Startup raises $44 million to deliver items from space

How it works: Los Angeles-based Inversion is developing small spacecraft (4 feet x 8 feet) that can store cargo in space for up to five years. The vehicles have targeted reentry capabilities, thus letting them "glide" the cargo to the ground destination.

• A test flight of a smaller craft is expected to occur within the next few months, atop a SpaceX rocket.

What they're saying: "There are times like natural disasters and some national security situations in which you need the thing at the location immediately," Inversion Space CEO Justin Fiaschetti explains. "You can prepare for that need maybe even years in advance, but not for the time or place."

Other investors include Lockheed Martin Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Y Combinator.

The bottom line: This is one of several orbital ideas that's been made more plausible by major reductions in launch costs.