The Albany Gazette - Financing the Space Economy at America's 250th: American DeepTech Applauds "Moonfra" Financing; the Birth of US Sovereign Grade Space Leverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. / ACCESS Newswire / July 2, 2026 / As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th Independence Day, American DeepTech formally commends the White House, NASA, and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and bipartisan Congress for creating and supporting the structural architecture and early sovereign grade capital for a new asset class: Moonfra Capital Financing. "Moonfra" is the term American DeepTech has previously coined for Moon Infrastructure and related technologies, and the leverage that expansion of these sectors demands. The SBA and NASA SBIC initiative will transform capital available to build the space economy, beyond equity and grants to access to leverage scale possible through expanded access to debt financing for space innovation.

Capitalizing the Birth of US Sovereign Grade Space Leverage: By aligning the newly enacted and bipartisan supported Investing in All of America Act with the SBA-NASA Initiative, the administration is establishing the financial mechanisms necessary to demonstrate early and scalable leverage models that have potential to take a projected $20 billion lunar base to much higher levels of investment and terrestrial benefit. This historic framework allows institutional private capital to be amplified by terrestrial federal leverage-potentially unlocking future exponential funding for the space industrial base.

The Push for 'Moonfra' Financing The American DeepTech team has for years called for the expansion of terrestrial financial tools such as leverage to build out the space economy in public events such as Space Disruptors Days in 2024 and 2025 while Co-Chairing the US Space Economy interagency and formerly representing NASA and SBA. In those roles the team highlighted opportunity for expansion for a wide range of terrestrial tools for US economic leadership in space including: leverage, loan guarantees, project finance, project bonds and tax credits. The firm reiterated the call for leverage and Moonfra finance in March of 2026.

The team now applauds SBA and NASA for their catalytic action as the early leaders in this field. This represents both executive branch and Congressional bipartisan support of Americans coming together beyond ideas, to real action and multi-billion $ access, and resources. SBA and NASA are now going beyond vision to put sovereign grade resources and value into the market to create new asset classes and in-space financial tools. When you have a leading agency in supporting business and a leading agency in space come together to support the private sector- things could move really quickly.

Transitioning to Debt Capital "This is the birth of US Sovereign Grade Space and Moonfra Financing with the SBA-NASA leverage initiative," said Dr. Anna Brady-Estevez, Founding and Managing Partner of American DeepTech. "We have long needed to move beyond the equity and government funding primary model. Just as people take out mortgages to buy a home, terrestrial build out of infrastructure and manufacturing requires debt to scale equity capital. Debt capital at scale for space, however, has been underdeveloped. SBA and NASA have emerged as early leaders in building out this new financial model at sovereign grade and scale".

The Multiplier Effect of Terrestrial Leverage While today's SBA leverage has often been at 2X to 3X equity, the potential here in the future is to achieve terrestrial debt to equity ratios. If for instance financial institutions go on to provide terrestrial leverage common in infrastructure of 5 to 1, NASA's $20B moon base could catalyze a $100B+ build, even before the leverage of additional equity capital that the private sector can infuse. "This is a major move by the White House, SBA, NASA and bipartisan Congress to amplify American leadership in the Space economy and on the moon. If we have fast followers from leading financial institutions provide additional leverage access, we will forge the next generation of deep tech National Champions. The future of humanity will be fundamentally different."

The Terrestrial Dividend: Earthly Breakthroughs from Space Infrastructure While the financial architecture is being built on Earth, the immediate beneficiaries of a robust lunar and orbital industrial base will be terrestrial industries, driving unprecedented breakthroughs in medicine, materials, and energy.

"Microgravity enables a higher speed of iteration on biomedical research and treatment development than terrestrial options," noted Dr. Donna Roberts, Chief Scientist of American DeepTech and former Deputy Chief Scientist for the ISS National Lab. "As an example, we have invested in a company getting data on tumor progression within days on the ISS that would likely take 1 to 9 years terrestrially. The speed of learning and pivoting in microgravity-both in LEO and on the Moon-is unmatched, with the potential to lead to much faster cures. That said, in prior years the access to microgravity has been limited. Right now there are a number of things that are converging to accelerate and amplify the R&D and manufacturing: low cost launch, AI, automation, on-demand return, and of course this new leverage based initiative by SBA and NASA."

This acceleration extends directly into advanced manufacturing and sovereign resource security. "Microgravity fundamentally alters the physics of material synthesis, unlocking advanced atomic structures and uniform alloys that are physically impossible to create under Earth's gravity," said Larry Forsley, American DeepTech's nuclear and fusion lead. "By pairing these unique manufacturing conditions with the Moon's abundant reserves of rare earth minerals, there is potential to accelerate the development timeline for next-generation energy and solid-state systems by decades."

The logistics of scaling this off-world economy will benefit from the private sector engagement and abundant resources in space. Len Dudzinski, Chief Technology Officer of American DeepTech and former CTO of NASA Planetary Systems shared, "Private enterprise is proving to be a rich source of innovation, driven by a commercialization perspective, which is additive to the work of NASA and the other government agencies. Driven by commercialization, a young SpaceX transformed the cost of launch by innovating a reusable rocket. When we look forward we see so many areas of growth and opportunity. One highlight is the potential for private innovation in, specifically in nuclear and emerging technologies, synergistically with in-space in-situ resource production. It is notable that valuable rare earth minerals are abundant on the moon, where persistent power is a key enabler for extraction. Commercial efforts are underway to provide that power- which then becomes available to support the nation's space exploration goals.

Securing these supply chains is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. "Building out this terrestrial-facing space infrastructure is a national security and economic imperative," added David Beck, former U.S. Space Force Branch Chief. "By establishing resilient industrial pipelines and manufacturing off-planet, we secure the vital supply chains of the next century and ensure that American commercial innovators remain the world's technology champions."

Responsible Capital and Taxpayer Value When citizens hear about new spend they may wonder where it is coming from. The SBA's SBIC program, which has put forth approximately $139B since its inception in 1958 and a current $53B active portfolio. This capital currently, however, is not coming from the taxpayers, but rather a careful and high performing program at the SBA. Current capital comes from repayment of debt from prior SBIC prior awardees.

The Historical Impact of SBA and SBIR Programs SBA's capital leadership, however, goes even beyond the SBA's Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) SBIC program, including the long-term impact of the SBIR/STTR programs across 11 federal agencies. The SBIR program catalyzes small businesses, often in their early days, and a number of these companies go on to high growth. Even just the top 1000 publicly visible SBIR awardees have achieved a combined $1.6T in market cap (per SBA's award website and Pitchbook). This snapshot of $1.6T, should be taken as just the tip of the iceberg as it is just a small percentage of the portfolio and broader company value catalyzed is often far higher than the numbers presented, Brady-Estevez notes.

As an example, the American DeepTech team has been fortunate to have exposure both primary and secondary to great American companies like SpaceX both in firm's portfolio and our team's portfolios at prior institutions. One example of such direct prior institutional exposure was serving as Program Director for the National Science Foundation's SBIR grant based funding of Swarm, SpaceX's first acquisition. Swarm's advanced cube satellites made key contributions to SpaceX's direct to cell and internet services. Swarm is added to the SBA SBIR numbers as the Pitchbook estimated $525M at the time of acquisition, not as any larger percentage of contributions to SpaceX businesses which have exceeded multi-trillion dollar valuations this month. As context, SpaceX broader internet-based revenue was ~69% of total sales in Q1 of 2026, and a profitable segment.

Acknowledging the Silent Heroes The American DeepTech team also had opportunity to work with the exceptional and hard-working teams at both the SBA and NASA in their former roles. "When so many of these federal workers go into government it is to serve the country and they take 'The Oath'. Many of the people on these teams building these initiatives are selfless. They have often served for years and they seek no recognition and don't have financial upside in what they build. While NASA is of course known for its Space leadership, SBA has also been an extremely space forward agency who has also catalyzed the US Space economy over many years. These silent heroes are often not acknowledged for how much they do to serve the public and help others succeed, often backing entrepreneurs and small businesses before anyone else will take a chance or extend opportunity. They are a number of the otherwise hidden figures who are actively building the future of humanity off planet," Anna added.

Building upon Artemis: Scaling a $20 Billion Moon Base to Several Multiples of Capital These new initiatives build upon the Artemis vision and the success of Artemis II astronauts whom President Trump recently congratulated heartily, "Your mission paves the way for America's return to the lunar surface. Very soon, we're going all out... We'll plant our flag once again, and this time we won't just leave footprints. We'll establish a permanent presence on the Moon, and we'll push on to Mars."

"Administrator Jared Isaacman has brought a commercial-speed execution model to NASA, and Administrator Kelly Loeffler has aggressively retooled the SBA to back critical technologies on and off planet," Brady-Estevez added. "When you couple NASA's mission requirements with the SBA's expanded leverage limits and bonus leverage incentives, you create a resilient foundation for sovereign space capability. You also have a bipartisan Congress supporting this and bringing Americans across the political spectrum to build the future together. We are no longer just exploring; we are financing the permanent expansion of the American economy into the solar system."

American DeepTech's Commitment and Portfolio American DeepTech has been deploying its own institutional-grade investment vehicles into space economy and Moonfra frameworks, working to bridge the gap between deep-tech innovators and the robust federal leverage models now available to build the future Moon Base. The firm has to date invested in a wide range of Space investments from the early to late stages across development of lunar resource extraction, biomedicines, advanced propulsion, energy technologies, on-demand return, and private late-stage investment (including SpaceX secondary investment) among other areas.

About American DeepTech American DeepTech is a deep technology & AI firm highly active in space. The firm is dedicated to scaling sovereign capabilities, advanced space infrastructure ("Moonfra"), and breakthrough physical sciences and deep tech advantages. The firm structures institutional-grade vehicles and funds to commercialize high-frontier technologies and secure American leadership in the next century of economic leadership on and off planet.

Team's broader space leadership includes:

• Dr. Anna Brady-Estevez, Founding and Managing Partner, former Senior Advisor and (Venture) Partner to the SBA's Office of Innovation and Investments, and Former Program Director at the National Science Foundation.

• Dr. Donna Roberts, Chief Science Officer, has previously served as the Deputy Chief Scientist for the International Space Station, a $150B+ in-space asset with the highest levels of research in microgravity to date.

• Leonard Dudzinski, Chief Technology Officer, has previously served as the CTO of the NASA Planetary Systems Division ($3B+ annual budget), where he served in critical roles helping with the build out of NASA's nuclear strategy as well as instrumentation and sensing relevant to the moon.

• David Beck, Advisor, formerly served as US Space Force Branch Chief active in the build out of the US Air Force and Space Force's deca-billion-dollar-plus annual industrial base.

• Larry Forsley has been active in 50+ years of nuclear and fusion research and development, including lattice confinement fusion work for NASA.

Contact: American DeepTech at [email protected]. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities.

SOURCE: American DeepTech

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(M.Scott--TAG)