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Ready or not, Brigitte Mendler is on board to disrupt the space industry.
Monday, former Disney TV star and pop singer announced She announced that she has co-founded Northwood Space, a startup aimed at bringing satellite data back to Earth from space quickly and reliably.
“Vision is the data highway between Earth and space,” Mendler told CNBC.
According to Northwood Space’s website, the company is building infrastructure to “accelerate the mass adoption of satellite technology.”
Bridget Mendler.Mike Coppola Save the Children Getty Images
Mendler, who serves as CEO of Northwood, said the company collects data from space. It’s getting easier along so many different dimensions However, actually sending and receiving data to and from space is difficult.
“It’s difficult to find an access point to contact the satellite,” she told the outlet.
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Northwood is tackling this problem by focusing on ground stations, which are antennas that receive data from satellites, and working to mass-produce them. The company wants to build ground stations quickly, in days instead of months, so space companies don’t have to build their own ground stations or wait more than a year to install and build antennas. There is.
Just as companies rent server space from Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure to avoid the high costs associated with building their own servers, companies can rent server space from Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure without owning or building their own ground stations. We’ll be relying on Northwood to get data from space.
“For me, why the ground side is important is because it’s about actually communicating to people the impact of space,” Mendler told CNBC.
Related: Every company has the potential to join the space economy. Here’s how:
Mendler initially gained fame as a singer. Her song “Ready or Not,” which samples the 1996 Fugees classic, has been viewed 225 million times on YouTube to date. She also starred in the Disney Channel show “Good Luck Charlie.” She starred in ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ from 2010 to 2014 and from 2009 to 2012.
Following her career at Disney, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California in 2016 and a master’s degree from MIT in 2020. From 2020 until her 2024, she was working towards her Ph.D. According to her LinkedIn, she is an MIT graduate and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Mendler co-founded Northwood Space with her husband, Griffin Cleverley, who serves as chief technology officer, and Shaurya Luthra, head of software. The team has already raised $6.3 million in seed funding from venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund, and plans to first test its technology later this year.
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