Unastella, the home-based South Korean rocket startup, has raised $24 million

As SpaceX counts down to what could be the largest initial public offering in history, the race to build the next generation of launch vehicles is heating up. Asia wants to join. Startups in Australia, India, Japan and South Korea are racing to establish themselves in a market long dominated by the United States and China.

One of them is Unastella, a four-year-old South Korean startup, which just closed a $24 million Series B, bringing its total funding to $44 million. The company launched its own Una Express-I rocket from South Korean soil in May 2025.

The Seoul-based rocket startup is developing its own launch vehicles and engines, with an initial focus on small satellite launch services. Unastella’s near-term focus is to validate its technology and business model through orbital launches, with manned suborbital spaceflight a long-term goal, Unastella founder and CEO Jay Park told TechCrunch.

Unastella uses a kerosene and liquid oxygen propulsion system, one of the most proven combinations in rocket history, which is also used by SpaceX’s Falcon series. Furthermore, the company has replaced the conventional turbopump with an electric motor pump, a simpler and cheaper alternative that has already been validated by Rocket Lab in flight.

The trade-off is payload. Electric motor pumps are heavier, which means less space for satellites. But Park said this was a deliberate decision.

“We are not a research and development group trying to build the most impressive rocket,” Park said. “We are a commercial launch company trying to get to market quickly.”

Park also points out that Unastella handles everything in-house, such as design, manufacturing, ground operations and flight data. Park said the launch of UNA EXPRESS-I last year was the first real test of the entire system from start to finish.

The CEO has spent his entire career working on rocket engines. Before founding Onastella, Park worked on the combustion systems for Korea’s Nori rocket – the country’s first indigenously developed orbital launch vehicle, built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). He then moved to the German Aerospace Center in Berlin to work on engines for European launch vehicles, then returned to Korea to join another rocket startup before deciding to build his own engine.

Unastella hasn’t generated revenue yet, but investors appear to be supportive of the startup’s roadmap. The Series B was led by Altos Ventures, and was joined by Korea Development Bank, Strong Ventures, and Hana Ventures, among others.

UNA EXPRESS-II, targeted for later this year, is a launch park already under construction. Reaching 100 kilometers will mark a major milestone, which is believed to open the door to partnerships with major aerospace and defense companies in South Korea.

The 22-person startup has already laid the foundation and developed corporate relationships. The Korea National Space Agency transferred components aboard UNA EXPRESS-I, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute transferred electric motor pump technology to the company.

Onastella is not alone in the race to capitalize on the global space launch market, which was worth about $15 billion in 2023. By 2030, it is expected to nearly triple to $41 billion, according to Grand View Research.

The commercial launch sector in South Korea is still in its early stages, but the field is already taking shape.

Hanwha Aerospace, the country’s largest defense group, took over the government-built Nori missile last year after acquiring full technology rights from KARI. Two startups are also competing: Innospace, which went public on the Korean Stock Exchange and conducted a suborbital launch, and Perigee Aerospace, which is developing a Blue Whale rocket. None have yet achieved commercial orbital launch. South Korea’s space agency KASA, founded in 2024, has allocated $266 million over seven years to build launch infrastructure, a sign that the government is betting on the private sector to take the lead.

The competition extends far beyond Korea. In Asia, China leads the pack: Galactic Energy, LandSpace, and iSpace have all conducted multiple launches. Japan’s H3 rocket, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Corporation, has completed its first successful launch in 2024, while startup Interstellar Technologies is building its own small vehicle. In Australia, Gilmour Space attempted its first orbital launch this year. Then there is Rocket Lab – founded in New Zealand, and now listed on the Nasdaq – which remains the only company founded in Asia to have built a commercially viable launch business.