Deep Space Systems, Inc (DSS) is a private

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

company dedicated to systems engineering that supports the design, development, integration, testing and operations of science and exploration

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

. DSS was incorporated in 2001 and it is based at

Littleton, Colorado Littleton is a home rule municipality city located in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

, United States. Its Founder and President is Steve Bailey. In June 2020, the company merged with Adcole Corp. to form

Redwire Redwire Corporation is an American aerospace manufacturer and space infrastructure technology company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. The company was formed on June 1, 2020, by the private equity firm AE Industrial ...

Overview

The specialties of DSS are

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their Enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering uti ...

spacecraft design Spacecraft design is a process where systems engineering principles are systemically applied in order to construct complex vehicles for missions involving travel, operation or exploration in outer space. This design process produces the detailed ...

, development, integration and testing, deep space mission operations, and high-definition space-qualified cameras. In 2006,

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

won the contract for the

Orion spacecraft Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin that is paired with a Eu ...

with the collaboration of Deep Space Systems, and in 2009, DSS was named NASA's Johnson Space Center Small Business Subcontractor of the Year, for its work on Orion's

avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...

system. While collaboration with Lockheed Martin drives the business, Deep Space Systems diversified with the development of satellite-ready cameras. On 29 November 2018, Deep Space Systems was included in the

Commercial Lunar Payload Services Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource ...

program (CLPS) by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, which makes it eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, worth $2.6 billion in contracts over 10 years. DSS is now considered a "main contractor" for NASA's CLPS program, and DSS can sub-contract projects to other companies of their choice. According to NASA, Deep Space Systems will be proposing a small commercial

lunar rover A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration Rover (space exploration), vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, ...

in 2019 to carry science payloads, in addition of their design and development services to the program. DSS is also working on a lander concept focused on scouting south polar

lunar resources An artificially colored mosaic constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by ''Galileo's'' imaging system as the spacecraft flew over the northern regions of the Moon on 7 December 1992. The colors indicate d ...

.Lunar Resource Prospecting. S. A. Bailey. Abstract presented at the "Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their Utilization". July 15–17, 2019, Columbia, Maryland

References

Private spaceflight companies American companies established in 2001 Aerospace companies of the United States Engineering companies of the United States Companies based in Colorado Commercial Lunar Payload Services Redwire {{Aero-company-stub