Above: Space Development

Above: Space Development (or Above: Space), formerly Orbital Assembly, develops gravity-capable space stations on-orbit, in cislunar space, and across the solar system, allowing humans to work and play in space. As of September 2024, it was the only company developing the first commercially viable, space-based business park with gravity.

As of 2024, the company was developing the Pioneer and Voyager stations, its large-scale, gravity-equipped platforms on orbit, between the Earth and the moon for commercial and military use. Both stations would resemble a rotating wheel orbiting the Earth. The startup claims that its Pioneer station is the world’s first and largest hybrid space station for both work and stay, and its first operation was slated as soon as 2025. Its Voyager Station, which was slated for launch in 2027, is a rotating space station with a capacity to accommodate 400, designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation. 

As of 2024, Above: Space was developing Prometheus, a microgravity platform, and Archimedes, a deployable on-orbit platform. Prometheus, which was slated to launch in Q4 2024, would be offered to commercial customers with a 150U payload capacity, advanced space capabilities, and multiple platforms for several launches a year. The Archimedes platform, which was slated to launch in 2025, comprises large super flat structures to support phase arrays for applications in solar panels, beamed, and remote power, telecommunications, edge computing, orbital manufacturing, and high-resolution imaging.

Key customers and partnerships 

In October 2022, Above: Space partnered with Mexican cultivated meat startup MicroMeat, to grow cultivated meat onboard its pioneer-class space stations in an effort to reduce the cost of food transportation to space. In November 2023, the company collaborated with Electric Sky and the US Department of Defense for the development and testing phases of its Archimedes platform.