Stellar Exploration, Inc.

Stellar Exploration, Inc. is a small-spacecraft hardware developer based in San Luis Obispo, California, specializing in affordable, miniaturized aerospace systems for military, civil and commercial customers. The company designs, builds, tests and integrates nanosatellite subsystems in-house, with engineers taking full ownership of their hardware from design and prototyping through manufacturing, testing and on-orbit integration.

Stellar Exploration's core product lines include high-current lithium-ion nanosatellite power subsystems, miniaturized hypergolic mono- and bipropellant propulsion thrusters, and a low-cost passive RF tracking and telemetry tag for small satellites. Its hardware has flown on numerous missions, including designing and delivering the propulsion system for NASA's CAPSTONE mission to the Moon, developing high-current power systems for ICEYE's Synthetic Aperture Radar constellation (with roughly 4,000 lithium-ion cells deployed in orbit across all missions), building the propulsion system for EchoStar's EG-3 satellite (which set a small-satellite delta-V record), and designing the passive RF tag flown on NASA's PACE-1 and PACE-2 satellites.

Earlier in its history, Stellar Exploration designed, integrated and tested the two LightSail solar-sailing demonstration spacecraft for The Planetary Society (developed 2010-2013, launched 2015-2016), and led project management, design, integration and early operations for Dauria Aerospace's Perseus-M AIS satellite pair, launched in June 2014. The company is currently developing propulsion systems for Mars-bound ESPA-class satellites, highly maneuverable DoD constellations, and in-space refueling technology.