COLORADO SPRINGS – Space-as-a-service startup Xplore Inc. announced the acquisition April 4 of spacecraft software developer Kubos Corp. including Major Tom, Kubos’ flight control software platform.
More than a dozen government and commercial satellites in orbit plan and conduct mission operations with Major Tom, cloud-based software designed to handle a variety of tasks including ground station scheduling, satellite tasking and telemetry monitoring.
Major Tom “is a software platform Xplore can expand and extend to other aspects of flight and ground software into tasking and data distribution,” Lisa Rich, Xplore founder and chief operating officer, told SpaceNews.
Redmond, Washington-based Xplore announced in February that it had raised $16.2 million since it was established in 2017.
Kubos partners and customers include RBC Signals, Viasat, Microsoft Azure and ISISpace of the Netherlands. Xplore is another Kubos customer.
“We are a customer-focused commercial space company that is now both a customer and developer of Major Tom,” Rich said in a written statement. “As users, developers and stakeholders, the ability to easily connect and setup command and control systems for satellites and constellations is essential. Our unique perspective will enable us to continually improve the features and capabilities of our flight-ready mission control system from the inside out.”
Kubos employees, including former CEO and co-founder Tyler Browder, are joining Xplore.
“I’m delighted to join the Xplore team as business development director for mission operations,” Browder said in a statement. “In my new role, I will continue to build and grow the Major Tom platform into an expanded service offering.”
