AAC SpaceQuest (also known as SpaceQuest, Ltd.), a wholly owned subsidiary of
AAC Clyde Space
AAC Clyde Space is a Private Space company that manufacturers satellites and satellite components for various contractors. The company operates out of Scotland, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands, and South Africa, with partners in Japan ...
, is a spacecraft components and engineering company located in
Fairfax, Virginia
Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146.
Fairfax is pa ...
, which focuses on the operations of small satellites.
The company designs, develops, constructs, launches, and operates
microsatellites
A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. T ...
and spacecraft components. SpaceQuest qualifies its components for use in space by flying them on its own satellites. They also operate a fleet of low earth orbiting satellites, which are used for remote monitoring as well as tracking the location and status of large vessels at sea.
SpaceQuest's customers include US and foreign universities, NASA, the US Air Force, the Canadian Space Agency, commercial aerospace companies, and foreign developers of microsatellites.
Some of their projects include:
*
FalconSAT
FalconSAT is the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) small satellite engineering program. Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under ...
3 & 5, satellites developed by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
*
AprizeSat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 commercial communications satellites for SpaceQuest
* ExactView 6,7
*
AO-51,
amateur radio satellite
An amateur radio satellite is an artificial satellite built and used by amateur radio operators. It forms part of the Amateur-satellite service. These satellites use amateur radio frequency allocations to facilitate communication between amate ...
.
*
Genesis I
''Genesis I'' is an experimental space habitat designed and built by the private American firm Bigelow Aerospace and launched in 2006. It was the first module to be sent into orbit by the company, and tested various systems, materials and tec ...
and
Genesis II, inflatable space habitats
Bigelow Aerospace
Bigelow Aerospace was an American space design and manufacturing company which ceased operations in 2020. It was an aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactured and developed expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aero ...
.
* Thea and Brio, launched in December 2018 on Spaceflight's
SSO-A
SHERPA is a commercial satellite dispenser developed by Andrews Space, a subsidiary of Spaceflight Industries,