Seattle-based Interlune officially lifted the curtain today on its plans to build a robotic harvester that could extract helium-3 from moon dirt.
Rob Meyerson, a co-founder of the startup and former president of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, told GeekWire that an initial prospecting mission could be launched as early as 2026
“For the first time in history, harvesting natural resources from the moon is technologically and economically feasible,” Meyerson said today in a news release.
Today’s announcement confirmed previous reports that Interlune has raised $18 million in seed capital, including angel investments as well as more than $15 million in funding that was reported in a regulatory filing last month.
That funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture firm, with participation by other investors including Aurelia Foundry Fund, Gaingels, Liquid 2 Ventures, Shasta Ventures
Katelin Holloway, a founding partner of Seven Seven Six, will join Interlune’s board of directors.