A former Disney Channel star is betting big on space by investing in a neglected part of the industry: ground infrastructure.
Bridgit Mendler, 31, known for her roles in Wizards of Waverly Place and Good Luck Charlie, spoke at the TechCrunch Disruption event on Monday to talk about his startup that focuses on building critical communications between satellites and Earth.
Northwood Space aims to develop “a data highway between Earth and space,” providing much-needed connectivity to companies looking to launch into the final frontier.
“To really benefit people in the world, you have to invest in unsexy problems, like building a terrestrial network,” said the actress-turned-CEO.
‘Personally I think it’s pretty sexy and fun. It’s not at all what most people think of when they think of the space industry.’
California-based Northwood Space is developing ground stations for mass production and betting on its phased array-based system, Portal, which connected to its first satellite last month.
“Vision is a data highway between Earth and space,” he said.
“Space is getting easier in many different dimensions, but still, the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult.
“You are having difficulty finding an access point to contact your satellite.”
Bridgit Mendler, 31, known for her roles in Wizards of Waverly Place and Good Luck Charlie (pictured), spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt event on Monday to talk about her startup that focuses on building critical communications between satellites and the Earth.
Mednler has spent the last few years earning degrees from MIT, Southern University, and Harvard Law, where he is not working on his doctorate.
But after spending time in the Federal Communications Commission’s new Space Office, he “completely fell in love with space law.”
Northwood Space was founded in 2023, which focuses on companies with satellites in low Earth orbit but may not have the funds for advanced communications services.
Mendler co-founded the company with her husband Griffin Cleverly, who will serve as chief technology officer and chief software officer Shaurya Luthra.
‘Traditionally, when I wanted to use an antenna or a site, I first had to ask: ‘Do they have availability or are they already rented to everyone else in the world?’ Many times the most important sites were already rented,” Luthra said. CNBC.
Over the past four months, the company designed, built and tested its array system, compared to similar examples of phased array projects that took years to develop.
“Every aspect of this antenna, from the beamforming software to the custom electronics, was designed in-house to optimize efficiency,” according to Northwood Space.
“This will continue to be a critical aspect of Northwood’s manufacturing approach as we set out to replicate our phased array systems, called Portals, in deployments at new sites starting in 2025.”
California-based Northwood Space is developing ground stations for mass production and betting on its phased array-based system, Portal, which connected to its first satellite last month.
“I think there have been technological changes that have been difficult to realize until very recently,” Mendler said at the TechCrunch event.
“So for us, that was something we were tracking with Northwood.
‘There is a solution that we know we want to move towards; You know, exponential growth needs exponential technology.
“We need some kind of exponential technology on the ground to be able to accommodate the growth of the space industry.”
She revealed earlier this year that the company’s name comes from a New Hampshire lake where the idea for the company first emerged, while spending time with her family there during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While everyone else was preparing their sourdoughs, we were building antennas out of random junk we could find at Home Depot… and receiving data from the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellites,” Mendler said.
“For me, the importance of the terrain is because it’s really about bringing the impacts of space to people,” he added.
Cleverly added that there is now a “cololossal” amount of data traveling to and from satellites and that his company wants to make data delivery more efficient.
“We need an approach so that those companies can get the data reliably and in the quantities they need,” he said.
They want to be able to deliver these ground stations, “in a matter of days, not months”, and Luthra adds that it takes 18 months to install an antenna.
The company aims to be in the same vein as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft’s Azure, which provides server space so companies don’t have to build their own.
“It allows space companies to be much more responsive to emerging use cases and missions,” Cleverly added, and the company hopes to conduct its first test with an in-orbit spacecraft later this year.