posted 09-13-2022 09:04 AM               

Astrobotic Acquires Masten Space Systems

With the acquisition, Astrobotic adds a heritage of over 600 vertical test flights and landings, propulsion testing and development, and a portfolio of lunar technologies to its existing business.

Astrobotic announces today (Sept. 13) the acquisition of Masten Space Systems, a pioneering space technologies company with industry-unique suborbital payload testing services, which include a heritage of more than 600 vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) rocket flights. The acquisition also includes Masten's portfolio of advanced space technology development programs advanced over 18 years of operations.

Astrobotic and Masten's combined workforce of more than 200 employees will continue operations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The combined company will maintain suborbital flight operations at Masten's test sites at Mojave, with plans to continue offering the space industry a key testing site for hot fire rocket tests.

"Masten's suborbital launch vehicles and propulsion test centers are national assets for the space industry. We are excited to operate and expand these services for companies, governments, and space agencies internationally," said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton. "Bringing these services to Astrobotic is a natural fit for our mission to make space accessible to the world."

Masten established itself as a leader in VTVL innovation in 2009 when it won first prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander XCHALLENGE. That win helped lay the foundation for Masten's one-of-a-kind VTVL flight program, which has demonstrated industry-leading landing precision and rapid reusability over its 600+ VTVL flights to date. Since 2011, Masten has served NASA's Flight Opportunities Program, providing flights to NASA-sponsored payloads to prepare them for spaceflight. Masten rockets have flown payloads for current and future lunar and interplanetary missions, including Astrobotic's OPAL terrain relative navigation system, Honeybee Robotics' PlanetVac system, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's lander vision system for the Mars Curiosity mission.

At Astrobotic, the former Masten team will continue to offer and develop its unique test capabilities, including providing VTVL test flights for commercial and government customers. Astrobotic plans to expand these test flight offerings with the development of the next-generation Xogdor rocket, which will offer higher altitudes, longer missions, and supersonic flight for suborbital payload testing.

Beyond VTVL flights, Masten's propulsion test stands will advance rocket technology for both external customers as well as Astrobotic departments. This testing infrastructure, which ranges from single element injector testing to 25,000 pound thrust rocket engine testing to landing simulation testing will provide a variety of hot fire solutions to support Astrobotic and its customers. Astrobotic will also continue to advance Masten's space technology portfolio, which includes innovations in lunar night survival, instant landing pads construction, lunar water mining technology, and lunar infrastructure construction technologies. These new technologies are highly complementary to Astrobotic's landers, rovers, and surface system product lines.

"I started Masten with the goal of tearing down barriers to space," said David Masten, Masten's founder and president. "On behalf of the Masten team, I am excited to join Astrobotic in our shared mission to make space accessible to the world. This combined organization will let us continue to provide important services to our customers and help us make a bigger impact on humanity's future in space."

"There is still more to iron out, but Astrobotic is confident in the value Masten's team and capabilities add to Astrobotic's already strong portfolio," added Thornton.

posted 10-10-2023 09:17 AM               

Xodiac Flies First Astrobotic Customer Campaign

VTVL rocket successfully completes its first commercial campaign under the Astrobotic banner, testing UCF's Ejecta STORM plume-surface interaction sensor

Astrobotic, a leader in vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing (VTVL) reusable rockets, successfully completed a flight test campaign for the University of Central Florida (UCF) last week at the company's facility in Mojave, CA. The campaign consisted of four flights aboard Astrobotic's Xodiac VTVL rocket to test UCF's Ejecta STORM laser sensor, which was developed by Dr. Phil Metzger to study plume-surface interactions (PSI) between a rocket plume and lunar regolith. This test campaign will provide valuable data for researchers, including Dr. Metzger, as they seek to better understand PSI for humanity's return to the Moon under NASA's Artemis program.

The test flight was conducted by Astrobotic's Propulsion & Test Department whose workforce, vehicles, and assets came from Masten Space Systems, which Astrobotic acquired last September. Xodiac is Astrobotic's fourth-generation rocket-powered terrestrial lander that simulates lunar and planetary landings, tests flight systems and hardware in the loop, retires risk, and advances technology readiness for terrestrial and space applications. Last week's successful campaign continues the vehicle's flight heritage of 150+ successful flights—more than any other active rocket—with 100% mission success. The campaign also marked the twentieth anniversary of Masten's founding, which led to several historic milestones in reusable rocketry and over 600 successful VTVL flights.

"It's great to be flying again. I'm thrilled that we can continue to provide this unique flight test capability for our customers as part of Astrobotic. We designed Xodiac for maximum reusability, and the fact that we're still flying the same vehicle eight years later says a lot about Xodiac's durability and the value of the services it provides," said David Masten, Chief Engineer for Astrobotic's Propulsion & Test Department.

"I'm grateful for our talented team and supportive management who have helped us pick back up right where we left off," said Stefan Lamb, Astrobotic's Xodiac Launch Conductor. "Joining Astrobotic has opened up a whole new set of test opportunities for us. Our team has been working hard to resume flight operations and continue to provide exceptional service to our customers as well as other departments within the company."

Xodiac's return to flight was made possible by the test team led by Lamb and Masten. With the completion of this milestone, Astrobotic will turn its attention to flying its 2023 customer manifest, which includes test campaigns for NASA and Draper, and supporting space technology innovators as they pursue grants for future flight testing.

Astrobotic's next Xodiac campaign will provide flight testing for the three winning teams of the TechLeap Prize, which is managed by NASA's Flight Opportunities program. These teams have developed promising systems to detect hazards from an altitude of at least 250 meters and process the data in real-time to help spacecraft land safely in the dark. Xodiac will provide these teams an opportunity to demonstrate their systems in a realistic night-flight environment aboard an actual rocket lander.

Xodiac is also scheduled to fly campaigns in 2024 for NASA, San Diego State University, and Astrobotic's Space Robotics department. The latter campaign will test Astrobotic's novel hazard detection and avoidance system that will help guide its Griffin lander to a soft landing on the Moon's south pole in late 2024.