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Startup Spotlight: Novo Space builds modular computers for satellite constellations - RuntimeWire

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Why it matters

Novo Space is betting satellite manufacturers will replace bespoke flight computers with reusable modules. Its financing case depends on turning customer trials and discussions into high-volume constellation orders.

Co-founders Rodrigo Diez and Facundo Jorge started Novo Space to solve a problem they had encountered while designing space electronics: hardware built for one mission often could not be reused on the next.

Diez put an aerospace PhD at MIT on hold after earning a master's degree in engineering and management there. Jorge, an electronic engineering graduate of Argentina's ITBA, previously worked at Airbus-owned Surrey Satellite Technology, according to company materials. The pair founded Novo Space in Argentina and later moved its headquarters to Orlando while retaining operations in Buenos Aires and California.

Their objective is to make Novo Space's modular hardware a reusable computing layer for satellite manufacturers, particularly those building constellations. Instead of engineering and qualifying a new flight computer for each spacecraft, customers can configure processors, storage, graphics hardware, input-output modules and software as reusable building blocks.

Petrona configures systems from modular components

The Petrona configuration engine is designed to select and simulate Novo Space components as a mission architecture, producing documentation alongside the hardware configuration. Novo Space says the approach can reduce subsystem development from years to weeks, compared with a process it claims commonly takes three to five years.

The company's product catalog includes SpaceVPX single-board computers, mass-memory products, backplanes, FPGA modules, mechanical systems and complete subsystems. Its two-slot computer, for example, can carry either two independent boards or a redundant pair operating in hot or cold backup.

NASA's 2026 review of small-spacecraft avionics lists six Novo Space computing products. They include boards built around AMD's Zynq UltraScale+, Microchip's SmartFusion2 and PolarFire components, along with GPU modules using Nvidia Jetson hardware. The listing places the products within the commercial flight-computing market but does not independently substantiate Novo Space's reliability or deployment claims.

The founders patented a fault-tolerant architecture

Diez and Jorge are the named inventors on a U.S. patent for a disaggregated fault-tolerant backplane, granted in July 2024. The architecture distributes power switching and control functions across replaceable boards to limit single points of failure.

Novo Space says the design can reduce the size, weight and power requirements of high-reliability spacecraft computers by as much as 35%. The patent confirms the company's ownership of the architecture, while the performance figure remains a company claim.

Novo Space says its hardware has accumulated more than 300,000 operating hours in orbit without a failure. It associates its computers with AST SpaceMobile's direct-to-phone satellite network, an Artemis lunar rover, an unnamed private orbital telescope, a space-based solar-power mission and the U.S. Golden Dome defense program. The company does not identify the relevant spacecraft or hardware quantities for several of those programs.

The startup says it has 18 paying customers. Its public customer list includes Mitsubishi, Thales Alenia Space, Leonardo DRS, AST SpaceMobile, Maxar, BAE Systems, Spire, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Air Force, although the company does not disclose the scope of each relationship.

After entering the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator in 2019, Diez and Jorge spent the following years assembling flight heritage, a product catalog and customer relationships. Their next test is whether satellite manufacturers that use Novo Space hardware for individual spacecraft will standardize on its architecture across larger constellations.

Sources

Novo Space Novo Space

About Novo Space

Products Novo Space

Petrona Novo Space

Small Spacecraft Avionics NASA

Disaggregated fault tolerant backplane Google Patents

From the South to Space: How Novo Space Is Rewriting the Rules of Orbital Computing Draper Cygnus

Announcing the 2019 Class of Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator Techstars

Rodrigo Diez LinkedIn

Ideas en Marcha: Novo Space LinkedIn

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