Masten Space Systems (now Astrobotic's Propulsion and Test Department) was an aerospace manufacturer startup specializing in vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rockets for uncrewed sub-orbital and intended orbital spaceflights. They developed reusable launch vehicles, rocket propulsion hardware, and provided services like rocket propulsion design and space hardware testing. Masten was known for its work with NASA through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program and aimed to enable sustainable access to the Moon, with key technologies including lunar landers (like the XL-1), lunar night survival tech, and lunar water mining tech.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Astrobotic acquired the assets of Masten Space Systems in 2022 after Masten Space Systems’ bankruptcy.
Masten Space Systems, acquired by Astrobotic in 2022, began developing the suborbital Xogdor vehicle in 2021.
Masten Space Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022, affecting NASA’s CLPS program.
Masten Space Systems’ founding reached its twentieth anniversary during the Xodiac campaign and Masten achieved over 600 successful VTVL flights during its history.
Astrobotic acquired Masten Space Systems’ assets in September 2022 for $4,500,000.
Astrobotic acquired Masten Space Systems in September 2023.
A CLPS task order awarded to Masten Space Systems in 2020 has an uncertain status after Masten filed for bankruptcy and had most of its assets acquired by Astrobotic.
Masten Space Systems developed vertical takeoff and landing rockets and won more than $1,000,000 in 2009 in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
Masten Space Systems won a CLPS task order in April 2020 for the XL-1 lander to fly a mission to the lunar south polar region called Masten Mission One (MM1).
Astrobotic finalized the acquisition of the assets of Masten Space Systems for $4,500,000 in a bankruptcy auction earlier in the month and confirmed the deal on 2022-09-13.
Astrobotic acquired Masten Space Systems on 2022-09-13.
A federal bankruptcy court in Delaware approved on 2022-09-08 the results of an auction in which Astrobotic submitted a high bid of $4,500,000 for substantially all the assets of Masten Space Systems.
At the auction, Impulse Space offered $750,000 for equipment located at Masten Space Systems’ Mojave, California headquarters.
NASA issued Masten Space Systems a CLPS award originally valued at $75,900,000 in April 2020 to deliver a suite of experiments using the XL-1 lander.
Masten Space Systems has estimated assets between $10,000,000 and $50,000,000 and estimated liabilities between $10,000,000 and $50,000,000.
Masten Space Systems had a contract with NASA’s Flight Opportunities program to offer its vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles for researchers, including NASA, which used them to test technologies for the Mars 2020 lander.
Masten Space Systems owes SpaceX $4,600,000 according to the Chapter 11 filing.
NASA revised the value of the award to Masten Space Systems to $81,300,000 and had paid Masten $66,100,000 to date.
Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems won prizes in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge in 2009.
Masten Space Systems expects a 20 to 30 percent increase in code reuse by using Ada, SPARK, and AdaCore’s products and support.