AstroForge Raises $40 Million for 2025 Asteroid Landing Mission, Citing Environmental Benefits

AstroForge, a Huntington Beach, California-based startup, has secured an additional $40 million in Series A funding, bringing its total capital raised to $55 million. The company announced plans to launch its Vestri probe in 2025, aiming for the first-ever commercial landing and docking with a metallic near-Earth asteroid. This ambitious mission is part of AstroForge's strategy to pioneer off-world mining for platinum group metals (PGMs), with a stated goal to "Save our Planet - mine the universe."

The company, founded in January 2022 by Matt Gialich and Jose Acain, focuses on extracting valuable metals from asteroids rather than water, distinguishing its approach from previous ventures. AstroForge asserts that asteroid mining offers a more sustainable alternative to traditional terrestrial mining, which often involves deep excavations, high energy consumption, and significant environmental disruption. Concentrations of PGMs on asteroids are estimated to be up to 5,000 times greater than on Earth.

AstroForge's vision, as articulated in a recent tweet by the company, is to "make the economics close @PeterDiamandis." This alludes to the long-held belief by space advocates like Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the earlier asteroid mining firm Planetary Resources, that space resources can become economically viable and impactful. The company plans to use lasers and magnets for extraction, aiming to bring back only refined metals and leave waste in space, thereby reducing the carbon footprint compared to Earth-based mining.

The upcoming Vestri mission follows AstroForge's previous attempts, including the Brokkr-1 cubesat launched in April 2023, which faced communication issues, and the Odin mission launched in February 2025, designed to image a target asteroid. While Odin also encountered communication problems, AstroForge maintains these missions provide crucial learnings for future endeavors. The company became the first commercial entity to secure a deep space spectrum license from the FCC, underscoring its regulatory progress.

Despite the historical challenges faced by previous asteroid mining companies that struggled with high development costs and a lack of immediate market, AstroForge is betting on advancements in launch technology and its focused approach to make space mining a reality. The company believes that meeting the surging demand for critical minerals, projected to triple by 2050, can be achieved with significantly less environmental impact through off-Earth resource acquisition.