EraDrive, a startup based in Palo Alto, has secured a $13 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. Under this agreement, the Space Force will procure the company’s Era-Node vision-based autonomy modules for future spacecraft.
The funding was provided through the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program. This initiative is designed to bypass traditional R&D-focused funding routes, allowing for the direct acquisition of new capabilities within a single fiscal year.
The Era-Node module is designed to support autonomous operations, including navigation in GPS-denied environments and space domain awareness. While the module has not yet flown in orbit, the underlying Era-Core software has been tested in at least seven experiments on NASA’s Starling satellites.
These flight tests demonstrated the software's ability to identify and track moving targets, as well as autonomously coordinate other satellites to maintain visual contact with space objects. EraDrive aims to integrate these modules into a broader sensor network to provide fleet-level intelligence.
