Arkisys, Inc.
California company running NASA's Astrobee free-flying robots on the ISS under a Space Act Agreement and developing the robotic, modular Port orbital platform.
Arkisys, Inc. is a space infrastructure company in Los Alamitos, California, founded and led by CEO and chief systems engineer Dave Barnhart. It describes itself as building reusable space platforms and vessels that can be re-docked and repurposed many times. The aim is to give companies, researchers and students lease-based access to orbit for payload testing, in-space assembly and manufacturing, without each needing its own spacecraft.
Its best-known current activity is robotic operations on the International Space Station. In 2025 NASA chose Arkisys under an unfunded Space Act Agreement to sustain and maintain Astrobee, the free-flying robot system NASA flew to the station in 2018. Astrobee consists of three cube-shaped robots, Bumble, Honey and Queen, plus software and a recharging dock. NASA uses them for crew support, monitoring and testing new robotic technology in microgravity. Arkisys now runs Astrobee as a commercial service: it onboards guest payloads and software, checks mission inputs with an automated validator, and gives customers a central control and monitoring platform. Its published schedule includes maintenance and commercial customer sessions with Honey and Bumble through late 2026, a planned December 2026 launch of Queen to the ISS, and customer hardware payloads flying in 2027. In January 2026 Arkisys and JAXA completed a technical rehearsal for Astrobee operations on the ISS.
Arkisys's own planned platform is the Port, which it calls the world's first scalable robotic space infrastructure platform. The Port is a modular orbital outpost with standard payload berths. Customers will be able to lease a berth, build and launch custom free-flying PortSats from the Port, release and recapture them, and host visiting vessels. Arkisys says it will use the Port's robotic arms for assembly, servicing and on-orbit manufacturing, and will handle testing, repairs, upgrades and precision assembly robotically without crew. The Cutter is a reusable 3-axis-stabilised spacecraft bus for last-mile payload delivery to Ports and for hosted LEO missions. Its published wet mass is 200-300 kg, with figures of 510 W, 500 m/s delta-v and under 10 cm absolute positioning in LEO. Bosuns Lockers are standard containers for stowing and securing payloads, including student payloads developed with iBOSS. Before launch, customers connect their hardware to an Arkisys digital twin and test it in the company's 1G robotic test facility.
Its other announced work includes a Deorbit Study contract (September 2024) and a D2P2 SBIR award (November 2024) from the US Space Development Agency, cooperation with Sidus Space, a deal with Space BD to advance modular space infrastructure, and interface testing with Enduralock. Arkisys also leads white-paper work in the COSMIC in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing consortium.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Arkisys Port
Planned modular robotic orbital outpost with standard payload berths, PortSat build/release/recapture, visiting-vessel berthing and robotic-arm assembly and servicing.
Arkisys Cutter
Reusable 3-axis-stabilised payload delivery bus (200-300 kg wet) for last-mile transport to Ports and hosted LEO missions; 510 W, 500 m/s delta-v.
Astrobee commercial operations (ISS)
Commercial access to NASA's Astrobee free-flying robots (Bumble, Honey, Queen) on the ISS, which Arkisys maintains and runs under a 2025 Space Act Agreement.
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Contact Arkisys, Inc.
WEBSITE
https://www.arkisys.comPHONE
+1 866 275 4797HEADQUARTERS
United States
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Manufacturer
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North America
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