Bridgit Mendler’s Northwood Space Contributes to NASA

Bridgit Mendler is known to many as a former actress and singer—especially for her lead role on Good Luck Charlie (2010–2014). However, she has taken a surprising and ambitious turn into the space and aerospace sector: co-founding and becoming CEO of the startup Northwood Space, which aims to modernize how data is transferred between Earth and space.

Photo: NASA

Her work intersects space-industry infrastructure in ways that might serve NASA and other national/international space programs.

Early in life, Mendler achieved prominence as a Disney Channel actress and singer-songwriter. After her TV career, she pursued higher education: she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, earning a Master’s and working toward a PhD, and also enrolled at Harvard Law School, earning a JD in 2024.

In February 2024, Mendler announced the launch of Northwood Space (with initial seed funding of about $6.3 million). She says her motivation came during the pandemic. Over the pandemic, she and her husband were building antennas and receiving data from NOAA satellites and thinking, “This infrastructure is ripe for an overhaul.”

Mendler’s contribution is Northwood Space’s ambition, which is to redesign and scale ground-station infrastructure for satellites and space-based data, which is a critical but under-discussed component of space systems. While Northwood is still in its growth phase, its focus on infrastructure complements NASA’s interest in reducing cost, increasing data throughput, and supporting an ever-growing fleet of satellites (both NASA’s and commercial partners).

Although Mendler isn’t working for NASA, she is making important contributions on this project. More specifically, her contributions help with the following: building a “data highway” between Earth and space, helping satellites send tons of data down to Earth more efficiently, her startup’s mission intersects with the kind of infrastructure NASA uses and relies on for space communications and ground-stations, and the infrastructure improvements she is pursuing have meaningful downstream relevance to NASA’s operational and strategic goals.

Mendler’s journey from Disney Channel star to space-startup CEO is extraordinary. Her story also underscores the power of 'interdisciplinary trajectories' (from arts and media to STEM), the importance of infrastructure innovation, and the value of diversifying who builds the future of space.

By creating flexible, scalable ground stations and the tech to manage the growing data between Earth and space, Mendler and her company are helping NASA’s bigger mission—exploring space, collecting data, and supporting the next generation of space partners—even if it’s in a more behind-the-scenes way.