When NASA was operating its Space Shuttle program, the U.S. had a practical way to get items to and from the International Space Station by returning around 25,000 pounds of cargo every time it landed.
Since that program retired in 2011, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been the only American vehicle to fly NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The vessel will fly to the ISS approximately five times a year, making astronauts wait months to bring new discoveries back to earth or have emergencies resolved, says CEO and co-founder of SpaceWorks John Olds.
Atlanta-based aerospace company SpaceWorks is now looking to aid NASA by providing an affordable way to usher objects from low-earth orbit and the ISS in a matter of hours.
Later this month, the company will be performing its third test for its subscale prototype for RED-25, a re-entry device capsule sent into space via a balloon that is a meter in diameter and can return 55 pounds of research materials from space back to earth.
The upcoming demonstration was awarded by NASA following the success of the company’s previous tests of the model.
In 2020, the first test of the capsule was conducted in Florida and sent 7,500 feet in the air. The second test conducted in Oregon a year later reached 100,000 feet and successfully landed back on Earth within 80 yards of its target.
The tests have proven the device’s aerodynamic stability, ability to communicate with the ISS and proximity to landing at its target.
If this month’s demonstration is successful, the company aims to fly an end-to-end demonstration in low-earth orbit between a year and 18 months from now. With the success of a fully orbital test, RED-25 will be ready for business.
While there are a handful of companies also working to develop on-demand return capsules, SpaceWorks is confident it can become the primary provider for returning items from low-orbit.
“Our job is not to be the heavy freight hauling company bringing things back from orbit,” said Olds. “Our job is to be closer to an overnight package delivery service … we want to be the responsive, fast package people coming back down from space.”
SpaceWorks produces technology and products for high-speed flight or space. A division of the company also provides consulting services for entrepreneurs, investors and the commercial space industry.
The company was founded in 2000 by then aerospace engineering professor at Georgia Tech John Olds. After working in academia for a decade, Olds was inspired by his entrepreneurial grandfather to start his own company for advanced space exploration.
By the time Olds left Georgia Tech to become the SpaceWorks full-time CEO, the company had six full-time employees. Today it has 55 full-time employees and one of its clients has been the U.S. Department of Defense.
NASA and SpaceWorks have a two-decades-long history. In 2013, NASA paid for the company's development of test capsules called RED-Data that flew to the ISS to test the performance of its heatshield materials on their way back to Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceWorks was also asked by NASA to look at business and economic modeling for future high-speed commercial flight.
While the ISS is a government agency, there is also promise for private customers in the future.
In December, NASA signed agreements with three U.S. companies to develop independent commercial space stations as part of an initiative to “enable a robust, American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit.” according to the agency’s website.
Those companies were Blue Origin of Kent, which received $130 million; Nanoracks LLC, which received $160 million; and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, which got $125.6 million. SpaceWorks looks to provide technology and services to those platforms as they mature.
SpaceWorks plans to double its Atlanta-based staff in the next two to three years.
Development of the RED-25 capsule by SpaceWorks adds to recent excitement in Atlanta’s aerospace industry.
In March, Atomic-6 took itself out of stealth mode shortly after receiving grants from the U.S. Air Force and Space Force to create support structures. That same month, hypersonic aircraft Hermeus received $100 million in a Series B funding round to accelerate development to create a passenger aircraft capable of Mach 5 speed.
Note: A newsletter version of this article mislabeled the name of the capsule as "RedTube" and that the project was being funded by NASA and the Air Force. The accurate title is "RED-25" and the project is only in part funded by NASA.
