Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Lab

The Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) at Georgia Tech's Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering is one of the premier university spacecraft research and development facilities in the United States, founded in 1990 and directed for decades by Professor David Spencer (now at Purdue). SSDL has produced flight hardware for dozens of missions ranging from 3U CubeSats to full spacecraft systems. Their most notable flight project is LightSail, developed in partnership with the Planetary Society — but SSDL has also built the Prox-1 CubeSat deployed to demonstrate proximity operations for DARPA, the E-TBEx ionospheric experiment for NRL, and contributed systems to the NASA MAVEN Mars mission and multiple AFRL technology demonstrations. The lab operates Georgia Tech's satellite integration and test facilities including a 3-meter thermal vacuum chamber, vibration testing equipment, and clean room space — capabilities that enable the lab to take projects from concept through flight-qualified hardware. SSDL trains approximately 30-50 graduate students and a rotating cohort of undergraduates, many of whom go on to careers at JPL, NASA Goddard, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The Atlanta location positions Georgia Tech graduates near Boeing's commercial space division, NCR's aviation analytics group, and Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Centers. The lab has received funding from NASA, DARPA, AFRL, NRL, and commercial companies including Ball Aerospace and L3Harris. SSDL's alumni network spans senior engineering and management roles at virtually every major U.S. space prime contractor.