LEO Knight and HyperBus
An artist’s conception shows Tethers Unlimited’s LEO Knight robotic servicing spacecraft working on the company’s HyperBus payload platform. (Tethers Unlimited Illustration)

Colorado-based Amergint Technology Holdings says it has acquired Tethers Unlimited, a Bothell, Wash.-based space venture that’s working on a wide range of government-funded projects.

In a news release, Amergint said the deal will bring together the two companies’ teams to provide integrated end-to-end solutions for satellite communications and in-space services.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Tethers Unlimited was founded in 1994 by Rob Hoyt and the late science-fiction author Robert L. Forward, initially with the idea of developing tethers as power-generating and orbit-changing tools for spacecraft.

Since then, the company has widened its focus to encompass other space technologies including software-defined radios, satellite propulsion systems and robotic systems for in-space manufacturing and servicing.

Under Hoyt’s leadership as CEO, Tethers Unlimited Inc. has been a consistent recipient of government contracts for technology development. Just this week, NASA awarded two $750,000 small-business grants to the company for work on its HyperBus payload platform and a robotic tool-changing interface known as ARTIE. Its 3-D printer and plastic recycler has been undergoing testing on the International Space Station.

Amergint specializes in software-defined communications technology for military, intelligence and commercial customers — and it’s on the rise. Last month, the company acquired Raytheon’s space-based optics business and announced a partnership with Abaco Systems to develop new capabilities for electronic-warfare communications.

In today’s news release, Hoyt said “joining forces with Amergint makes tremendous sense.”

“Combining Amergint’s ground-based processors and modems with TUI’s software-defined satellite radios and mesh network solution enables us to provide flexible, affordable, secure and resilient end-to-end communications services that scale to meet the needs of the hybrid space architectures under development by the Space Force, the Space Development Agency, DARPA, USAF and the intelligence community,” Hoyt said.

Amergint CEO Larry Hill said he was “thrilled to welcome Rob and the team at TUI into our family.”

“At a time when our customers are increasingly focused on integrated communications and data networks, we are excited to close the link between software-defined solutions from the ground architecture to the spacecraft,” he said.

Tethers Unlimited will continue to operate in Bothell as an Amergint subsidiary, and in response to an email inquiry, Amergint told GeekWire that no management changes are planned at this time.

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