COO @AstroForge . I'm just here so I don't get fined.
Oakland, CA
Joined August 2010
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ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Raw material comes in. A spacecraft goes out.
Take a walk through our structures fabrication area with AstroForge's Head of Spacecraft Systems and Lead Fabrication Technician to get a behind-the-scenes look into how the team makes it happen.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Mining asteroids was always the headline, but before you get there, you gotta build spacecraft that can run themselves when nobody's home.
nitter.cf/AstroForge/status/2110…
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
First Principles is back — and it's no longer a podcast.
My goal is to explain hardware engineering in simple terms. But after ~25 episodes, it was clear that podcasting wasn't dense or visual enough…
So I went to a nuclear reactor, pulled out a control rod, and got it all on film.
The resulting video recently crossed 1 million views across platforms; it's been out almost two years, and it's still getting >1,000 views every day. Awesome format. Hard to pull off, equally hard to replicate. I was stoked and wanted to make more. But unfortunately for the show / very fortunately for my career & life, I got WAY more busy at Astranis at exactly that time... and creating fell by the wayside.
But we are back, baby! Next video drops *tomorrow*, and I just shot two more last week.
If you're building a hardware product that can teach a smart college freshman something about engineering — or want to nominate another startup for a feature — please reach out.
Can't wait for tomorrow. Video goes live at 5am Pacific.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Next year, we're going to launch a spacecraft that will be given zero commands from Earth after it separates from the launch vehicle.
The spacecraft will attempt to complete all of its mission objectives with no human operator in the loop.
Today we’re introducing Autonomy-1, powered by our spacecraft intelligence model, Solo. 🧵
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Today we’re announcing SPC Fund IV: $575M to help founders find their life’s work.
A decade of guiding founders through -1 to 0 brings @SPC to $2B in AUM and, more importantly, a 1200 member community of the world’s most talented technologists. We strongly believe that:
→ The person comes before the idea. At -1, generational founders are often busy reading, prototyping, discarding, and earning the right to their own conviction.
→ Ambition is social. The people you surround yourself with in the early days play a big part in inflecting your ambition.
→ Patience compounds. It is better to work on something you have deep conviction in rather than simply sprint at the first idea.
The quiet months we protect at the beginning have produced three funds in the top 10% of their vintages, and companies like @baseten, @GammaApp, @render, @GoodfireAI, @LumaLabsAI, and @profound. We are proud to have worked with all these founders in their -1 phase and beyond.
While we defined -1 to 0, we're no longer bound by it. Fund IV allows us to partner with companies well beyond launch.
We're doing this now because we've never seen a wider gap between what's possible and what's being attempted. Intelligence is abundant. The cost of trying ideas keeps falling, and problems that seemed insurmountable a few years ago are quickly becoming solvable.
To our members, to the founders who trusted us before anyone else did, and to the LPs who had conviction in our own -1 journey: thank you. This milestone belongs to you as much as to us.
To the builders looking to find your life’s work: let’s get started.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Our latest blog dives into why low-cost access to deep space matters for the future of computing.
What happens when the next limit to Moore’s Law isn’t inside the fab, but the supply of the material itself?
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Hans Koenigsmann is joining us on stage at AstroForge's first Demo Day on September 12.
Hans sits on our board and previously served as SpaceX's VP of Flight Reliability. He'll share lessons from developing and testing Falcon, and how we're applying them at AstroForge.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
It's our favorite day of the year: Asteroid Day!
Here's to the scientists devoting their careers to helping all of us understand the most fascinating rocks in the Solar System. Hope you enjoy this highlight reel as much as we did:
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
We built the spacecraft.
Last month, the major flight hardware of DeepSpace-2 came together on our integration floor for the first time.
This vehicle is headed millions of miles into deep space later this year to rendezvous with and image a near-Earth asteroid.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
SpaceX told the public markets that asteroid mining is part of the space economy.
Good. We agree.
They revolutionized the transportation layer. We're revolutionizing extraction, processing, and material return. The next industrial revolution won't be limited to Earth.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
DeepSpace-2 preflight testing continues! Each of our thrusters has its own gimbal in order to manage angular momentum, generate required torques, and hold stable through days-long burns. Next up, we're conducting a gimbal vibration test to ensure they can survive launch loads.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
Full test success!
Our team verified nominal operation of the thruster with our avionics and flight hardware at all planned power levels. We also successfully fired the thruster while gimbaling. Thanks to the @AerospaceCorp EP lab for hosting us for this test campaign.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
“More data, more better.” Our team is back at it with additional hot fire testing of our Hall-effect thrusters to continue to buy down risk ahead of launch later this year.
ChapmanSnowden retweeted
We fired a really cool rocket engine - and broke some records while we were at it. 🔥This Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust, and included a 300-second continuous burn, which is believed to have set the record for longest duration hot firing of an RDRE engine to date. Watch it fire:
youtu.be/DjnC8KvakKk
