Meet Arkisys, the Startup Building the World’s First Private Spaceport

The company’s Port ecosystem should ramp up space activity by providing a hub for just about everything.

Jack Daleo

Friday, July 07, 2023 at 06:12 PM ET

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A digitalization of an individual Port module loaded with different equipment. [Courtesy: Arkisys]

Key Takeaways:

Arkisys' "Port" is an ambitious concept for a universal space outpost designed to provide assembly, integration, and resupply services in orbit, likened to Earth's maritime ports.
The modular system comprises hexagonal Port modules, "Cutters" for payload transport, "appliques" for universal docking, a robotic arm, and "Boson's Lockers" for storage, allowing for platform-agnostic operations.
The Port aims to democratize space access by significantly reducing costs and red tape for private companies to conduct various activities like satellite servicing, refueling, rapid prototyping, and in-orbit satellite construction.
Arkisys has secured partnerships, including with the U.S. Space Force to test in-orbit satellite manufacturing, with plans to launch initial components in 2024 and a full Port module by 2025-2026.

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By some accounts, ports have been around for millenia, with the oldest believed to be Byblos Port in Lebanon, established some 5,000 years ago. Those ports look nothing like today’s—but they served a similar purpose.

“Fiefdoms come and go, kingdoms come and go. But the port itself and the location has arisen as a way in which humans collaborate and onboard and offboard commodities that get shipped around the world,” Dan Lopez, chief business officer of spaceport startup Arkisys, told FLYING.