Transforming Space Travel

A game changer

Ad Astra Rocket Company (AARC) is a leading spaceflight technology company dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion. The company is developing the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) engine. The VASIMR® engine’s versatility, efficiency, and power, will help revolutionize the space economy with easy and affordable in-space transportation.

Through its Costa Rica subsidiary, Ad Astra is also developing integrated “turn-key” clean energy solutions based on green-hydrogen energy storage. To learn more please visit the Ad Astra Costa Rica website…

ad astra jared franklin tiffany

Explore Our Media Section

Enjoy our favorite images and videos

Crossing the Space Frontier

Since the 1970s, starting at MIT and then for 25 years at NASA, astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz and his team of scientists have worked to develop a faster propulsion technology for space travel. The result is the VASIMR® engine, a plasma rocket with 10 times the performance of a chemical rocket, using 1/10th of the fuel. Watch Crossing the Space Frontier to learn more about this revolutionary engine.

100 KW firing VX-200SS

VX-200SS™ VASIMR® prototype firing at a power level of 100 kW with ARGON as propellant. These tests are conducted in Ad Astra’s 150 m3 Texas vacuum chamber as part of the NASA NextSTEP VASIMR® partnership, bringing the engine to a technology readiness level (TRL) of 5, a level just prior to space flight readiness. Temperatures of the plasma exhaust can reach up to 4 million degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to the interior of the sun.

Changing the Paradigm of in-space Transportation

Multiple Applications