Programs
FORGEManufacturing & Flight QualificationNEXUSCislunar Domain AwarenessHERMESIn-Space Mobility & LogisticsWIRESCommunications, Navigation & TimingATLASPrecision Lunar Delivery
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Program 03 · HERMES

HERMES

High-Efficiency Rendezvous, Maneuver & Execution System

In-Space Mobility & Logistics

Most spacecraft are launched into an orbit and spend their lives defending the propellant to stay there. HERMES is built on the opposite premise: vehicles and operations designed to move, so that maneuver, logistics, and servicing become services a customer can task rather than missions a customer must invent.

In-space mobility and logistics. Missions flown on contract.

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Constanellis builds five programs from the ground outward: FORGE and NEXUS on the ground, HERMES and WIRES in orbit, ATLAS on the lunar surface. HERMES is the orbit stage of that sequence.

The problem

A static satellite is a fact. A maneuvering one is a capability.

The domain is becoming dynamic: objects that move, inspect, and reposition are now normal in the environment where U.S. and allied assets operate. Responding to that world takes more than watching it. It takes vehicles that can maneuver without regret, deliver mass across orbits, and reach assets that need inspection or support.

Maneuver

Vehicles built to move: repositioning, inspection approaches, and transfers between orbits, flown without treating every burn as a once-in-a-mission event.

Logistics

Delivery and positioning of payloads and consumables across Earth orbit and cislunar space: mass where it is needed, when it is needed.

Servicing

Rendezvous and proximity operations in service of extending, inspecting, and supporting assets that were never designed to be reached again.

Concept of operations

Maneuver is the mission.

Static assets in a dynamic domain are targets, not infrastructure. HERMES exists so that the things worth keeping in space can move, meet, and be kept: a concept of operations in four verbs, each one a mission class.

01
[ APPROACH ]

Rendezvous & Proximity

Safe approach, inspection, and characterization of cooperative and non-cooperative objects. Before the domain can be serviced or defended, it has to be met up close, deliberately, on a trajectory somebody planned.

02
[ MOVE ]

Maneuver & Logistics

Sustained maneuver and delivery between regimes, from Earth orbits out through cislunar space, without spending the asset's service life to do it. Delta-v is budgeted like money because it is money.

03
[ SERVICE ]

Servicing & Support

Life extension for assets worth keeping: refueling-ready interfaces, hosted payload support, relocation at end of mission. The economics of the domain change when hardware stops being disposable.

04
[ RESPOND ]

Dynamic Response

The capacity to reposition when the domain changes, on operational timelines rather than program timelines. This is what in-space mobility means in a contested domain, and it is the capability the mission set builds toward.

MISSION CLASSES SHOWN ARE THE DESIGN OF RECORD. VEHICLE SELECTION AND MISSION SPECIFICS ARE STATED UNDER NDA.

Our approach

Operations as the product, flown on contract.

HERMES is a mission line, not a single vehicle. The engineering center of gravity is guidance, navigation, and control: rendezvous, proximity operations, and efficient transfer, developed against the awareness picture NEXUS maintains and the EVERLIGHT connectivity WIRES operates.

HERMES flies as missions on contract: a defined objective, a defined interface, and a data product at the end, delivered as a recurring service a customer can task. Development proceeds now against the full mission set, and each mission class enters service against a stated customer requirement.

Mission Profile
Design target
Mission setManeuver, logistics, and servicing
RegimeEarth orbit through cislunar space, including the transfer between them
Operating modelRecurring missions on contract, not one-off demos
AutonomyGNC for rendezvous, proximity operations, and transfer
Delta-VUndisclosedDelivered as a curve across payload mass, not a point figure. Under NDA.
Payload mass to a cislunar destinationUndisclosedScoped against your orbit, epoch, and mass. Under NDA.
Rendezvous approach accuracyUndisclosedQuoted with its dispersion and its lighting assumption, or not at all. Under NDA.
NetworkOperates on EVERLIGHT connectivity and navigation
Assumptions
  • Rows state program intent at the maturity the badge above carries.
  • Delta-V, payload, and approach accuracy are coupled by one vehicle trade. Any of them published alone is true for exactly one manifest, so they are quoted together, against a real mission.
  • Scoping runs against your actual orbit, epoch, and mass. That is where these numbers become useful.

Vehicle configuration and performance detail available under NDA to qualified customers.

Open roles on this program

All open positions
Chief Systems Engineer
Engineering · Colorado · $220K to $300K base
Lead GNC Engineer
Engineering · Colorado · $150K to $220K base
Head of Government Business Development & Capture
Business Development · Washington, D.C. Metro · $210K to $280K base
Grants & Proposals Writer
Business Development · Colorado · $90K to $130K base
HERMES in the architecture

The step between watching the domain and working in it.

Awareness earns the right to operate; operations earn the right to build farther out. HERMES is the working middle of the stack: informed by NEXUS, connected by EVERLIGHT, flown as missions on contract.

NEXUS
Cislunar Domain Awareness

Dynamic operations run on the awareness picture; HERMES missions consume NEXUS products and feed observations back.

WIRES
Communications, Navigation & Timing

Maneuvering vehicles need PNT and communications that hold up when the geometry changes; EVERLIGHT is engineered for exactly that case.

ATLAS
Precision Lunar Delivery

The operations discipline proven with HERMES is what makes precision lunar delivery credible.

Planning for a dynamic domain?

Mission concepts and teaming discussions are available under NDA to qualified government and industry partners.

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