Gilmour Space Technologies have achieved a super feat. The Australia and Singapore headquartered space startup that is working towards low cost access to space raised US$3.7 million from 500 startups and by Blackbird Ventures in a Series A funding round.  This ambitious space startup is gearing to make low costs space rockets a reality, much on the lines of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Of late, low cost space exploration technologies have become popular with technologists and billionaires investing money in this sector, popularly dubbed as startup universe. The latest tech billionaire who evinced an interest in kick-starting an Amazon style delivery to space is Jeff Bezos, promoter of Blue Origin.

Gilmour Space Technologies is eyeing a different pie in the sky – unlike SpaceX , the startup aims to crank out cheaper rockets that fly close to earth.  The company indicates that the design philosophy for inexpensive access to space begins with rocket designs that focus on cost rather than performance. The funding will go in developing and launching low-cost rockets designed to carry small satellites. Gilmour’s rockets are equipped with hybrid engines that use additively manufactured (or 3D printed) fuel.

According to news reports, Gilmour is a former investment banker,  and had bootstrapped the startup so far and is working towards an orbital launch in the next three years. The startup wants to make the lowest costing rocket and last year, reportedly, Gilmour Space launched the  first privately developed hybrid rocket to an altitude of 5 Km using 3D printed fuel. The startup has been in several talks with NASA. The company is also developing test labs for space life support systems, and high-fidelity space simulators and replicas.