Business Units

Established over 25 years ago, Astrotech Corporation is a commercial and entrepreneurial force in the space industry providing a full spectrum of products and services to both the government and private sectors. The company’s four business units - Astrotech Space Operations, Astrogenetix, 1st Detect, and AirWard - provide all levels of product and service support, including research and logistics expertise, hardware, engineering and analysis services, cargo processing and delivery, science payload processing and the commercialization space technologies for use on earth.

The following is a brief description of these unique business units:

Astrotech Space Operations, Inc. (ASO)
As the leading commercial supplier of satellite launch processing services in the U.S., Astrotech is the satellite gateway to space. ASO provides all support necessary for its government and commercial customers to process complex communication, Earth observation and deep space satellites successfully in preparation for their launch on a variety of domestic and foreign launch vehicles. ASO has provided launch processing support for government and commercial customers for more than two decades, successfully processing over 300 spacecraft with 100% on-time completion and zero launch failures. Click here to learn more about Astrotech Space Operations.

Astrogenetix
As the first commercial biotechnology company to use the unique environment of microgravity to develop novel therapeutic products, Astrogenetix is working on saving lives on Earth by developing products in space. Through expertise gained by sending more than 1,500 NASA science experiments into space, Astrogenetix is exclusively positioned to commercialize products derived from microgravity discoveries. The Company is currently in the process of developing vaccine candidates in microgravity, with a focus on Salmonella and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Astrogenetix also offers a turn-key platform for pre-flight sample preparation, flight hardware, mission planning and operations, crew training and certification processes needed within the highly regulated and complex environment of manned space flight. Click here to learn more about Astrogenetix.

1st Detect
1st Detect Corporation was formed to commercialize miniature-mass spectrometer technology first developed for the International Space Station (ISS). The company entered into an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop this product and quickly realized commercial utility of such a device and began parallel development of a terrestrial unit to be deployed in the security, healthcare, and industrial markets. 1st Detect offers the Miniature Chemical Detector, a breakthrough device in the mass spectrometer market that fills a niche by being highly accurate, lightweight, battery-powered, durable and inexpensive. The 1st Detect ion trap based design is roughly the size of a shoe box, weighs approximately 12 pounds, and only requires 12-volt battery power. Additionally, the Miniature Chemical Detector provides rapid substance reading, capable of detecting residues and vapors from explosives, chemical warfare agents, toxic chemicals, food and beverage contamination, illicit drugs and pollution. It is also very sensitive, which reduces the amount of false positive alarms compared to competing products. 1st Detect's proprietary ion trap technology allows for the device's portability, versatility, sensitivity, durability, efficiency and low cost. Click here to learn more about 1st Detect.

AirWard
AirWard engineers utilized thermal analysis and integrated testing to develop the AirWard Hazardous Cargo Container. With a stainless steel exterior, durable interior fabrics and a proprietary combination of interior packing materials to create a unique hazardous transport container, the design can be easily scaled to support custom applications. Click here to learn more about AirWard.