Andreessen Horowitz · San Francisco · China · Russia · Calif · SpaceX · Fortune Technology
The startup is Castelion, based in Torrance, Calif. and working to produce and scale low-cost hypersonic missiles
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The term “hypersonic” may have a sci-fi ring to it, but the technology is real, and there are many reasons to pay attention.
Key facts
- In 2022, Hargis, Andrew Kreitz, and Sean Pitt—all previously SpaceX executives—cofounded Castelion to help close America’s hypersonics gap
- That’s the chasm that startup Castelion, valued at $13 billion, is betting it can close, even if the defense giants have so far fallen short
- Now, Castelion is valued at $13 billion and ranks easily among the most valuable defense upstarts in the world
- A hypersonic missile, definitionally, moves at least at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound; one could cross the U.S. coast to coast in under 45 minutes
Summary
For the last couple of months, when someone asked what the reporter was working on, the reporter would mention in passing “a hypersonics startup,” and almost always got stopped: Wait, roll that back. The startup is Castelion, based in Torrance, Calif. and working to produce and scale low-cost hypersonic missiles. The first thing to know about hypersonic missiles is that they’re air-rippingly fast. A hypersonic missile, definitionally, moves at least at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound; one could cross the U.S. coast to coast in under 45 minutes. The second thing to know about hypersonics is that China and Russia have them, and the U.S. doesn’t—not really.