Orion Space Solutions

Orion Space Solutions, founded in 2005 and headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, is an atmospheric science and space weather technology company acquired by Arcfield (an Accenture Federal Services spin-off) that provides instrumentation, data services, and mission support for space weather characterization, ionospheric research, and very low Earth orbit (VLEO) environment sensing.

The company's flagship program is the Kraken mission — a small satellite constellation designed to operate in VLEO (below 450 km altitude) to directly characterize the thermosphere-ionosphere environment with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. VLEO offers significant payload mass savings and improved ground resolution for sensors but presents extreme atmospheric drag challenges; Kraken's instruments measure neutral density, ion composition, and plasma irregularities to build empirical models enabling reliable spacecraft operations at these altitudes. The mission addresses critical data gaps for emerging VLEO satellite operators including sustainable constellation design.

Orion Space Solutions develops incoherent scatter radars, ionosondes, and compact satellite-borne plasma instruments that measure electron density, plasma drift, and neutral wind profiles from ground stations and in-orbit platforms. These capabilities support NOAA, AFRL, and NASA space weather prediction programs requiring validated ionospheric observations for GPS error correction, HF radio propagation forecasting, and satellite drag modeling.

Acquired by Arcfield (formerly Accenture Federal Services' national security unit), Orion Space Solutions operates within a broader government science and technology services portfolio. The company competes with Southwest Research Institute, Physical Sciences Inc., and university research groups in the space weather instrumentation market, differentiating through flight-qualified hardware and operational data product pipelines.