XTERRA, is the result of a culminated effort by a group of people, from all walks of life, coming together for a shared vision.
In 1989, Quad-M, Inc. was incorporated by Victor Dube where he proceeded to build a highly skilled and tightly knit team of manufacturing specialists doing odd jobs in manufacturing and engineering over the course of 20 years. In 2012, after recognizing the opportunity in the newly emerging CubeSat industry and building upon his 40+ years of payload deployment experience stemming back to his days at Tracor (now BAE Systems) in Austin, Victor designed the first Quad-M CubeSat dispenser, the first commercial CubeSat dispenser to fly on the International Space Station, known today as the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer or NRCSD.
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Following those early flights of the NRCSD, the team grew to include two new engineers, Tyler Holden and Alex Kuehn, who brought a fresh perspective and drive for creating novel commercial space hardware to the company. In 2021, Alex began working on a unique SMA actuator technology particularly well suited to use in CubeSat dispensers. ​As Alex honed in on a final design, discussions on how to integrate the technology into Quad-M's business model began. In early 2022, Victor passed, drawing to a close a long and fruitful career, while also leaving the Quad-M team to figure out what was next.
Victor with NRCSD, 2013
Victor & Tyler w/Slingshot, 2017
As the team considered their options, it quickly became apparent that the opportunity ahead went way beyond vertically integrating Quad-M. Instead, they decided to build an entire standardized product line powered by the new SMA technology, under a new company, XTERRA, that was better suited to operate competitively in the commercial landscape while still being able to leverage Quad-M's substantial flight heritage and manufacturing capability. In January of 2023, XTERRA acquired 100% of Quad-M, solidifying the relationship between the two companies. Today, the team of 8 people behind Quad-M and XTERRA are responsible for over 300 satellite deployments, have developed over 20 unique designs, and have been building hardware for over 30 consecutive years.
Between XTERRA's technology and products, and Quad-M's flight heritage and manufacturing prowess, the team hopes to usher in a new age of low-cost space hardware that will change the commercial space industry for the better, continuing Victor's legacy while fulfilling Alex and Tyler's shared vision for a more accessible future in space.
Quad-M/XTERRA team (left-to-right); Michael, Tyler, Gina, Chris, John, Bob, Alex, Mandy 2023