Masten Space Systems
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace and defense |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Defunct | 2022 |
| Fate | Acquired by Astrobotic |
| Headquarters | Mojave, California United States |
Key people | Sean Mahoney, CEO David Masten, CTO and Chairman Reuben Garcia, Executive Manager of Landing Systems Matthew Kuhns, Chief Engineer |
| Products | Suborbital spacecraft Space systems Throttleable rocket engines Rocket propulsion hardware Reusable launch vehicles |
| Services | Rocket propulsion design and analysis Space hardware tests Concept demonstration Vertical landing software |
Number of employees | 84 (2020) |
| Website | masten |
| Footnotes / references The company's slogan is "We Fly" | |
Masten Space Systems was an aerospace manufacturer startup company in Mojave, California (formerly in Santa Clara, California) that was developing a line of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rockets, initially for uncrewed research sub-orbital spaceflights and eventually intended to support robotic orbital spaceflight launches.
In 2020, NASA awarded Masten a contract for a lunar lander mission; NASA was to pay Masten US$75.9 million for Masten to build and launch a lander called XL-1 to take NASA and other customer payloads to the south pole of the Moon. Masten Mission One would have been Masten's first space flight; it was scheduled for launch in November 2023.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022, and was later acquired by Astrobotic Technology in September 2022. Its web url "masten.aero" is still active, and its operations continue as ""Astrobotic's Propulsion and Test Department".