TechCrunch by Aria Alamalhodaei 3/3/2023
Earlier this week, SpaceX released more information about the new argon Hall thrusters that will power the Starlink V2 mini satellites, an innovation that likely has much to do with the company’s acquisition of Swarm Technologies in 2021.
The deal, which closed in July 2021, was an extremely rare move for SpaceX. Swarm – which manufactures and operates ultra-small satellites for IoT devices – remains the company’s only acquisition in its 21-year history. It was also notable because, relatively speaking, Swarm was still quite a young company: when the deal closed, the startup had around 30 employees, 120 sandwich-sized satellites in orbit, and had only just gone live with its flagship product earlier that year.
But in the space industry, talent is king, and it seems that SpaceX has benefited enormously from absorbing Swarm’s team.
Swarm’s two cofounders, Sara Spangelo and Benjamin Longmier, were installed as senior directors of satellite engineering at SpaceX. Both are part of Starlink’s direct to cell team – which is aiming to leverage the Starlink constellation to bring satellite connectivity to smartphones around the world. But Longmier also states on his LinkedIn that he leads Starlink’s electric propulsion group – that is, the group responsible for engineering the new argon Hall thrusters announced this week.
More:
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/03/spacexs-acquisition-of-swarm-is-paying-off-with-new-starlink-thrusters/
