Citra Space Corp, a space technology company focused on space object identification (SOI), announced the close of a $15 million Series A financing round led by Washington Harbour Partners, with participation from Industrious Ventures, Reliable Properties, and existing investors including Scout VC, Squadra Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Flex Capital.
The funding will support the continued development and deployment of Citra’s technology across both commercial and government customers, as the company works to address growing challenges in identifying and understanding objects in orbit.
Founded in 2024 by former U.S. Space Force and Air Force officers, Citra Space Corp is building systems designed to improve how object identity is established and maintained in space. The founding team brings experience from operational environments where uncertainty around object identity is common and decisions must often be made with incomplete data.
There are now more than 35,000 objects orbiting Earth across civil and national security missions. While tracking capabilities have improved significantly, approximately 10,000 of these objects still lack sufficient contextual identification, creating what the company describes as an identification gap. Even when objects are known, determining their intent, behavior, and potential threat remains a largely unresolved challenge, referred to as the characterization gap.
Citra’s approach focuses on integrating both space-based and ground-based data sources to address these issues. The company’s platform merges multiple independent datasets to generate persistent “fingerprints” of objects over time, enabling more consistent and defensible identification and characterization of on-orbit activity.
Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Citra Space Corp is developing its technology to support mission-critical decision-making in increasingly complex and contested space environments.
KEY QUOTES:
“Operators today can see more objects in orbit than ever before, but understanding what those objects are and what they’re doing is still a major challenge. The real problem is understanding the capabilities, behavioral patterns, and intent of on-orbit systems. The U.S. Space Force has built a strong foundation for space domain awareness, and this funding allows us to accelerate delivering working products that help operators get more out of that data.”
Tom “Pumper” Nichols, CEO and Co-Founder, Citra Space Corp
“Characterization is one of the least developed pieces of space domain awareness. Washington Harbour Partners is proud to invest in Citra’s thoughtful, data-driven approach to a problem that has real operational consequences and expand our leadership in supporting organizations helping the nation expand our space superiority. By understanding what objects in space are, and how they behave – and why – Citra is bringing mission-critical knowledge to operators.”
Mina Faltas, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Washington Harbour Partners
