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Advanced Space, LLC

Location: Boulder (Westminster), Colorado Founded: 2011 as Geryon Space Technologies; rebranded Advanced Space 2013 Founders: Bradley Cheetham (CEO) and Jeffrey Parker (CTO), from CU Boulder's Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) Origin story: Started in Cheetham's Boulder condo loft. Parker's PhD research under Dr. George Born developed the LiAISON (Linked Autonomous Interplanetary Satellite Orbit Navigation) algorithm — the academic precursor to CAPS. Company built almost entirely on government contracts; no significant venture capital.

Updated: session 34, 2026-04-14

SST Projects (2)

106812 — Cis Lunar Autonomous Positioning Software (CAPS)

  • Period: 2020-09 → 2024-10 | Status: Completed
  • TRL: 3 → 5 | TX: TX05.4.2 (Revolutionary PNT)
  • PI: Bradley Cheetham
  • What: Software components for CAPS peer-to-peer ranging using inter-spacecraft range/range-rate measurements. CAPSTONE and LRO successfully demonstrated the CAPS autonomous navigation technology on-orbit. Confidence: confirmed (TechPort description states "CAPSTONE spacecraft and LRO already collaborated to demonstrate the CAPS autonomous navigation technology").

106820 — CAPSTONE Mission

  • Period: 2019-10 → 2024-05 | Status: Completed
  • TRL: 5 → 8 | TX: TX17.2 (GN&C)
  • PI: Bradley Cheetham
  • What: 12U CubeSat (55 lbs) pathfinder for Gateway's Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). Partners: Terran Orbital (bus), Stellar Exploration (propulsion), Tethers Unlimited (comms/power), with ARC/GSFC/JPL/JSC/KSC support.
  • Flight: Launched June 28, 2022 on Rocket Lab Electron/Photon. Communications anomaly July 5–6 (recovered), propulsion anomaly Sep 8 (corrected). NRHO insertion November 13, 2022. Primary 6-month mission completed May 2023. Extended mission ongoing — 100+ NRHO orbits as of late 2024. Confidence: confirmed (TechPort library images, NTRS papers, press).

Upstream Lineage — The SBIR Ladder

The SST projects sit atop a clean SBIR stack, fully traceable in TechPort:

Project Program TRL Period Role
33150 SBIR Phase I — 2015 Navigation in highly dynamic environments ($125K)
33601 SBIR Phase I — 2015 Small body sampling architecture ($125K)
93407 SBIR Phase I 3→4 Jun–Dec 2017 First funding for CAPS/LiAISON concept
101845 SBIR Phase II 4→6 Jul 2018–May 2023 Full CAPS software development
102575 SBIR Phase II-E 6→9 Jul 2020–Aug 2021 Added CSAC data type; "Transitioned To" NASA Aug 2021
106812 SST 3→5 2020–2024 CAPS software parallel track
106820 SST 5→8 2019–2024 CAPSTONE flight mission

Pre-NASA: Air Force RIF contract $2.23M (Sep 2016, FA881416C0012) for orbit transfer dynamics — DoD interest predated NASA SBIR. Confidence: confirmed (USASpending).

Downstream Impact

1. CAPSTONE Extended Mission — $36.1M (2024–2026)

USASpending award 80NSSC24CA188. Ongoing optical navigation experiments for cislunar regime, demonstrating autonomous navigation using lunar horizon measurements relevant to Gateway GN&C design. Confidence: confirmed.

2. AFRL Oracle — $72M (Nov 2022)

Advanced Space won a $72M AFRL contract (Space Enterprise Consortium OTA) to deliver the Oracle spacecraft (formerly "Cislunar Highway Patrol System"). ESPA-Grande class spacecraft built by General Atomics (sub), with Leidos sensors, for space situational awareness at Earth-Moon L1 (~200K miles). Originally targeted Dec 2026 on ULA Vulcan; now slipped to 2027 — Space Force reviewing launch schedule. This is the largest single award in their portfolio and represents direct DoD application of CAPSTONE cislunar expertise. Confidence: confirmed (SpaceNews, company press release, Apr 2026 web search). Note: OTA contracts often don't appear in USASpending.

3. DoD Cislunar SDA Contracts — ~$8.3M (2023–2025)

Multiple AFRL/AFSC awards: - $1.90M: Multi-Object Behavior Modeling of Space Systems (May 2025) - $1.80M: CUSTODE — Cislunar Uncertainty, Surveillance, Tracking, Orbit Determination (Dec 2024) - $1.66M: Conceptual Spaces for Space Event Characterization (Aug 2024) - ~$700K: Various smaller AFRL cislunar analysis contracts - FA945323PA057: NRHO-based CAPS architecture with crosslink for DoD surveillance — direct bridge from NASA CAPS to DoD SDA. Confidence: confirmed (USASpending).

4. Active NASA SBIR Pipeline

  • 158673 SCRAM — ML collision avoidance, $900K Phase II
  • 158407 CALM — Low-thrust contingency analysis, $900K Phase II
  • 158064 — Small spacecraft transfer stage architecture, $849K Phase II
  • Three new Phase I awards (Sep 2025, $156.5K each): relative nav/mapping, Lunar Sentinel, deep-space navigation

5. Additional Awards (newly tracked, session 34)

  • 80NSSC24CA053: $1.82M SBIR Phase III — "Mission Design Analysis for Exploration Systems" (Apr 2024 – Jul 2026). Extends SBIR IP into exploration mission design services.
  • 80NSSC25C0411: $150K Phase III — "Planetary Defense Rapid Recon Study" (Sep–Dec 2025). Applies cislunar nav expertise to planetary defense scenarios.
  • Both confirm Advanced Space is expanding beyond cislunar into broader exploration and planetary defense mission design. Confidence: confirmed (USASpending).

5. AFRL CRADA

Data sharing from CAPSTONE to AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate for cislunar domain awareness research — formalized the NASA→DoD technology transfer before Oracle was awarded.

Financial Summary

Category Amount
NASA CAPSTONE extended (80NSSC24CA188) $36.1M
NASA CAPSTONE original (80NSSC19C0628) $21.5M
AFRL Oracle (OTA, not in USASpending) $72.0M
NASA SBIR Phase II/III (multiple) ~$7.5M
DoD AFRL/AFSC contracts (9 awards) ~$8.3M
NASA Phase I SBIRs + smaller awards ~$5.2M
NASA SBIR Phase III (mission design + planetary defense) ~$2.0M
Total identified federal ~$152M+

Note: No private venture capital identified. Company appears fully bootstrapped on government contracts. Confidence: suggestive (no Crunchbase/Pitchbook records found).

Publications (NTRS)

7 substantive citations on CAPSTONE (2020–2024). Primary authors: Elwood Agasid (ARC), Roger Hunter (SST PM), Bradley Cheetham. The 2024 papers (20240004138, 20240005978) are post-mission retrospectives describing CAPSTONE as "Pathfinder for Artemis Gateway."

Archetype

SBIR Ladder to Cislunar Pioneer. Advanced Space exemplifies a clean maturation pipeline: academic algorithm (LiAISON at CU Boulder) → SBIR Phase I/II ($125K→$900K) → SST Tipping Point ($21M CAPSTONE flight) → mission success → DoD pivot ($72M Oracle). The company's entire value proposition — cislunar navigation and SDA — was validated by the SST-funded CAPSTONE mission. Without CAPSTONE, the Oracle contract likely doesn't happen.

This is the clearest SST→DoD technology transfer pathway in the portfolio, surpassing even Tyvak/BCT because the technology itself (cislunar navigation), not just the company's reputation, was the transferable asset.

Key People

  • Bradley Cheetham — CEO, PI on both SST projects. CU Boulder MS 2011.
  • Jeffrey Parker — CTO. PhD CU Boulder 2007, JPL 2008–2012. Creator of LiAISON algorithm.
  • Christopher Baker — NASA SST Program Director
  • Roger Hunter — NASA SST Program Manager, co-author on NTRS CAPSTONE papers

Cross-references