The Luxembourg startup is taking a deliberately earth-first approach: proving radio-frequency wireless power transmission on the ground before scaling to orbit. Its CTO ran ESA’s Solaris SBSP initiative until the agency paused it in 2024. Daphni led the pre-seed round. The person best placed to know why the European Space Agency decided not to press ahead with its space-based solar power programme is now building one privately. Dr Sanjay Vijendran was one of the main leaders of ESA’s Solaris initiative, a three-year R&D programme launched in 2022 to prepare Europe for space-based solar power. When ESA concluded in August 2024 that the technology was not yet mature enough to advance to a demonstration mission, Vijendran left to co-found TerraSpark .  This week the Luxembourg startup announced it has raised over €5 million in a pre-seed round, backed by Paris-based VC Daphni alongside Sake Bosch, better ventures, Hans(wo)men Group, the Luxembourg Business Angel Network, and Karaoke Club.…