The Death Spiral of a $250 Million Satellite Startup

In November 2020, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced that his city had entered into a “game-changing partnership” with a little-known aerospace startup called Theia Group Inc. Theia, based in Washington, DC, was planning to build a multibillion-dollar, 80-acre facility in Albuquerque to manufacture observation satellites it would then deploy and manage. The startup envisioned total extraterrestrial surveillance—a sprawling constellation of satellites capturing detailed shots of the entire Earth at a half-meter resolution on a near-continuous basis. Plenty of companies already sold satellite imaging services, but this promise of functionally real-time digital images set Theia apart. A promotional video made this promise: “Every tree on Earth: digital. Every truck: digital. Every whale: digital.”

Theia, named for the Greek goddess of light, was founded in 2015 by a former NASA engineer and successful chipmaker named Erlend Olson. Its headquarters was in the same building as the stately Willard InterContinental hotel, across from the White House. By the time of the New Mexico announcement, it had pulled together more than $250 million in funding and a well-credentialed team, and the Federal Communications Commission had licensed it to deploy 112 satellites in low-Earth orbit. It seemed on its way to world domination. Mayor Keller was thrilled that the company wanted to set up shop in Albuquerque, where Olson was born and raised. “This development could be a massive job creator for our city, providing a boost to our economy and securing our role in the booming space industry,” Keller said at the late 2020 press conference.