Alpha Space

Alpha Space Test and Research Alliance, LLC (Alpha Space) is a woman- and minority-owned small business serving the Materials Science community with on-orbit, real-time pure materials science research. Alpha Space owns and operates the Materials International Space Station (ISS) Experiment (MISSE) Flight Facility, a commercially-available materials research facility at the ISS. MISSE offers unprecedented access to space, unparalleled pure science testing, and all at an affordable cost. The employees supporting MISSE have a long, successful track record of over twenty years of payload integration and support to prior Government-sponsored MISSE missions.

Primary Services:

Alpha Space offers access to space for unparalleled pure science testing.  The MISSE provides a testing environment external to the ISS which yields accelerated testing results and environments and synergistic effects not replicated on earth.  These exposures include:

• Atomic Oxygen
• Radiation- low, high, and solar radiation
• Vacuum of Space
• Microgravity
• Extreme Temperatures
• Micrometeoroid Impacts
• Direct Sun exposure
• Earth viewing capabilities

Alpha Space also offers Engineering Design and Fabrication for customized payloads, as well as space operations and project management.

Standard MISSE services provided by Alpha Space include:

• Payload integration and de-integration
• Contamination Protection
• Temperature Data
• Solar Angle Data for Zenith Carriers
• Contamination Monitoring
• Orbital Parameters
• ISS Orientation in its Orbit
• Monthly Photographs
• UV Sensor

Additional Services:

Optional MISSE services, including ground services, are also available.  Most common are power and data for active experiments, with remote real-time access supported by the Alpha Space Payload Operations Control Center.

The Alpha Space Vacuum Test chamber, located in our Houston facility, has the ability to perform vacuum testing to 10-6 torr, while implementing UV and thermal testing of samples within 10 x 7 x 2 inch volume.   The chamber can test electronics and sensors for space applications within operational temperature limits as experienced on the ISS.

ISS-certified hardware:

• Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) Flight Facility
• MISSE Transfer Trays
• MISSE Sample Carriers