Over 40 businesses and organizations are members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Executive Members include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports, and Associate Members include suppliers supporting commercial spaceflight, such as providers of mission support services or training services. Click on a company name to jump down the page to a detailed description, or scroll down this page to see the entire list.
EXECUTIVE MEMBERS
Armadillo Aerospace is a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles, focused on VTVL (vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing) suborbital research and passenger flights, with an eye towards eventual paths to orbit.
Blue Origin, LLC is developing technologies to enable private human access to space at dramatically lower cost and increased reliability. We’ve adopted an incremental approach, with each development step building on the prior development. We are currently focused on developing rocket-powered Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicles for access to suborbital and orbital space.
Boeing Space Exploration division, headquartered in Houston, is at the forefront of development of new spacecraft systems, as it has been since the beginning of the Space Age. For more than 50 years, Boeing has designed, developed, built, and operated human and robotic space vehicles as well as supporting hardware: from the X-15 to Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), Commercial Crew Development and the Space Launch System. NASA’s Commercial Crew initiative is providing a unique opportunity for Boeing to accelerate development of its Commercial Crew Transportation System (CCTS) that will provide a domestic capability for crew to access the International Space Station.
Cecil Field Spaceport (airport code VQQ) is located approximately 15 miles west of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and is one of five airports run by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. As a decommissioned naval airbase, Cecil Field has four, 200-foot runways, including one of the longest runways in Florida. Using this infrastructure, Cecil Field is preparing to become a base for suborbital commercial human spaceflight in Florida.
Masten Space Systems is developing a line of Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing (VTVL) launch vehicles that provide reduced costs and a larger range of mission options by focusing on development and operational processes that ensure speed to market, extremely fast turn around times, and an almost retail purchasing experience.
Located in Kern County, California, the Mojave Air and Space Port is recognized as the world’s premier civilian aerospace test center and is currently home to over 40 companies engaged in flight development to light industrial to highly advanced aerospace design, flight test and research and even heavy rail industrial manufacturing. The Mojave Air and Space Port has amassed more first flights and significant news worthy flight activity than any other airport in the world over the past five years, and in 2004 hosted the Ansari X PRIZE winning suborbital space flights of SpaceShipOne.
Paragon is a premier provider of environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. They design, build, test and operate premier life support systems and leading thermal control products for astronauts, contaminated water divers, and other extreme environment adventurers, as well as for unmanned space and terrestrial applications.
Founded in 1963, Sierra Nevada Corporation is a world-class prime systems integrator and electronic systems provider known for its rapid, innovative, and agile technology solutions. Fast-growing and widely diversified, SNC is a high-tech electronics, engineering, and manufacturing corporation that continues to expand its impressive portfolio of capabilities, programs, products and services. SNC is a privately held company under the leadership of CEO, Fatih Ozmen, and President and CFO, Eren Ozmen. Headquartered in Sparks, Nevada, SNC is the Top Woman Owned Federal Contractor in the United States. SNC specializes in the areas of Renewable Energy, Telemedicine, Nanotechnology, Cyber, Net-Centric Operations, Microsatellites and Human Space Flight.
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), which has committed funding to fly researcher-astronauts and their payloads onboard commercial suborbital spacecraft, is an independent, nonprofit applied research and development organization. The staff of more than 3,200 specializes in the creation and transfer of technology in engineering and the physical sciences. The Institute occupies more than 1,200 acres in San Antonio, Texas with laboratories, test facilities, workshops and offices, with satellite offices in locations such as Boulder, Colorado. SwRI staff also lead the CSF’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group.
Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world’s first private space explorers: Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari and Charles Simonyi, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts.
Space Florida is an Independent Special District of the State of Florida for the purposes of fostering the growth and development of a sustainable and world-leading space industry in Florida. As the State of Florida’s aerospace economic development agency, Space Florida fosters bold economic development activities to expand and diversify domestic and international opportunities that support talent development, enhance infrastructure and support governments and organizations in improving the state’s competitive business climate.
In 2006, the New Mexico State Legislature approved over $100 million in funds to design and construct a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico, also known as “Spaceport America.” A landmark project, Spaceport America is poised to become one of the world’s leading commercial spaceport centers to be completed in Sierra County, 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces. In 2005, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Galactic plans on locating its world headquarters and Mission Control at New Mexico’s Spaceport America.
SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 vehicles, SpaceX offers highly reliable/cost-efficient launch capabilities for spacecraft insertion into any orbital altitude and inclination. Starting in 2010, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will provide Earth-to-LEO transport of pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including resupply to the International Space Station (ISS). Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 700, with corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Formed in December 2006, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company. ULA brings together two of the launch industry’s most experienced and successful teams – Atlas and Delta – that have supported America’s presence in space for fifty years. The United Launch Alliance team consists of approximately 3,900 employees working at sites across the country. ULA program management, engineering, test and mission support functions are headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Manufacturing, assembly and integration operations are located at Decatur, Ala., Denver, CO., Harlingen, TX., and San Diego, CA. Launch operations are located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA.
Virgin Galactic is the world’s first space line. Virgin Galactic will own and operate its privately built spaceships modeled on the remarkable, history-making SpaceShipOne. Virgin’s vast experience in aviation, adventure, luxury travel and cutting-edge design combined with the unique technology developed by Burt Rutan will ensure an unforgettable experience unlike any other available to mankind. With safety at the forefront, Virgin Galactic’s unique spacecraft is being designed at Rutan’s base in Mojave, California alongside a concerted research and development program.
XCOR Aerospace is focused on the research, development, and production of safe, reliable, reusable launch vehicles (RLVs), rocket engines and rocket propulsion systems. It is now in the phased development of its next generation vehicle, the reusable launch vehicle Lynx. Lynx is a suborbital vehicle that will carry one pilot, a ticketed passenger, and/or a payload or small satellites above 100 km in altitude.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Aerojet was founded in 1942 on the dreams of a small group of scientists led by Dr. Theodore von Karman, an internationally acclaimed professor from the California Institute of Technology. Today, Aerojet is a major space and defense contractor specializing in missile and space propulsion, and defense and armaments. Since the company was founded, it has led the way in the development of crucial technology and products that have kept America strong and furthered human exploration of space. The aerospace company that was founded in southern California now has manufacturing sites across the country — in Washington, California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Utah, Virginia, and Tennessee — and continues its role as a leader in the U.S. propulsion industry.
With a top-notch team of engineers, scientists, and other professionals, ARES focuses on solving industry’s most complex technical challenges in the key areas of energy, defense, aerospace, the environment and critical infrastructure. ARES provides or has provided expertise to some of our nation’s most important projects such as the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) programs.
Arizona State University has a long and proud history of research in space. Through initiatives such as the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and the Biodesign Institute, ASU conducts a wide variety of astrophysics, biological and biomedical, and planetary science studies, and instrument design projects in conjunction with NASA and a broadening spectrum of commercial partners.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Barrios Technology is an aerospace engineering and technology services firm. Barrios specializes in engineering, space mission operations, systems engineering and integration, and technical assistance for the space industry. From planning to on-orbit support to post-flight analysis, Barrios supports all phases of space mission operations.
Cimarron Software Services Inc. is a software engineering and systems integration team which has been continuously involved with Human Space Flight since 1988, devising software and control systems for the onboard Shuttle, Shuttle payloads, Ground Control and Training Systems at Johnson Space Center, and International Space Station avionics suite, along with work related to Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS). Cimarron is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
David Clark Company has pioneered air and space crew protective equipment design, development and manufacture since 1941, with products ranging from anti-G suits to space suits. David Clark Company’s tradition of providing crew protective equipment for leading edge, manned aerospace programs continues into the future, as their designers apply their expertise to present and forseeable needs, particularly in the areas of acceleration and high-altitude protection. They remain dedicated to expanding performance of our aerospace crew protective equipment, thereby enabling continued expansion of the manned-flight envelope.
ETC’s NASTAR Center houses state-of-the-art equipment and professional staff to support the training and research needs of the aerospace community, including military aviation (fixed and rotary wing), civil aviation (fixed and rotary wing), space travel (government and private) and research support and data collection. NASTAR Center’s equipment and programs are highly modular and flexible and can accommodate a wide range of aerospace training and research requirements.
Firestar Technologies is a research and development company funded through both government grants and private investment. The firm has a rich intellectual property portfolio including NOFBXTM “green” propulsion, SonicExhaustTM aftermarket exhaust technology, and several developments in power conversion and next generation renewable energy technologies.
Golden Spike plans to provide complete, turn-key commercial human lunar expeditions to countries, corporations, and individuals. The company is conducting lunar architecture and systems design studies with leading aerospace companies, and will be taking flight reservations and entering into vehicle development and flight contracts in the near future.
Formed in 1997 by Gwen Griffin, Griffin Communications Group now has an award-winning team of communications specialists. Their primary objective – to exceed client expectations in terms of quality, value and results. Led by highly respected aerospace veterans – Gwen Griffin, President & CEO, and Jeff Carr, VP Aerospace Communications – their team has decades of industry-specific communications and branding experience. They have a pulse on global aerospace marketing and communications trends and a proven ability to generate cost-effective programs and bottom-line results for our clients.
Jacobs Technology is the advanced technology division of Jacobs Engineering, one of the nation’s largest engineering and technical services-only companies. Their clients include the DOD, NASA, the U.S. Special Operations Command, the DOE, and dozens of commercial clients, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Rolls-Royce, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Saturn.
Located near NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Logyx provides services including systems engineering and integration, mission operations, information technology and system security, health and biological sciences, project management, media design, and proposal writing. Logyx projects in support of NASA have included: International Space Station, Kepler Mission, Multi Mission Operations Center (MMOC), Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. was incorporated in 1969 by two British Columbia entrepreneurs, John MacDonald, and Werner Dettwiler with the objective of providing innovative electronic solutions for complex customer requirements. Over the past four decades MDA has created a highly skilled organization that provides advanced information solutions which capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.
Selected by Forbes as one of the ’15 Names You Should Know’ in 2011, Moon Express (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company based at the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley. The company will send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing commercial exploration and development focused on benefits to Earth. Moon Express has signed a partnership agreement with NASA for the development of its lunar lander systems and has been selected by NASA for a commercial lunar data services contract worth up to $10M. Moon Express is also a leading contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) competition, which challenges privately funded teams to place a robot on the Moon’s surface that transmits high definition video, images and data back to Earth from the landing site and from 500 meters away.
Near Space Corporation flies technology and scientific payloads to altitudes of 30-40km using stratospheric balloon platforms. Floating for hours or days above 99.9% of the earth’s atmosphere, they provide relevant environments for cost effective testing and maturing of many space related technologies with relatively benign launch and payload recovery. With in-house engineering, manufacturing, integration, and flight operations capabilities, NSC delivers responsive high-altitude test services to both government and commercial customers.
The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University is a prestigious research, development, testing and certification lab encompassing 250,000 square feet in four locations. The institute’s laboratories include Advanced Coatings, Aging Aircraft, CAD/CAM, Composites and Mechanical Test, Computational Mechanics, Crash Dynamics, Environmental Test, Full-Scale Structural Test, Human Factors, Nondestructive Test, Reverse Engineering, Virtual Reality and the Walter H. Beech Wind Tunnel.
ORBITEC is a leading subsystems integrator and high technology development company based in Madison, Wisconsin. ORBITEC offers commercially mature solutions and strong capabilities in five distinct areas: Propulsion, Space Resources, and Energy, Emergency Response Systems, Human Support Systems and Instrumentation, BioProducts and BioProduction Systems, and Interactive 3D Systems and Services.
The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority is resolved to create in this decade a commercial spaceport that will expand and economically develop the space frontier with advanced spacecraft operation facilities and concentrations of specialized industries in Oklahoma.
Planetary Resources’ goal is to expand Earth’s natural resource base by developing and deploying technologies for asteroid mining. Planetary Resources is planning on bringing the natural resources of space within humanity’s economic sphere of influence.
Qwaltec focuses on Systems Engineering, Mission Readiness, Technical Training, and Program Management solutions for a variety of government and commercial space programs including NASA, DoD, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and commercial customers.
RS&H is a facilities and infrastructure consulting firm with more than 60 years of aerospace experience, as RS&H has completed hundreds of projects for the Saturn/Apollo program, Space Shuttle Program, NASA’s exploration initiatives, Private Spaceports in Florida, the Central US, Wallops Island, VA, Australia, and numerous military launch facilities. We provide a range of services including the design of launch support facilities, specialized structures, ground support equipment, oxidizer and propellant storage and transfer systems, and high and low pressure gas systems. Offices are located in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Massachusetts and Washington DC.
Scaled Composites, LLC is an aerospace and specialty composites development company located in Mojave, California. Founded in 1982 by Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites has broad experience in air vehicle design, tooling and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and space vehicles.
SEAKR Engineering is a world-leading provider of advanced state-of-the-art electronic avionics for space applications. Since its inception in 1982, SEAKR has delivered some of the most sophisticated solutions in the industry on-time and on-budget. More than eighty of these units have launched with all having met or exceeded mission objectives. SEAKR’s leading edge space avionics include IP routers as well as software-defined radios, high-performance payload processors, modular spacecraft avionics, and solid state recorders.
Spaceflight is a one-stop shop that rapidly manifests, certifies and integrates secondary payloads on a suite of established and emerging launch and space transportation vehicles. Published commercial pricing reduces project planning and budgeting risks, and having a single point of contact simplifies integration efforts by enabling customers to plan to standardized processes while retaining access to multiple launch opportunities. Spaceflight has launch contracts to fly secondary payloads on several launch vehicles.
Founded in 2006, SAS is a small, woman owned company with its headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. SAS provides strategic support to further the capabilities of its clients’ endeavors in air and space. They leverage their experienced team’s unique capabilities to ensure strategic superiority, program execution and tactical success. SAS is comprised of an experienced and dedicated team of visionaries, systems engineers, scientists and space operation specialists.
Triumph Aerospace Systems – Newport News is an industry leader in the engineering and manufacture of complex aerospace hardware and prototype systems for ground test and flight applications. We have been employed in the development of nearly every domestic fixed-wing aircraft, missile, and helicopter system.
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. In 2004, the Foundation captured world headlines when Burt Rutan, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the world’s first private vehicle to space to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. The Foundation has since launched the $10 million Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Progressive Automotive X PRIZE. The Foundation is creating prizes in five areas: Exploration (Space and Underwater), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, Education and Global Development. The Foundation is widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition.