Satellite manufacturer to cut ribbon on Upland office

A small satellite manufacturer in Grant County and its affiliated nonprofit will Thursday mark two milestones. NearSpace Launch Inc. and NearSpace Education will cut the ribbon on their new location in downtown Upland and celebrate sending more than 100 of its satellites into orbit.

NearSpace Launch first detailed plans for the new central office last July. The company said it was investing more than $100,000 to develop the space and create at least 10 jobs.

The company builds small satellites for NASA and the U.S. Space Force and last August received contracts from both agencies to further develop its ThinSat Constellation devices, which would be used for studying space weather and rapid payload testing.

The ribbon cutting of the new office follows the recent launch of SpaceX Falcon 9, which included NSL’s TROOP-3, or Train Rapid on Orbit Payload, mission. The company says the TROOP missions bring systems or subsystems to orbit every three to six months.

“It is a very exciting time to be a part of the Space community” Dr. Hank Voss, co-founder of NSL, said in written remarks. “The current commercial growth is expanding rapidly and NearSpace gets to be a part of it.”

The new office will also house NearSpace Education, the STEM focused nonprofit arm of NSL.