Published: June 29, 2016

Christine FanchiangThe Space Research Company, founded by aerospace PhD candidate Christine Fanchiang, and research associate Luis Zea placed second in a national pitch competition in Los Angeles. The RECESS National Pitch Competition was held in June in Los Angeles.

Fanchiang and Zea's company is a startup out of CU Boulder that focuses on small satellites for more affordable and efficient scientific testing in space.

The team also placed third in the CU Boulder New Venture Challenge competition in April.

Their company previously competed in the New Venture Challenge two years ago and did not make it to the championships. Competing this year, they made it to the championships and placed third. They then went on to a regional pitch competition where they beat out CU Denver and Denver University. On June 9, they took second place at the national pitch competition.

CNBC covered the event in "Move over, Mark Zuckerberg. These college start-ups want to be the next big thing." Fanchiang, who is working with NASA this summer, is in the video for much of the piece.