Precision Measurement Hardware Headed to DARPA’s Air-Breathing Spacecraft Program
Redwire Awards Subcontract to Voyager Technologies for VLEO Spacecraft Precision Sensing System
A high-precision Acceleration Measurement System (AMS) built by Voyager Technologies will fly aboard the DARPA Otter spacecraft after Redwire, the program’s prime contractor, awarded Voyager a subcontract to supply the hardware.
“Missions like Otter demand precise, repeatable thrust control, and that’s exactly what our system delivers.”
Matt Magaña, Voyager Technologies
The Otter program is developing what DARPA describes as a first-of-its-kind air-breathing spacecraft capable of sustained operations in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) a region where increased atmospheric drag and gravity pull require continuous propulsion to maintain orbital altitude. The ability to control velocity changes, known as delta-V, governs every maneuver a spacecraft performs, from adjusting orbit altitude to deorbiting at end of life.
Voyager’s AMS provides the ultra-precise delta-V and acceleration measurements the Otter mission requires to manage those propulsion demands. The system was selected for its proven track record on high-stakes government space missions.
“Missions like Otter demand precise, repeatable thrust control, and that’s exactly what our system delivers,” said Matt Magaña, president of Space, Defense & National Security at Voyager. “This flight-proven hardware has performed flawlessly on several of NASA’s high-profile missions. We’re bringing that same level of precision to Redwire and DARPA, helping unlock a new class of maneuverable spacecraft in VLEO.”
The AMS architecture traces its heritage to more than a decade of uninterrupted, failure-free operations on NASA’s Space Acceleration Measurement System and Microgravity Acceleration Measurement System instruments. Voyager’s precision measurement capabilities also supported NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) constellation, which set multiple world records, including the highest altitude acquisition of a GPS signal ever recorded at 43,500 miles above Earth’s surface and the closest formation separation of any multi-spacecraft mission in history.
Otter is being developed under DARPA’s ongoing effort to extend maneuverable spacecraft operations into VLEO, a regime that offers advantages for Earth observation and other sensing applications but poses significant engineering challenges due to the density of the upper atmosphere at those altitudes. Sustaining an orbit there requires frequent, precisely controlled thrust exactly the operational environment that makes accurate acceleration measurement critical.
Redwire, the prime contractor, is a publicly traded space technology company with a portfolio spanning deployable structures, power systems, and advanced manufacturing. The selection of Voyager’s AMS adds a proven propulsion-sensing capability to the Otter vehicle as Redwire works to satisfy DARPA’s mission requirements.
The subcontract adds to Voyager’s growing list of defense and civil space programs. The Denver-based company has positioned its AMS line as a standardized precision measurement solution applicable across government and commercial spacecraft, with particular relevance to missions requiring fine orbital control in challenging drag environments like VLEO.