Solstar awarded federal contract to develop Wi-Fi system for NASA’s Artemis program

Houston, we have Wi-Fi.

Santa Fe-based Solstar Space Co. has received a $150,000 NASA contract to develop a lunar Wi-Fi system providing wireless connectivity to astronauts, surface vehicles and moon orbiting assets.

Solstar CEO Brian Barnett said the six-month Phase I Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, contract will aid the company in completing preliminary designs of the technology. The Wi-Fi system will support real-time mission data flow, navigation and scientific collaboration.

“Receiving this SBIR award is a milestone for Solstar and for space-based connectivity,” Barnett said in a statement. “As NASA prepares for a sustained human presence on the moon, commercial innovation will be essential.”

Solstar’s technology will support the Artemis program, a NASA initiative focused on exploring the moon for scientific discovery and technology advancement, as well as learning how to live and work in “another world.” For the first time in 50 years, spacecraft part of Artemis, the Space Launch System and Orion rockets, will place astronauts, robots and supplies back on the moon by 2027.

Barnett said the lunar Wi-Fi system would be attached to objects — think spacecrafts, rovers and spacesuits — before launching into space to then be reachable by those on Earth. The technology would be created for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions, which usually last 14 Earth days, or one lunar day. A unique “delivery service,” these missions enable American companies to send science and technology instruments to the moon ahead of time to set the environment for long-term human presence.

Due to extreme environments in space, Barnett said it isn’t feasible to run technology with a lot of wires or upkeep. Space communication has been dependent on radio transmissions, but Solstar will provide hardware made to withstand radiation and temperatures.

Founded in 2017, Solstar quickly became a name in the deep tech scene in 2018 by flying the first commercial Wi-Fi hotspot in a Blue Origin spacecraft, named the New Shepard, then sending the world’s first commercial Tweet from space.

Barnett said Solstar has worked with NASA in the past, though he considers this contract a “seal of approval” for the company’s technology. In 2024, the U.S. Space Force awarded Solstar a phase I SBIR contract worth $74,752 to create a Wi-Fi card used for maneuvering its space operations. In 2022, Northrop Grumman Corp. subcontracted Solstar to create a Wi-Fi hotspot on NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost, commonly referred to as HALO.

“Solstar’s mission has always been to keep people and systems connected in space, and this award moves us one step closer to enabling that vision for lunar missions,” Barnett said.