TransAstra

Recognized under Tier 2 — In-Situ Resource Utilization, TransAstra is a California-based company developing "optical mining" — using concentrated sunlight to volatilize and process material from asteroids and orbital debris — along with an inflatable Capture Bag to physically secure target objects. A roughly one-meter prototype bag was inflated and tested aboard the International Space Station in October 2025, and the company is preparing to test a full 10-meter version at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2026 under a $2.5 million NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract matched by private investment. In May 2026, TransAstra signed a two-year cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Air Force Academy covering optical mining and its Solar Forge processing concept. A first asteroid-retrieval mission is targeted for as early as 2028. TransAstra's approach addresses the front end of space resource utilization: capturing raw material before it can be processed into propellant or metal feedstock.