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Astra Space has operations in Alameda, California, where it leases a building from the city in an area that formerly hosted a naval air station. The company was originally known as Ventions and worked on a number of propulsion and other technologies under contracts with NASA and DARPA before reincorporating as Astra Space in 2016. The company’s chief executive is Chris Kemp, a former NASA chief technology officer who has been involved with several technology companies since leaving the agency in 2011.

“Astra Space designs, tests, manufactures, and operates next-generation launch services that will enable a new generation of global communications, earth observation, precision weather monitoring, navigation, and surveillance capabilities,” a document describing the city’s lease of a building to the company states. That work includes development of a rocket called Astra that is 12 meters tall and capable of placing 100 kilograms into low Earth orbit, according to a presentation attached to the lease information.

The company goes by the name Stealth Space Company in some job listings. “We believe that space is the ultimate high ground, and we are on a mission to provide routine access to earth orbit for the entrepreneurs and enterprises that are launching a new generation of services powered by small satellites that will connect, observe, and influence our planet,” states the company description on those listings.