In February 2024, Bridgit Mendler surprised fans with an announcement that was out of this world — literally. The former actor took to X, formerly Twitter, to reveal the launch of her space startup called Northwood Space, which she co-founded with her husband, Griffin Cleverly, and colleague, Shaurya Luthra. “At @NorthwoodSpace we have our sights on building a data highway between earth and space. We are designing shared ground infrastructure from first principles to expand access to space,” she wrote, adding that the company has secured $6.3 million in funding and that they are looking to expand their team.
Mendler told CNBC that the company has been a long time coming, having started during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. “While everybody else was making their sourdough starters, we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot… and receiving data from [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] satellites,” she recalled. “For me, why the ground-side matters is because it actually is about bringing the impacts of space home to people.” Their eventual goal is to emulate the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, both of which offer server space to other companies, but in this case, they are looking to build satellite ground stations.
Does this mean Mendler’s ditching her music career entirely? Not quite! In response to a fan asking when she’ll release new music, the former Disney star hinted at what’s next: “ever heard of satellite radio?” she tweeted.
