EaglePicher Technologies

EaglePicher Technologies, headquartered in Joplin, Missouri, is one of the world's longest-established and most flight-proven space battery manufacturers — with a heritage in space applications stretching back to the very beginning of the space age and an unparalleled reliability record across more than two billion cell hours in space without a single cell failure attributable to EaglePicher's manufacturing.

Founded in 1843 as a lead and zinc mining company (Eagle White Lead Company), EaglePicher pivoted into electrochemical and specialty battery manufacturing through the 20th century. The company's space battery history begins with Explorer 1 — America's first satellite, launched in 1958 — for which EaglePicher provided the silver-zinc batteries that powered the cosmic ray instruments that discovered the Van Allen radiation belts.

This early flight heritage led to battery supply roles across virtually every major U.S. space program: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo (including the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package), Viking Mars landers, Voyager 1 and 2 (which have now operated for 45+ years), and the Space Shuttle.

EaglePicher's current space battery product portfolio centers on lithium-ion battery systems for modern satellites and spacecraft — the dominant technology for GEO commercial satellites, LEO smallsats, and planetary science missions — where EaglePicher designs mission-specific cell formats, electrode formulations, and battery management electronics to meet the demanding cycle life, depth-of-discharge, and temperature range requirements of space applications.

The company also continues producing nickel-hydrogen (NiH₂) batteries for legacy GEO satellite platforms that specified this chemistry in their original designs, and produces thermal batteries (single-use, heat-activated electrochemical sources) for missile and launch vehicle applications.

EaglePicher supplies batteries for NASA's ISS, crewed vehicles, planetary missions, and commercial GEO satellites. The company competes with Saft (France), Ultralife, and Yardney Technical Products (now EaglePicher after an acquisition) for space-qualified battery contracts.