Above Space

ABOVE: Space Development Corporation builds commercial platforms in orbit, with offices in Huntsville, Alabama, in the United States. Its goal is what it calls more space in space. It designs adaptive and flexible space architectures for commercial customers, governments and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The company plans a future fleet of commercial platforms that grows into space stations in low Earth orbit, in cislunar space and across the solar system. It builds on six decades of spaceflight knowledge and on commercial off-the-shelf parts. When needed, it develops its own technology. The company says it refocused and rebranded Orbital Assembly in 2021. It has competed for SBIR contracts to advance fast-deploying technology for low Earth orbit platforms.

ABOVE offers hosted payload and data services. These include satellite buses, on-orbit code testing and bundled services for missions to the International Space Station. The company helps customers from mission concept through flight, so that a payload arrives ready for its job.

It also sells Mission Ready Consulting. Its experts guide customers from the first concept to mission operations.

Its programs include Prometheus, a fleet of free-flying platforms in orbit. They are planned for code testing, on-orbit AI, data services, imaging and hardware validation. Archimedes covers large orbital platforms that can be deployed quickly. They suit uses such as energy beaming, solar power and communications. The company says DARPA and the Department of Defense have recognized Archimedes. The team also works on the Pioneer and Voyager space stations.

ABOVE: Orbital, Inc. is a subsidiary of the company. The group is planning for people to live in low Earth orbit, in cislunar space and beyond. The team includes people with long careers at NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and it states that the team has over 100 years of space heritage.

ABOVE sees its modular, scalable solutions as a fit for the growing demand for automated platforms in orbit. They can be deployed fast for commercial use and for controlled defensive maneuvering in orbit.

Services

• Hosted payload and data services
• Satellite buses
• On-orbit code testing
• Mission Ready Consulting
• Prometheus orbital platforms
• Archimedes orbital platforms
• ISS mission services