Jae Park's Unastella raises $24 million to chase Korean orbital launch
Altos Ventures led the Series B for the pre-revenue Seoul rocket maker, which says it flew UNA EXPRESS-I from Goheung in May 2025.
By Ryan Merket ยท
Why it matters
Unastella is trying to turn South Korea's government-led rocket know-how into a private launch business, but the $24 million round mainly buys time to prove orbital capability.
Jae Park's Unastella has raised a $24 million Series B led by Altos Ventures, bringing the Seoul rocket maker's total funding to $44 million, TechCrunch reported.
Park is not coming at rockets as a software founder with a space pitch. According to TechCrunch, he previously worked on combustion systems for South Korea's Nuri rocket, the country's first indigenously developed orbital launch vehicle, then worked at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin on European launch vehicle engines before returning to Korea and founding Unastella.
The new round, which TechCrunch said also included Korea Development Bank, Strong Ventures, Hana Ventures and others, gives Unastella more runway for an expensive next step: moving from suborbital demonstrations toward orbital launch. The valuation was not disclosed.
A small team, a hard market
Unastella is four years old and has 22 employees, according to TechCrunch. It is also not generating revenue yet, the report said, which makes the Series B less a growth round than a technical financing round. Park told TechCrunch that Unastella's near-term focus is validating its technology and business model through orbital launches, while crewed suborbital spaceflight remains a longer-term goal.
Unastella's own site says its end-to-end launch system spans Yeoju, Daejeon and Goheung, and that Unastella has domestic launch site access and launch authorization in Korea. That matters because launch startups do not just need engines. They need test stands, suppliers, logistics, regulatory clearance and a place to fly.
Unastella says its May 28, 2025 test launch took place in Bongnae-myeon, Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, using a 9.45-meter, 2-ton vehicle equipped with a 5-ton-thrust engine (company article). TechCrunch identified that rocket as UNA EXPRESS-I, a single-stage suborbital vehicle for microgravity missions. Unastella's site lists the vehicle as powered by LOX and Jet A-1 and carrying the VOLTA-52P pressure-fed engine.
The technical bet
Unastella is building around kerosene and liquid oxygen propulsion, a common pairing in launch, including on SpaceX's Falcon 9. TechCrunch reported that Unastella is using an electric motor pump rather than a traditional turbopump, a design choice that can reduce mechanical complexity but adds battery weight. Rocket Lab's Electron has already flight-validated electric pump-fed propulsion, but that comparison does not mean Unastella has proved comparable cadence, reliability or payload economics.
Unastella says it has demonstrated a 50 kN-class electric pump-fed engine (company site). Its commercial menu points to two staged ambitions: ARC 100, a suborbital microgravity service for flights around 100 kilometers, and APEX 400S, a dedicated low Earth orbit service for 400 kg-class satellites to 400 km sun-synchronous orbit.
The next proof point is more specific than the long-term vision. TechCrunch said Unastella is targeting UNA EXPRESS-II for later in 2026, with a planned flight to around 100 kilometers.
Korea's private launch gap
The timing is not accidental. TechCrunch frames Unastella against a broader Asian launch buildout in Australia, India, Japan and South Korea. In Korea, Hanwha Aerospace has taken over the government-built Nuri rocket after a technology transfer from KARI (press release), Innospace has gone public and conducted a suborbital launch, and Perigee Aerospace is developing its Blue Whale rocket. TechCrunch said none of the South Korean players has yet achieved a commercial orbital launch.
That is the opening Park is financing: not just another small-launch pitch, but a bid to make orbital access a domestic Korean capability. The round does not prove Unastella can get there. It does show investors are willing to fund the next set of tests before Unastella has revenue, customers in public view, or an orbital flight on the board.