The SpaceWERX Orbital Prime program awarded 124 Phase 1 contracts from June 15 to Sept. 22, 2022, each with a five-month term valued at $250,000. Orbital Prime, which is the first space effort under the SpaceWERX Prime line of business, intends to invigorate the In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing, or ISAM, market using Active Debris Remediation as a use case for the foundational technologies.
The awards, made under the Department of the Air Force's Small Business Technology Transfer, or STTR, program, administered by AFWERX, represent the first phase of the Orbital Prime program.
"As the U.S. Space Force component of AFWERX, the SpaceWERX team chose STTR awards over its more well-known and revamped Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts to drive academic engagement alongside small business," said Gabe Mounce, SpaceWERX deputy director.
The STTR program requires that companies partner with a research institution such as an academic institution, non-profit or Federally Funded Research and Development Center to perform concept exploration, development and maturation.
Through these awards, SpaceWERX has partnered with 92 companies and 66 research institutions across the country to explore ISAM capabilities and technologies relating to identifying, approaching and servicing an object in space.
The Orbital Prime program will culminate with an on-orbit mission to demonstrate active space debris remediation, a public purpose use case intended to stimulate the market for space logistics.
From this initial phase, the STTR Phase 1 awardees will be invited to propose to a STTR Phase 2 opportunity in the early part of next year. Phase 2 will last 15 months at a maximum of $1.5 million per award.
SpaceWERX also recently opened a Direct-to-Phase 2 SBIR offering under topic AFX234-DCSO1 to enable small businesses to enter the Orbital Prime program in a parallel path to the STTR Phase 2. Both paths, considered to be Phase II of the Orbital Prime program, will lead to Strategic Financing opportunities in Phase 3 of the program.
