Space Vector was founded in 1969 to supply
NASA with Miniature Inertial Digital Attitude System (MIDAS) platforms and reaction control systems for use on
sounding rockets. In 1972, Space Vector secured the right to use surplus
Minuteman I motors for guided, suborbital rockets which it later names
Aries. Over the next 20 years Space Vector successfully launched 30 Aries rockets in support of a variety of microgravity scientific experiments. Based on its experience working with Minuteman assets, Space Vector was tasked by Lockheed in 1980 to help develop the
Homing Overlay Experiment (HOE) booster for the U.S. Army which would go on to become the first successful hit-to-kill intercept of a mock ballistic missile warhead outside the Earth's atmosphere. This technology was later used by the
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) and expanded into the
Exoatmospheric Reentry-vehicle Interception System (ERIS) program. In 1982 Space Vector was tapped by
Space Services Inc. of America (SSIA) to fabricate and launch the
Conestoga 1 off Matagorda Island, Texas which became the first privately funded rocket to reach space. In 1992 Space Vector teamed with Coleman Research Corporation (now a division of
L-3 Communications) and Aerotherm to provide the
Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) with 25
Hera target vehicles to support testing of
THAAD and
Patriot PAC-3 anti-ballistic missile systems. Space Vector went on to earn the distinction in 1997 as the first company to air launch a Minuteman-based target vehicle. The single stage AltAir vehicle was developed by Space Vector for the United States Air Force to demonstrate the feasibility of the air drop concept. The U.S. Air Force awarded Space Vector a prime contract in 1997 to provide launch services for the Sounding Rocket Program (SRP). Under its first delivery order to SMC Space Vector fabricated a 2-stage
medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target and successfully launched it from the Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska in order to exercise the
PAVE Phased Array Warning System (PAVE PAWS) radar located at Beale Air Force near Marysville, California. Space Vector shifted its focus in 2002 to providing high reliability aerospace systems and components to large prime contractors such as
Lockheed Martin on programs like Targets and Countermeasures (T&C) and Payload Launch Vehicle (PLV). As a member of Team Air Launch in 2005, Space Vector worked on the DARPA funded FALCON small launch vehicle program with the goal of placing 1,000 lbs into
low Earth orbit (LEO). Space Vector fabricated a Vapak pressure fed coaxial pintle injector engine and the Storage and Launch Carrier (SLC) system used to deploy the 72,000 lbs, 60 foot long vehicle from the back of an unmodified C-17 cargo aircraft. A non-ordnance separation system was developed by Space Vector in 2007 to separate large vehicle stages and payloads without explosive bolts or cutters to minimize shock and debris. A 50-inch version was qualified and delivered to
ATK for use on their
ALV X-1 flight test vehicle launched out of NASA's
Wallops Flight Facility. Space Vector was awarded a contract in 2008 from the
United Launch Alliance (ULA) to develop and supply the
GPS tracking unit (GTU) and low noise amplifiers used to provide Range Safety with real-time metric tracking data on the
Atlas V and
Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV). The first flight of the GPS metric tracking system occurred in 2012 from
Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the system being fully certified a year later after the fourth flight from
Vandenberg Air Force Base. Contracts were awarded to Space Vector in 2013 from ULA to fabricate the mission critical Fuel Level Sensing System for
Delta II and to develop a new Fuel Depletion Probe for Atlas V. == Gallery ==