AFWERX Announces NXM Labs Among Top Teams Selected to Revolutionize Space Ecosystem

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AFWERX, the catalyst for fostering innovation within the U.S. Air Force, announced NXM Labs as one of the top 26 winning teams from a field of over 800 participants from around the world competing in the EngageSpace Challenge that aims to revolutionize the space ecosystem and redefine what's possible in space.

The EngageSpace Challenge is centered around four key topics – Department of Defense Commercial Space Partnerships, Global Space Transport and Delivery, Persistent ISR and Space Asset Resiliency.

NXM competed in the Space Asset Resiliency Challenge against teams from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and other allied countries; comprised of entrepreneurial startups, small businesses, global enterprises, as well as leading academic research labs. The Challenge provides a rapid funding vehicle for government buyers to pursue new solutions for today's most pressing space related issues.

"The AFWERX EngageSpace challenge is critical to our future of industrial development in space," stated Mark Rowland, Innovation Actualizer of AFWERX. "On behalf of AFWERX and the Department of Defense, we congratulate the teams advancing to the next phase. Their contributions are invaluable and have the potential to create game-changing results across the Air Force enterprise."

The Space Asset Resiliency Challenge focuses on ensuring America's space assets can thrive in space in the face of growing dangers, including cyberattacks. NXM's winning proposal focused on increasing the security and longevity of critical space, air, land and sea assets.

NXM's Autonomous Security platform enables devices to automatically defend themselves and recover from rapidly evolving cyberattacks, eliminating the risk of a fleet-wide attack. NXM's scalable blockchain-based approach to security and command and control overcomes critical network interoperability challenges facing today's military and commercial SATCOM operations, making it a universal solution for next generation space ecosystems. 

"We're thrilled to have been selected as one of the winning teams at this prestigious event," said Scott Rankine, NXM CEO. "AFWERX provided us with a unique opportunity to showcase our solution to government buyers and potential aerospace partners from around the world."  

The AFWERX EngageSpace Challenge attracted 809 solutions and brought together over 50 space subject matter experts from the U.S. government to review the submissions. Throughout the event teams showcased their technology using virtual booth's complete with video links and digital collaterals. The top 171 teams were invited to pitch their solutions to a panel of subject matter experts, followed by a Q&A session with the evaluation team. The top 31 solutions from a total of 26 teams were announced and invited to engage with the Air Force to secure commercial contracts. For a complete list of participating teams visit Engage.Space/exhibitors.