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February 11, 2025 | BUSINESS WIREEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Momentus Inc., a U.S. commercial space company offering satellite buses, technologies, transportation, and other in-space infrastructure services, announced it has been awarded a contract expansion by the U.S. Department of Defense organization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct an in-orbit demonstration of the assembly of large scale structures. The mission will launch on an upcoming SpaceX Transporter rideshare as soon as early 2026.
For this upcoming mission, Momentus is under contract to provide full-service support to the DARPA Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, including arranging launch services, payload integration, and in-orbit hosting of the payload for a complex in-space assembly mission. The in-space assembly will be conducted on the Momentus Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle. The purpose of this effort is to validate the functionality, performance, and reliability of the in-space assembly payload in the LEO space environment.
Momentus was awarded the initial NOM4D contract in April 2024 and completed the first two phases of the contract. This latest contract award from DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office is for Phase 3 of the program valued at about $3.5M.
The DARPA NOM4D program focuses on developing the foundations for building robust and precise structures in space. The vision is to transport raw materials from Earth for in-orbit manufacturing. Unlike deployable structures optimized for ground tests and launch survival, these structures—such as solar arrays, antennas, and optics—will be specifically designed for fabrication in the space environment.
“We’re thrilled to be supporting DARPA on this cutting-edge program and are looking forward to this exciting demonstration of key enabling technologies for in-space assembly,” said Momentus Chief Executive Officer John Rood. “Cost-effective assembly of structures in space has the potential to transform how we operate in space. Structures that are too large to fit within the shroud of a launch vehicle can be robotically assembled in space, leading to less complex and cost-effective structures like large communications antennas, hubs for orbital manufacturing of advanced materials and potentially products like semi-conductors, and the repair and upgrade of space systems. This latest contract from DARPA builds on work Momentus has done to secure important contracts from NASA and the U.S. Space Development Agency in late 2024 to support missions in orbit to demonstrate new technology. Together, these contracts position the company well for future growth.”
This mission marks Momentus’ fourth Vigoride mission and first mission supporting DARPA. For this mission, Momentus has additional capacity to support customers planning LEO deployment and hosted payload missions in early 2026.
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