Rendering of the Arkisys port. Photo: Arkisys

Arkisys has won a new contract from the U.S. Space Force, the company announced March. 20. It has won a Direct-to-Phase II SBIR contract by SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. SpaceWERX is a component of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Led by Arkisys, this newly funded project will demonstrate building a standalone 3-axis stabilized satellite on the Port Module to make space operations more resilient and expand commercial activities in space.

Arkisys is working with a number of companies on this particular project. It is partnering with the likes of Qediq Inc, Novawurks, Motive Space Systems, iBoss, and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES).

“This new effort expands the overall services we have created to include the high fidelity manipulation required to assemble and then release a new space platform off of our Ports in orbit. This award opens up a unique methodology to support on-orbit flexibility, mission change in flight, high fidelity manipulation, and assembly of complex objects. And it’s super cool,” Dave Barnhart of Arkisys, said in a statement.