ALEXANDRIA, VA — August 18, 2026 — Polaris Semiconductor has been selected for the Sentinel Track of the 2026 Orbital Edge Accelerator, the startup accelerator led by the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory®. Polaris is one of eight early-stage companies chosen for the program’s second cohort following a highly competitive selection process; the Sentinel Track focuses on space technologies and dual-use applications. The ISS National Lab announced the cohort on August 12 — read the full announcement.
The Orbital Edge Accelerator provides selected startups with access to low Earth orbit for research and technology development, venture investment, and a program of tailored mentorship, strategic business coaching, and networking across the ISS National Lab ecosystem of investors, corporate partners, and commercialization specialists. The program culminates at a Demo Day in San Francisco this December, where each company will present its planned spaceflight project.
Polaris enters the program backed by investment partners Stellar Ventures, Context Ventures, and Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI) — partners whose involvement goes well beyond capital, bringing hands-on advisory support, industry networks, and deep experience building companies for the low Earth orbit economy.
Putting the quietest ELR family on the path to orbit
Polaris’s flight project centers on the BK30, the company’s highest-performance, lowest-noise Enhanced Linear Regulator (ELR) family. As the ISS National Lab’s announcement puts it, Polaris’s BK30 ELRs “use a proprietary photonic design to deliver ultra-clean, efficient, and compact DC power for space applications, including RF (radio frequency) systems, communications, sensors, and high-speed data systems, where electrical noise and size, weight, and power (SWaP) are critical constraints.”
Built around the premium LT3045 LDO core and Polaris’s patented monolithic optocouplers, the BK30 family delivers output noise below 1 µV RMS and power-supply rejection above 100 dB, with radiation tolerance to 200 krad(Si) — while reaching efficiencies 1.2× to more than 2× beyond a conventional linear regulator.
Through the accelerator, Polaris will work toward a planned on-orbit demonstration of the BK30 family through the ISS National Lab — the flight data that noise-sensitive space programs ask for before committing a design.
Building on a completed ISS flight-heritage campaign
The Orbital Edge project extends a maturation arc already underway. Polaris’s first space qualification experiment — general-purpose ELR devices flown on Aegis Aerospace’s MISSE-21 platform — launched to the ISS in October 2025 aboard JAXA’s HTV-X1 resupply mission, powered up on January 8, 2026, and completed in May 2026 after amassing more than 4,000 hours of on-orbit telemetry, with the devices under test performing as expected against a ground-control twin operating in Alexandria, VA.
“Our first ISS experiment put the ELR architecture through more than 4,000 hours on orbit; Orbital Edge is how our quietest family, the BK30, earns that same flight heritage — with investors and mentors alongside us who know exactly what it takes to turn a breakthrough device into a space product,” said Dr. Matthew Lumb, CEO of Polaris Semiconductor.
“This year’s selected companies reflect the incredible breadth of innovation emerging across the growing space economy,” said Ray Lugo, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space® (CASIS®), which manages the ISS National Lab, in the program announcement. “By providing access to low Earth orbit, capital, and deep industry expertise, the Orbital Edge Accelerator is helping startups turn bold concepts into scalable solutions.”
Polaris joins Sentinel Track selectees Aspect Aerospace, Mithril Space, and Vaxon Space, alongside the Disrupt Track cohort — Astrileux, Aura Life Science, Micro-gRx, and Tensr — focused on in-space manufacturing and space bio opportunities. More information on the program is available at orbitaledgeaccelerator.com.
Polaris Semiconductor thanks the ISS National Lab, the Orbital Edge Accelerator team, and investment partners Stellar Ventures, Context Ventures, and CIRI for their support and confidence.
About Polaris Semiconductor
Polaris Semiconductor designs and manufactures advanced DC voltage regulators optimized for ultra-low noise, compact integration, and high efficiency across aerospace, defense, instrumentation, and high-performance computing sectors. Based in Alexandria, VA, the company’s mission is to push the boundaries of what’s possible in analog power design.
More information: www.polarissemiconductor.com