided designs of RSOs. In 2027, iMetalX models also will be tested on the ground and in orbit on more than seven missions. “We go to 20 to 30 missions the following year,” Gajjar said.