By Marie Ekberg Padilla and Marta Lillo
Editor’s update: As of March 2025, Far Capital has closed this EB-5 project because of the development with the Trump administration. This project is no longer available.
What do space exploration and the EB-5 visa have in common? Meet Starlab, an EB-5 project aiming to reshape the landscape of research in space. This groundbreaking initiative is led by Voyager Space, a Denver-based company dedicated to exploration and the development of technologies in new orbits.
“It’s an opportunity to change humanity,” said Matthew Kuta, president and co-founder of Voyager Space. A former fighter pilot with a lifelong passion for space exploration, Kuta is the driving force behind this ambitious endeavor. Voyager has partnered with Far Capital Partners to bring Starlab to the EB-5 market.
“This project will elevate EB-5 on Capitol Hill,” said Reed Weily, principal of Far Capital Partners. “This brings new awareness of the potential of the program in the U.S.”
HOW STARLAB WAS BORN
The idea for Starlab was seeded in 2017 when Kuta, working at Goldman Sachs, encountered a report about the trillion-dollar space industry.
“There were satellites, propulsion systems, and radios. So, I thought, ‘What if we were to build a replacement for the International Space Station? It was getting older and needed to be replaced. And U.S. policy has prioritized having a continuous astronaut in space 24/7, 365 days a year, for over 20 years now,’” he explained.
Alexandra Loveless, principal of Far Capital Partners, recognized the EB-5 program’s potential in this venture.
“This is a deal that will transform the industry,” she said.
A co-founder of the EB-5 Rural Alliance in 2015, Loveless played a pivotal role in reauthorizing the EB-5 program and negotiating rural investment incentives, including priority processing.
Kuta, who served as an F-15 fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, is also the co-founder of Space for Humanity, a nonprofit that has sent citizen astronauts into orbit on commercial space vehicles. He envisioned a shift from state-owned space endeavors to a privatized business model, similar to the privatization of cargo and crew transport after the Space Shuttle program ended.
NASA awarded Space Act Agreements (SAA) to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, tasking them with building and operating cargo vehicles for the International Space Station while NASA transitioned to a customer role. Anticipating this change, Kuta left Goldman Sachs in 2019 to found Voyager, “expecting the U.S. to privatize the replacement of ISS.”
“SAAs were set up to replace ISS, and we created the Starlab program in December 2021,” he said.
ON AN EB-5 MISSION IN SPACE
To build Starlab, Voyager partnered with leading aerospace and technology developers such as Airbus, MDA Space, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Palantir. This private ownership structure reflects the international makeup of the ISS, currently owned by space agencies from the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, and other nations.
The project is a public-private partnership under the U.S. government’s National Interest Program. It began with a NASA Space Act Agreement that has grown to over $200 million in funding, Kuta explained. Now, Voyager seeks to supplement NASA’s funding with $80 million in EB-5 capital, representing 40% of the $205 million development budget for its Huntsville, Alabama hub.
“We’ve been operating for three years, funding it out of our existing balance sheet and derisking it to feel comfortable with EB-5 capital,” Kuta said.
Allowing EB-5 investors into the project aligns with the program’s mission to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and foreign capital investment.
“We liked the global angle of EB-5 because it’s what Starlab represents,” Kuta said.
A UNIQUE EB-5 VENTURE
Because USCIS designated Starlab as a national interest project, the agency expedited review of its application, approving it within 60 days in September this year, Kuta said.
The project qualifies for the lower EB-5 investment threshold of $800,000 due to its location in a Targeted Employment Area.
“This is the first space station that will be owned by shareholders,” Kuta noted.
Currently in its final design stage, Starlab is slated to begin manufacturing next year. The station is set to launch into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Starship in 2028-2029 under an already signed contract, he said.
Starlab will operate in low-earth orbit, where 70% of all satellites reside, and promises to serve as a hub for both research and space tourism.
“We do a lot of work in the ISS right now, including missions and satellite deployment. We even own our airlock, the Bishop, permanently integrated into the ISS. Everything else is owned by a country,” Kuta said.
“Think of Starlab as a research hub with a built-in hotel orbiting 400 kilometers above your head,” he added.
THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION IS PRIVATE
The station’s low-earth orbit location is crucial for microgravity research, which is impossible to conduct on Earth. Pharmaceutical giant Merck is already conducting experiments on the ISS, and last year, NASA successfully 3D-printed and vascularized a meniscus in space.
“Imagine a scenario where every single time a skier blows out their knees skiing in the mountains, you take tissue from their knee, 3D-print it, vascularize it in space, and fly it down, and the insurance company will reimburse you for that,” Kuta said. “As we speak, billions of dollars have been spent on research, operations, and such things on the ISS.”
For Kuta, the real value of this EB-5 project lies in its ability to inspire human ingenuity.
“To me, it’s not so much about space, but humans, as our entire existence as a species on Earth have been as explorers,” he said.
Kuta envisions Starlab as the beginning of a new era where space travel becomes as routine as air travel.
“Back in time, the sailors never left the coastline behind until someone started to sail around the world, and now thousands of people are going on ocean cruises every year. The Wright brothers flew an airplane in 1903. No human on earth had ever flown on a plane until 120 years ago. Today, it’s normalized. Yuri Gagarin from the USSR became the first man in space 70 years ago. We have gone from zero people in space to hundreds. It may not seem that many but more than 10,000 people will go to space in our children’s lifetimes,” he said.
However, Kuta isn’t rushing to go to space himself. As a father of two, he said, “I would rather visit when Starlab is in space when my kids are out of the house.” For now, he’s content building the ISS in Lego with his daughters.