Opterus Research and Development

Opterus Research and Development (Opterus R&D) is a US-based advanced structures company founded in 2015 by Dr. Thomas W. Murphey, a leading expert in high strain composites for space applications. The company designs and manufactures deployable spacecraft structures including composite booms, hinges, reflector antennas, membrane structures, solar sails, and light shields using patented High Strain Composite (HSC) materials and low-cost manufacturing technologies. Opterus has achieved 100% deployment success across over a dozen in-orbit deployments, establishing robust flight heritage. The company received a $10.2 million NASA SBIR Phase III contract to develop the deployment system for NASA's next solar sail spacecraft — a 1,600-square-meter sail on four 30-meter composite booms. Opterus products are used on small satellites, CubeSats, and larger spacecraft across government and commercial missions.