2024 Startups to Watch: Raven Space Systems accelerates its stratospheric rise with 3D printing for space exploration

Editor’s note: Startland News editors selected 10 Kansas City scaling businesses to spotlight for its annual Startups to Watch list. Now in its ninth year, this feature recognizes founders and startups that editors believe will make some of the biggest, most compelling news in the coming 12 months. The following is one of 2024’s companies.

Click here to view the full list of Startups to Watch — presented with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and independently produced by Startland News.

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After securing a Phase 2 contract with the U.S. Air Force within months of creating their product, Raven Space Systems co-founders Blake Herren and Ryan Cowdrey realized they had a groundbreaking concept: 3D printed reentry capsules for on-demand space cargo return.

“It’s a breakthrough in composite 3D printing,” said Herren.

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Elevator pitch: Raven Space Systems is developing 3D printed hypersonic flight testbed vehicles for the defense and space industries to accelerate the development of hypersonic materials and technologies.

• Founders: Blake Herren, Ryan Cowdrey
• Headquarters: Kansas City
• Founding year: 2020
• Current employee count: 2 full-time, 1 part-time
• Funding to date: $1.5 million
• Noteworthy funders: NASA, National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Air Force
• Noteworthy programs: AWS Space Accelerator, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Space Stream

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The duo had a busy 2023, deeping impact for their startup while participating in the AWS Space Accelerator and earning a winning spot among LaunchKC grants competition finalists. 

RELATED: Raven’s return-to-earth science is complete, founder says; a new space accelerator will help get the KCK-built tech off the ground

“(LaunchKC is) going to help us a lot with the $50,000 and free office space in KCMO. We’re excited to move to a place we found in the West Bottoms,” said Herren.

Raven Space Systems’ work within the AWS space accelerator earlier this year proved beneficial, he said, emphasizing the program gave the company a boost by establishing valuable connections.

“That was a good kickstart from where we were,” said Herren. “We were super early in our concept, and that helped us start building a network in the space industry more than anything.” 

The pandemic provided the duo time to brainstorm. In just a few months collaborating in Cowdrey’s garage during their graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma in 2021, they stumbled upon their groundbreaking invention.

“We shifted from building a 3D printer as a research tool and entirely focused on MAD3D (microwave-assisted-deposition) printing. We just saw that there was massive potential there,” said Herren. 

After receiving funding from NASA to print reentry capsule heat shields using MAD3D printing, they knew that the efficiency of their creation would be useful for aerospace manufacturing.

“The front face of a reentry capsule gets super hot and those materials are super difficult to manufacture since they’re made by hand, and the only way to automate that process is with 3D printing,” Herren explained.

Their MAD3D printing technology offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional aerospace manufacturing methods by also outperforming other thermal protection materials, like aluminum, at half the weight. 

2023 LaunchKC staff and winners; photo by Mark McDonald, Downtown Council

Blake Herron, Raven Space Systems, delivers his pitch in November 2023 at the LaunchKC grants competition celebration during Global Entrepreneurship Week-Kansas City; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Looking ahead, the team plans to scale up its operations in the coming year. Cowdrey expressed excitement about transitioning from a desktop proof-of-concept scale 3D printer to an industrial-scale, multi-axis 3D printer. 

“That just means a big robot arm with our printing process implemented on that robot. So we can print bigger things and more reliably print those things,” said Cowdrey. 

The move aims to facilitate production of materials, marking a significant step toward commercializing their product.

“It’s our MVP (minimum viable product),” explained Herren. “Right now, we’re still lab scale, we can’t sell the parts we print yet. So this thing will be able to print the parts that we can actually sell and have trials with customers.”

The most ambitious plan yet: a demonstration mission set for 2025.

One of their 3D-printed space capsules, designed to survive reentry from space, will be put to the test on a mission to go to the International Space Station.

“In 2025, our capsule will ride in the trunk of the Dragon capsule. The trunk burns up and then we’ll have our capsule come out during flight reentry,” said Herren. “Sensors and data transmitters will send us back the data to prove it is the first 3d printed object to survive reentry from space.”

The founders hinted at potentially streaming the event live or throwing a watch party for the coming demonstration mission.

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Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2024

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Startups to Watch is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

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