Aegis Aerospace

Aegis Aerospace, based in Webster, Texas, provides space and lunar test platforms and payload development services for government and commercial customers. The current company was formed in 2021 through the merger of Alpha Space and MEI Technologies, both of which trace their space-hardware work back to 1992. It is a woman-owned company serving NASA, the U.S. Space Force, the Air Force and the Department of Defense, alongside commercial partners including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and a number of universities.

Its best-known product is the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) platform, a space-testing-as-a-service facility mounted externally on the ISS that exposes materials, coatings and components to the orbital environment for later return and analysis; the company was preparing the MISSE-21 mission as of 2026 alongside the STP-H10 and STPSat-7 payloads. Aegis also operates two lunar surface test platforms, the Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) facility and the Space Science Test and Evaluation Facility (SSTEF), which expose hardware to lunar dust and surface conditions.

On 6 January 2026, Aegis Aerospace and United Semiconductor announced what they described as the first in-space advanced-materials manufacturing facility, moving the company beyond passive materials exposure into active in-space production. The company has continued expanding its government relationships, announcing a second Defense Health and Science Technology Office (DHSTO 2) contract award on 2 September 2026, and formalized a research partnership with Texas A&M's SPIRIT program in August 2025.