Masten Space Systems

Masten Space Systems was founded in 2004 in Mojave, California, by David Masten with the goal of tearing down the barriers to space through reusable, vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket technology. Over nearly two decades the company built and flew a family of terrestrial testbed vehicles — Xombie, Xoie, Xaero, Xaero-B, and Xodiac — logging more than 600 rocket-powered landings, the most of any company in the industry. Xoie won NASA's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X-Prize Challenge in 2009, and Masten's reusable rockets went on to support hundreds of suborbital flight tests for NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and commercial customers, retiring risk for descent, landing, and payload technologies destined for the Moon and Mars.

Building on this terrestrial flight heritage, Masten developed the XL-1 lunar lander and was selected by NASA under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program as the anchor customer for a planned 2023 delivery of science and technology payloads to the lunar South Pole.

However, Masten Space Systems filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022 before completing its lunar mission. Its assets were acquired by Astrobotic Technology in 2023, and Masten's Mojave facility, vehicles, and personnel were integrated into Astrobotic's operations. Masten now operates as Astrobotic's Propulsion & Test department, continuing suborbital VTVL flight testing (including the in-development Xogdor vehicle) under the Astrobotic brand rather than as an independent company.