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 astrona ...

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

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to spaceflight, fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth ...

. 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 Statis ...

, 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. The company was formed on June 1, 2020 by the private equity firm AE Industrial Partners. History Fo ...

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 life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking ...

, spacecraft design, development, integration and testing, deep space mission operations, and high-definition space-qualified cameras. In 2006, Lockheed Martin won the contract for the

Orion spacecraft Orion (officially 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 and the Europ ...

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 blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fitt ...

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 contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in sit ...

program (CLPS) by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

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

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

, 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 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, 16, and 17. Other rov ...

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 The Moon bears substantial natural resources which could be exploited in the future. Potential lunar resources may encompass processable materials such as volatiles and minerals, along with geologic structures such as lava tubes that togethe ...

.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