General Astronautics growth playbook

Add /government with a downloadable one-page capability statement in the standard format: core capabilities (autonomous dexterous manipulation for orbital inspection, repair and assembly, plus microgravity lab handling), differentiators (autonomy without astronaut intervention, flight-bound hardware, a team from SpaceX, Caltech and Carnegie Mellon), demonstration status and milestones (parabolic flight, the upcoming on-orbit demonstration), the company data a contracting officer needs (exact legal name as registered, SAM status, UEI, CAGE, primary NAICS 541715), the contract pathways you accept (SBIR/STTR, OTs, BAAs, subcontracts) and a named BD contact. Use the registered legal name exactly: the SAM record says "Corp." while the older site footer says "Inc.". Link the page in the header, put the PDF in every outreach email, and give the new BD head an editable version to tailor per agency.

Small-business qualification usually starts on the website, often before anyone replies to an email. A complete capability statement answers the first round of questions in one page, makes a four-person startup look procurement-ready, and gives primes the details they need to add the company to a teaming list. The new BD lead then starts with a working asset instead of building one in their first month.

[ ] Exact legal name as on SAM.gov, UEI, CAGE, primary NAICS 541715
[ ] One-sentence company description (autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair and assembly)
[ ] Core capabilities: 3 lines
[ ] Differentiators: 3 lines (autonomy without astronaut intervention, flight hardware, team background)
[ ] Demonstration status: parabolic flight, on-orbit demonstration (completed / in test / planned)
[ ] Contract pathways accepted: SBIR/STTR, OT, BAA, subcontract
[ ] Point of contact: BD email and phone
[ ] Export note: technical detail available under NDA
[ ] Linked from the header as /government, PDF under 1 MB

• Sharing export-controlled technical detail

  Keep capability lines at the level of the job posts and review them against export rules before publishing.

• Claiming milestones before they happen

  Label each item as completed, in test or planned.

• HiringHead of Government Business Development (El Segundo, posted October 14, 2026): "Lead government business development across the Department of Defense, NASA, and other federal agencies"; "Pursue opportunities through SBIR/STTR programs, Other Transactions, BAAs, RFPs"; "Develop teaming and partnership strategies with defense primes, neo-primes, and other aerospace companies"; "Build the proposal templates, tracking systems, and processes"; preferred: "U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, DARPA, DIU, AFWERX, or SpaceWERX programs".Source
• Your websiteSitemap (checked November 9, 2026): one URL, the homepage, last modified September 10, 2026. There is no product, capabilities, government, team, news or blog page, and "Join us" redirects to the Ashby job board.Source
• ResearchSAM.gov: GENERAL ASTRONAUTICS, CORP. is registered and active for all awards (registered September 19, 2025, renewal due May 15, 2027), primary NAICS 541715 (research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences).Source
• Your websiteHomepage (checked November 9, 2026): title "General Astronautics"; meta description "General Astronautics is a space robotics company building autonomous robots for orbit. Space robotics for microgravity manufacturing, research, repair, and assembly."; headings "Our Thesis for Humanity" and "A Vast and Endless Sea"; the only actions are "Join us" (careers) and "Inquire", an email link with the subject "Microgravity robotics inquiry"; the essay cites an ISS National Lab annual report and an npj Microgravity (Nature) article.Source
• Your websiteAn earlier version of the site is still live and appears in web search: "Staffing the Space Economy", "Autonomous dexterous robotics for microgravity handling across pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing markets", backers listed as Y Combinator and the NVIDIA Inception Program, a "PLAN YOUR MISSION" button, and a footer reading "General Astronautics, Inc.".Source

Check what a non-JavaScript reader receives (view source, or fetch with scripts disabled). If the essay is injected or revealed by script, put the essay text in the HTML itself and keep any animation as an enhancement. Add Article structured data with the title, author and date, and make each footnote a real link.

The $130K-an-hour argument is the company's best line. When it's in the HTML, every reader can quote it, including search engines, AI assistants answering "who builds robots for microgravity labs", and the previews program officers see when the link is shared.

• The essay was already in the HTML and only our reader missed it

  The first step settles it in 15 minutes. If it's already there, add structured data and move on.

• Your websiteText-only reading (three fetches, November 9, 2026): a reader that does not run JavaScript gets the logo, "Our Thesis for Humanity", "A Vast and Endless Sea", Careers, Inquiries and the footer, and none of the essay: no "$130,000", "microgravity" or footnotes.Source
• PageSpeedGoogle PageSpeed (November 2026): mobile performance 99, desktop 89, SEO 100, accessibility 91 (contrast and colour-only links); the largest element is the essay paragraph "Astronaut time is valued at $130,000 an hour [1]."; about 0.9s of render-blocking requests and 96 KB of web fonts in a 139 KB page. Real visitors pass Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.2s, INP 64ms, CLS 0.06.Source

Redirect every path on the old deployment to generalastro.com (or take it down), check that search results update, and carry over anything useful from it, such as the two capability descriptions and the backer list, into the new pages.

One address with one story makes the brand easier to trust and concentrates search signals on the real domain.

• Losing a page someone bookmarked

  Redirect rather than delete.

• Your websiteAn earlier version of the site is still live and appears in web search: "Staffing the Space Economy", "Autonomous dexterous robotics for microgravity handling across pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing markets", backers listed as Y Combinator and the NVIDIA Inception Program, a "PLAN YOUR MISSION" button, and a footer reading "General Astronautics, Inc.".Source
• Your websiteSite history (archived April 15 to October 16, 2026): the headline changed from "Staffing the Space Economy" to "General Astronautics"; the rebuild dropped Next.js, React and the Plausible analytics script, and no analytics tool is detected now. There is no newsletter, YouTube, Instagram or GitHub; social is X and LinkedIn.Source
• ResearchSAM.gov: GENERAL ASTRONAUTICS, CORP. is registered and active for all awards (registered September 19, 2025, renewal due May 15, 2027), primary NAICS 541715 (research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences).Source

Add a short form with one required choice (government program, research or payload customer, prime or partner, investor, press) and two or three fields per path: agency or program, payload type and timing, or partnership type. Send government and prime inquiries to the BD lead and research inquiries to the founder, and auto-reply with the matching one-pager. Keep the email address for people who prefer it.

Routing by audience gets faster, better first replies, and the counts show which of the two markets is pulling harder.

• Spam

  Add a privacy-friendly challenge.

• Your websiteHomepage (checked November 9, 2026): title "General Astronautics"; meta description "General Astronautics is a space robotics company building autonomous robots for orbit. Space robotics for microgravity manufacturing, research, repair, and assembly."; headings "Our Thesis for Humanity" and "A Vast and Endless Sea"; the only actions are "Join us" (careers) and "Inquire", an email link with the subject "Microgravity robotics inquiry"; the essay cites an ISS National Lab annual report and an npj Microgravity (Nature) article.Source
• HiringHead of Government Business Development (El Segundo, posted October 14, 2026): "Lead government business development across the Department of Defense, NASA, and other federal agencies"; "Pursue opportunities through SBIR/STTR programs, Other Transactions, BAAs, RFPs"; "Develop teaming and partnership strategies with defense primes, neo-primes, and other aerospace companies"; "Build the proposal templates, tracking systems, and processes"; preferred: "U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, DARPA, DIU, AFWERX, or SpaceWERX programs".Source
• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source

Add a privacy-friendly analytics script back (one small tag, no cookie banner needed with most cookieless tools), set goals for Inquire clicks, capability-statement downloads and careers clicks, and use tagged links in every outreach email, YC post and LinkedIn update.

With a four-person team, knowing which channel brings government visitors versus pharma visitors decides where the founder spends their week.

• Slower page

  Use a tag under 2 KB; the site's 139 KB page has room.

• Your websiteSite history (archived April 15 to October 16, 2026): the headline changed from "Staffing the Space Economy" to "General Astronautics"; the rebuild dropped Next.js, React and the Plausible analytics script, and no analytics tool is detected now. There is no newsletter, YouTube, Instagram or GitHub; social is X and LinkedIn.Source
• PageSpeedGoogle PageSpeed (November 2026): mobile performance 99, desktop 89, SEO 100, accessibility 91 (contrast and colour-only links); the largest element is the essay paragraph "Astronaut time is valued at $130,000 an hour [1]."; about 0.9s of render-blocking requests and 96 KB of web fonts in a 139 KB page. Real visitors pass Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.2s, INP 64ms, CLS 0.06.Source

Keep the essay and add one line and two buttons above it: the job-post sentence, extended to lab work in orbit, then "For government programs" (to /government) and "For research teams" (to the research page or form). Use the same sentence for the title tag, the meta description, the LinkedIn tagline and the X bio.

Visitors decide in seconds whether a site is for them. One concrete sentence lets both buyer types self-select, and the essay is still there for those who want the argument.

• Diluting the essay's tone

  Keep the line small and factual, with the essay unchanged below.

• Your websiteHomepage (checked November 9, 2026): title "General Astronautics"; meta description "General Astronautics is a space robotics company building autonomous robots for orbit. Space robotics for microgravity manufacturing, research, repair, and assembly."; headings "Our Thesis for Humanity" and "A Vast and Endless Sea"; the only actions are "Join us" (careers) and "Inquire", an email link with the subject "Microgravity robotics inquiry"; the essay cites an ISS National Lab annual report and an npj Microgravity (Nature) article.Source
• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source
• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• PageSpeedGoogle PageSpeed (November 2026): mobile performance 99, desktop 89, SEO 100, accessibility 91 (contrast and colour-only links); the largest element is the essay paragraph "Astronaut time is valued at $130,000 an hour [1]."; about 0.9s of render-blocking requests and 96 KB of web fonts in a 139 KB page. Real visitors pass Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.2s, INP 64ms, CLS 0.06.Source

Self-host the font files (subset to the characters used), preload the main weight, use font-display: swap, bundle or defer the small script loaded from a public CDN, and set long cache lifetimes on static files. Fix the two accessibility items (contrast and colour-only links) at the same time.

On a single-page site whose content is the essay, showing text faster and more legibly helps every visitor, and the work is small.

• Font flash on load

  Choose a close fallback font.

• PageSpeedGoogle PageSpeed (November 2026): mobile performance 99, desktop 89, SEO 100, accessibility 91 (contrast and colour-only links); the largest element is the essay paragraph "Astronaut time is valued at $130,000 an hour [1]."; about 0.9s of render-blocking requests and 96 KB of web fonts in a 139 KB page. Real visitors pass Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.2s, INP 64ms, CLS 0.06.Source

Publish /orbital-servicing (inspection, repair, assembly, replacing and upgrading hardware, autonomy without astronaut intervention) and /microgravity-lab (pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing for crystallization, biologics, cell culture and semiconductor work). Each page gets one diagram, the demonstration status, the crew-time argument and its own inquiry path.

Separate pages let each buyer see their problem described in their own words, rank for their own searches, and give BD and the founder a link to send.

• Splitting focus

  Let inquiry data decide which page gets more investment.

• #6 Say what the robot does in the first screen, under "Our Thesis for Humanity"

• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source
• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• Your websiteAn earlier version of the site is still live and appears in web search: "Staffing the Space Economy", "Autonomous dexterous robotics for microgravity handling across pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing markets", backers listed as Y Combinator and the NVIDIA Inception Program, a "PLAN YOUR MISSION" button, and a footer reading "General Astronautics, Inc.".Source
• Your websiteSitemap (checked November 9, 2026): one URL, the homepage, last modified September 10, 2026. There is no product, capabilities, government, team, news or blog page, and "Join us" redirects to the Ashby job board.Source

Build a single tracker of open and expected topics across those agencies, scored against the arm's demonstrated capabilities (manipulation, autonomy, inspection/repair/assembly) and the demonstration timeline. Pre-write reusable sections (company, team, technical approach, commercialization, with research customers as the dual-use story) so each new bid starts at 60% done.

Most early wins come from a few well-matched topics. A calendar and a reusable proposal library turn the BD hire's first quarter into submissions rather than set-up.

• Engineering time pulled into proposals

  Cap engineering input per bid and reuse the library.

• #1 Publish a government capability statement page before the new Head of Government Business Development starts calling program offices

• HiringHead of Government Business Development (El Segundo, posted October 14, 2026): "Lead government business development across the Department of Defense, NASA, and other federal agencies"; "Pursue opportunities through SBIR/STTR programs, Other Transactions, BAAs, RFPs"; "Develop teaming and partnership strategies with defense primes, neo-primes, and other aerospace companies"; "Build the proposal templates, tracking systems, and processes"; preferred: "U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, DARPA, DIU, AFWERX, or SpaceWERX programs".Source
• ResearchSAM.gov: GENERAL ASTRONAUTICS, CORP. is registered and active for all awards (registered September 19, 2025, renewal due May 15, 2027), primary NAICS 541715 (research and development in the physical, engineering and life sciences).Source
• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source

Write a one-page teaming sheet (interfaces, mass and power class at a publishable level, autonomy, the work share you'd take, the demonstration plan) and a 20-minute call script. Pick ten primes and neo-primes with servicing, assembly or station programs, reach their small-business liaison or advanced-programs teams, and log each conversation.

Primes look for small businesses that bring a specific capability and are easy to work with, and a ready teaming sheet removes the first round of effort for them.

• Primes take the idea in-house

  Share technical depth only under NDA.

• #1 Publish a government capability statement page before the new Head of Government Business Development starts calling program offices

• HiringHead of Government Business Development (El Segundo, posted October 14, 2026): "Lead government business development across the Department of Defense, NASA, and other federal agencies"; "Pursue opportunities through SBIR/STTR programs, Other Transactions, BAAs, RFPs"; "Develop teaming and partnership strategies with defense primes, neo-primes, and other aerospace companies"; "Build the proposal templates, tracking systems, and processes"; preferred: "U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, DARPA, DIU, AFWERX, or SpaceWERX programs".Source
• Competitor researchGITAI: "Provide safe and affordable means of labor in Space"; a demonstration robot "deployed in a commercial module of the International Space Station"; news of selection by the U.S. Space Force and a contract under the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD IDIQ.See the research Source

Pitch the arm to commercial station developers as built-in lab capacity: they offer "robot-tended" payload slots at a lower price than crew-tended ones, and General Astronautics is paid per installed unit or per hour. Start with a joint study of which of the operator's planned payload types the arm can handle, then a letter of intent tied to the station's outfitting timeline.

One operator partnership reaches every customer on that station, which is far more efficient for a four-person team than selling to pharma companies one at a time.

• Station schedules slip

  Keep the ISS and free-flyer paths open in parallel.

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• Y CombinatorYC profile: Winter 2026 batch, founded 2025, team size 4, "Autonomous robotics for space operations"; the founder/CEO is a Caltech aerospace engineer who built hardware reliability systems for SpaceX's Starlink lasers and says "The bottleneck is labor, not science, and robots can solve that now."Source

Build a simple page where a researcher enters the steps of their protocol and their frequency, sees the crew-hours and cost at ISS and commercial-station rates, and sees which steps the arm can take over. Gate the detailed PDF report behind the research inquiry form.

A personal number is more persuasive than a general claim, and every completed calculation is a qualified lead with a named protocol.

• Disputed rates

  Cite the source of each rate and let users change it.

• #4 Replace the single email link with an inquiry form that routes government, research, partner and investor requests

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• PageSpeedGoogle PageSpeed (November 2026): mobile performance 99, desktop 89, SEO 100, accessibility 91 (contrast and colour-only links); the largest element is the essay paragraph "Astronaut time is valued at $130,000 an hour [1]."; about 0.9s of render-blocking requests and 96 KB of web fonts in a 139 KB page. Real visitors pass Core Web Vitals: LCP 1.2s, INP 64ms, CLS 0.06.Source

Mount cameras on every test: lab manipulation runs, vibration and thermal tests, the parabolic flights. Publish short clips weekly on X and LinkedIn, a longer cut per campaign on YouTube, and a "Flight log" section on the site with the date, the test and the result. Clear each clip for export before posting.

Video of hardware working is the strongest credibility signal a young space company has. It helps BD, fundraising and hiring at once, and costs little beyond cameras.

• Showing controlled detail

  Approve each clip against export rules before posting.

• Failures on camera

  Publish them too, with what was learned; buyers trust honest test culture.

• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source
• Your websiteSite history (archived April 15 to October 16, 2026): the headline changed from "Staffing the Space Economy" to "General Astronautics"; the rebuild dropped Next.js, React and the Plausible analytics script, and no analytics tool is detected now. There is no newsletter, YouTube, Instagram or GitHub; social is X and LinkedIn.Source

Offer a fixed-price, fixed-scope pilot: the team sends one protocol, General Astronautics runs it on the arm in El Segundo, and delivers a report covering steps automated, repeatability, and the crew hours that protocol would cost in orbit. The pilot fee is credited against a future flight.

It turns an intro into revenue and data within weeks, proves the arm on real lab work, and puts each research team on the path to a flight slot.

• Distracts from the flight demo

  Cap pilots at one at a time.

• Lab safety with biological samples

  Start with non-hazardous surrogate materials.

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• Competitor researchVarda: "a microgravity-enabled life sciences company that processes materials in orbit and returns them to Earth"; biopharma pitch "Discover unique morphologies and crystal structures in microgravity"; a dedicated pharma inquiry address.See the research Source
• Competitor researchSpace Tango: automated systems "Advancing R&D and Manufacturing in Microgravity" (Mambo, PAUL and Studio), sold to drug development, disease modeling, materials and biomanufacturing teams; "Proven. Modular. Scalable."See the research Source

List 30 target organisations (pharma and biotech teams doing microgravity work, station operators, primes), match each to a YC founder or program contact who knows them, and send each contact a short forwardable email with the right one-pager. Track every intro to outcome.

Warm intros are a seed-stage company's cheapest channel, and a ready-to-forward blurb removes the effort that stops most of them.

• Asking too often

  One ask per connector per month.

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• Your websiteAn earlier version of the site is still live and appears in web search: "Staffing the Space Economy", "Autonomous dexterous robotics for microgravity handling across pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing markets", backers listed as Y Combinator and the NVIDIA Inception Program, a "PLAN YOUR MISSION" button, and a footer reading "General Astronautics, Inc.".Source

Publish one page that compares approaches rather than naming and attacking rivals: crew-tended, fixed automated hardware, capsule processing, and a dexterous arm. Compare them on flexibility of protocol, crew time, return of samples and timeline, and say plainly when another approach suits better.

Honest positioning builds trust with scientific buyers and gives AI assistants and search engines a clear answer to "how do I automate an experiment in microgravity".

• Rivals object

  Describe approaches generically and cite public sources.

• #7 Two capability pages, one per market: orbital servicing for government, lab automation for research teams

• Competitor researchGITAI: "Provide safe and affordable means of labor in Space"; a demonstration robot "deployed in a commercial module of the International Space Station"; news of selection by the U.S. Space Force and a contract under the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD IDIQ.See the research Source
• Competitor researchSpace Tango: automated systems "Advancing R&D and Manufacturing in Microgravity" (Mambo, PAUL and Studio), sold to drug development, disease modeling, materials and biomanufacturing teams; "Proven. Modular. Scalable."See the research Source
• Competitor researchVarda: "a microgravity-enabled life sciences company that processes materials in orbit and returns them to Earth"; biopharma pitch "Discover unique morphologies and crystal structures in microgravity"; a dedicated pharma inquiry address.See the research Source

Add /careers with the mission in two lines, photos or clips of the lab and tests, what a first engineer owns, the internship programme and pay, the export eligibility requirement stated clearly, and the Ashby list embedded. Share it with university robotics and aerospace clubs.

For a four-person company, hiring the next engineers is growth. A page that shows the work converts more of the right applicants and screens out ineligible ones early.

• More unqualified applications

  Put eligibility and must-have skills near the top.

• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source
• Your websiteSitemap (checked November 9, 2026): one URL, the homepage, last modified September 10, 2026. There is no product, capabilities, government, team, news or blog page, and "Join us" redirects to the Ashby job board.Source
• Y CombinatorYC profile: Winter 2026 batch, founded 2025, team size 4, "Autonomous robotics for space operations"; the founder/CEO is a Caltech aerospace engineer who built hardware reliability systems for SpaceX's Starlink lasers and says "The bottleneck is labor, not science, and robots can solve that now."Source

Publish a plain-language page covering how the company handles export-controlled information, who owns the customer's protocol and data from a pilot or flight, standard NDA and data terms, and where work is done (El Segundo). Have counsel review it, and link it from the capability statement and the research pages.

Answering standard diligence questions up front shortens the time from first call to signed pilot.

• Over-promising on compliance

  Describe practices, not certifications, unless you hold them.

• #1 Publish a government capability statement page before the new Head of Government Business Development starts calling program offices

• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source
• HiringHead of Government Business Development (El Segundo, posted October 14, 2026): "Lead government business development across the Department of Defense, NASA, and other federal agencies"; "Pursue opportunities through SBIR/STTR programs, Other Transactions, BAAs, RFPs"; "Develop teaming and partnership strategies with defense primes, neo-primes, and other aerospace companies"; "Build the proposal templates, tracking systems, and processes"; preferred: "U.S. Space Force, U.S. Air Force, NASA, DARPA, DIU, AFWERX, or SpaceWERX programs".Source

Design a service model: the company installs and operates the arm, and customers buy task-hours (or a per-experiment package) at a published fraction of crew-time cost. Start with one station or free-flyer host, define what an hour includes (setup, execution, video and data logs), and publish the price once the first demonstration is complete.

A price set against an expensive, well-known alternative is easy for buyers to approve, and a service model builds recurring revenue and a data advantage that equipment sales don't.

• Utilisation too low to cover costs

  Pre-sell hour blocks before committing hardware.

• Hosts want to own the service

  Offer a revenue share.

• #10 Sell to commercial station operators: robot hours as a station amenity that stretches scarce crew time
• #11 A crew-time calculator: what the hands-on steps of a payload cost at $130K an hour, and what a robot saves

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source

Offer "rehearse on Earth, run in orbit": customers get time on a ground twin (in El Segundo, later possibly remotely operated) to develop their protocol with the arm. The validated script then runs on the flight unit. Price ground time as the on-ramp to flight hours, and use the runs to improve the manipulation policies.

It removes the scariest part of a flight experiment (the unknowns), creates revenue before flight capacity exists, and builds a data advantage that rivals with fixed automation can't match.

• Ground and orbit behave differently

  Validate key steps on parabolic flights and report the differences.

• #13 A paid ground pilot for pharma and biotech teams: automate one protocol on the arm on Earth before any flight

• Y CombinatorLaunch post: NASA estimates ISS crew time at $130K an hour, and "On commercial stations, it's more than three times that." The robots "handle laboratory work: pipetting, sample prep, plate handling, reagent mixing"; the ask is intros to pharma or biotech teams in "protein crystallization, biologics, cell culture, or silicon manufacturing".Source
• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source
• Competitor researchSpace Tango: automated systems "Advancing R&D and Manufacturing in Microgravity" (Mambo, PAUL and Studio), sold to drug development, disease modeling, materials and biomanufacturing teams; "Proven. Modular. Scalable."See the research Source

Invite one academic or nonprofit lab to fly a simple, well-understood protocol (for example a crystallization or sample-prep step from published work) on the demonstration. Agree up front to co-publish the data, the video and a short paper or preprint, and announce the partner early so the mission has a story beyond the hardware.

Scientific partners bring credibility, audiences and publication channels, and an open result becomes the reference case every later sales conversation can point to.

• The science payload adds risk to the demo

  Make it a secondary objective that can be dropped.

• #12 Film every test campaign, parabolic flight first, and publish the footage on X, LinkedIn and a new YouTube channel

• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source
• Your websiteHomepage (checked November 9, 2026): title "General Astronautics"; meta description "General Astronautics is a space robotics company building autonomous robots for orbit. Space robotics for microgravity manufacturing, research, repair, and assembly."; headings "Our Thesis for Humanity" and "A Vast and Endless Sea"; the only actions are "Join us" (careers) and "Inquire", an email link with the subject "Microgravity robotics inquiry"; the essay cites an ISS National Lab annual report and an npj Microgravity (Nature) article.Source

After a parabolic campaign, release a curated subset: a few tasks, sensor logs and video, with a simple leaderboard. Keep the full proprietary data private and clear the release against export rules. Present it at a robotics workshop and invite labs to submit policies.

Benchmarks attract citations, talent and partners at low cost, and they show technical depth that a website can't.

• Giving away an advantage

  Release only a small, older subset.

• #12 Film every test campaign, parabolic flight first, and publish the footage on X, LinkedIn and a new YouTube channel

• HiringCompany description in every job post: "General Astronautics is building autonomous dexterous robotic arms for orbital inspection, repair, and assembly." "Our systems will enable spacecraft to perform complex operations without astronaut intervention." The controls role covers motion planning, perception and learning-based policies.Source
• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source

Publish a simple brief (grip and release a set piece of labware, scored on a test rig), open it to university teams, judge the finalists in El Segundo, and offer internship interviews to the best entrants. Film the finals for the company's channels.

Challenges reach more eligible candidates than job boards, show their skills directly, and produce content and goodwill at low cost.

• Time away from flight work

  Keep it small and run it after the parabolic campaign.

• #16 Bring careers onto generalastro.com: a page that sells "the hardware you build will fly" before the job list

• HiringEngineering hiring (posted October 13-14, 2026, all on-site in El Segundo): a Robotics Controls Engineer ("from initial development through flight demonstrations"; "one of the first engineers at the company"), a Mechanical Engineer ("The hardware you build will fly.") and Spring and Summer 2027 mechanical interns at $30-$35 an hour who will "Support qualification and acceptance testing for parabolic flight and on-orbit demonstration hardware" for "our upcoming demonstration mission". Every post requires U.S. person status under export regulations.Source