OpenC3
OpenC3 develops COSMOS, an open-source command-and-control platform used by aerospace, satellite, and drone operators to integrate, test, and run hardware from single devices to full constellations, monetizing via tiered Enterprise subscriptions ($33K-$561K/year) on top of a free open-source core.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersErie, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What OpenC3 does
OpenC3, Inc. is a US-based private company founded in June 2022 in Erie, Colorado, that develops and commercializes COSMOS, an open-source command, control, and communications (C2) platform used to integrate, test, and operate hardware systems ranging from bench-test equipment and satellites to drone swarms and full constellations. COSMOS originated as an internal Ball Aerospace tool beginning in 2006, was open-sourced in 2014, and was carried into the new company by its original creators (CEO Ryan Melton and CTO Jason Thomas); the software is positioned as TRL-9 and is used by NASA, BAE Systems, Astroscale, AST SpaceMobile, MethaneSAT, Atomos Space, and Turion Space, with 38.7K+ global installs.
The technology stack centers on a Docker-containerized, Kubernetes-deployable architecture supporting Ruby and Python scripting, a Time Series Database built on QuestDB, ValKey-based sharding for enterprise scale, and an extensible plugin system surfaced through the COSMOS Plugin/App Store. Product capabilities include command and telemetry processing, multi-protocol connectivity (TCP, UDP, Serial, MQTT), real-time scripting automation, anomaly and limits monitoring, and — as of COSMOS 7.2 (June 2026) — a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and Sidekick AI chat that integrates external LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, local models). MAVLink plugin support extends the platform into drone/UAV operations alongside ArduPilot and PX4 ecosystems.
OpenC3 employs a freemium, product-led growth model: COSMOS Core is freely downloadable under AGPLv3 and serves as evaluation tooling, while COSMOS Enterprise is sold via direct sales with tiered annual subscriptions ranging from $33K (Single Purpose) to $561K (Company Wide), plus perpetual licenses, government framework pricing, and separate support contracts. Adjacent revenue streams include fixed-price and hourly-rate custom plugin development and training services ($6,500/day remote, $10,000/day in-person within CONUS). Customer segments span space/aerospace prime contractors, startups, government/military, drone operators, and robotics companies, with vertical segmentation as the primary GTM approach. The leadership team consists of CEO Ryan Melton, CTO Jason Thomas, COO Greg Bonn, CMO Chris Haller, Chief of Staff Lauren Lellis, plus roughly five staff engineers and a senior content marketing specialist.
OpenC3 firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- OpenC3
- Legal name
- OpenC3, Inc.
- Website
- https://openc3.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- OpenC3 develops COSMOS, an open-source command-and-control platform used by aerospace, satellite, and drone operators to integrate, test, and run hardware from single devices to full constellations, monetizing via tiered Enterprise subscriptions ($33K-$561K/year) on top of a free open-source core.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
OpenC3 industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Satellite Command and Control Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) (HDAFANAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management (HDABABAK)
Keywords
Where OpenC3 is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Erie
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
OpenC3 business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- COSMOS Core (Open Source): Free open source version of COSMOS available for download. Licensed under AGPLv3 (OpenC3 Builder's License). This serves as a free tier for evaluation and non-commercial use.
- COSMOS Enterprise Subscription: Annual subscription license providing multi-user production environments with enhanced security, scalability, and commercial licensing. Includes 40 hours of support. Tiered pricing based on scope: Single Purpose ($33K/year), Product Line ($100K/year), Multi Product ($165K/year), Scaled Operations ($165K/year), Company Wide ($561K/year). Government framework pricing available.
- COSMOS Enterprise Perpetual: Perpetual license option where customers pay once and use forever. Includes first year maintenance and support. Same features as subscription except commercial license is perpetual.
- Training Services: In-person and remote training classes for COSMOS users and developers. Intro to COSMOS and Configuring COSMOS training courses priced at $6,500/day remotely or $10,000/day in-person (plus $3.5K/day travel costs for on-site).
- Additional Support Contracts: Support available in 40-hour annual increments for customers needing more assistance than included in Enterprise licenses. Separate support contracts available for COSMOS Core users.
- Custom Development: Fixed pricing and hourly rate options for custom COSMOS plugin development and larger projects. Typically offered on a fixed-price basis for plugin development.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free open source version for evaluation and non-commercial use |
| Subscription | Annual | Entry-level production license for single projects with up to 5 operational units |
| Subscription | Annual | Production license for unlimited operational units from a single product line |
| Subscription | Annual | Production license for unlimited operational units from any vendor as part of a single project |
| Subscription | Annual | Scaled operations license for proliferated missions or 3rd party systems operations |
| Subscription | Annual | Company-wide license for all 1st party development and operational use cases |
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | Remote training from anywhere |
| Unit Pricing | Multi-year contract | In-person training at customer site within CONUS |
| Subscription | Annual | Additional support beyond included hours |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels10 records
OpenC3 product offering
Product offeringCore offering
OpenC3 develops and sells OpenC3 COSMOS, a command, control, and communications (C3) software platform used to integrate, test, and operate hardware systems ranging from test equipment and satellites to entire constellations and drone fleets. The platform is offered as a free open-source edition (COSMOS Core) and as a commercial enterprise edition (COSMOS Enterprise) with multi-user production environments, Kubernetes scalability, and commercial licensing.
Product overview
OpenC3 COSMOS is a unified command and control software platform for integration, test, and operations of hardware systems. The product portfolio includes COSMOS Core (free open-source AGPLv3 licensed version) and COSMOS Enterprise (commercially licensed with multi-user, scalable features). Enterprise is offered through subscription ($30K+/year) and perpetual license models with tiered pricing based on operational scope. The platform is extended through a Plugin Library and App Store offering specialized plugins like MAVLink (for drone operations) and OpenTelemetry (for observability). COSMOS provides comprehensive scripting capabilities in both Ruby and Python, with tools for command and telemetry processing, data visualization, and automation. Training services (User Training and Configuration Training) are available at $6,500/day remotely. The platform originated from Ball Aerospace COSMOS and is trusted by organizations including NASA, Astroscale, BAE Systems, and AST SpaceMobile.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- COSMOS: OpenC3 COSMOS is the core software platform for command, control, and operations of hardware systems including satellites, test equipment, and drones. Available in open source (COSMOS Core) and commercial (COSMOS Enterprise) editions.
Products and services
- OpenC3 COSMOS Core Free open-source command and control software for integration, test, and operations. Provides command and telemetry processing, telemetry screens and graphing, packet logging, and scripting in Ruby or Python. Licensed under AGPLv3 (OpenC3 Builder's License).
- COSMOS Enterprise Commercial version of COSMOS for multi-user production environments with enhanced security, scalability, user accounts and RBAC, Kubernetes and cloud support, multiple scoped environments, included support, direct developer access, and a plugin library including CFDP. Offered via annual subscription ($33K-$561K/year by tier) or perpetual license, with government framework pricing.
- MAVLink Plugin Plugin enabling COSMOS to command, monitor, and automate drones and rovers using the MAVLink protocol. Supports ArduPilot and PX4 dialects with 170+ commands and 320 telemetry packets, and integrates with Gazebo simulation and QGroundControl.
- OpenTelemetry Plugin
Quantifiable outcome
- Enable companies to configure their own C2 systems with existing engineers instead of hiring expensive contractors, potentially saving millions of dollars
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use OpenC3
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
OpenC3 technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability6 records
Feature11 records
OpenC3 partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- PX4/ArduPilot EcosystemcoreMAVLink plugin integration supporting common, ArduPilot, and PX4 dialects. Enables COSMOS users to command, monitor, and automate drones and rovers using industry-standard MAVLink protocol with 170+ commands and 320+ telemetry packets.
- QuestDBcoreQuestDB provides time series database functionality for COSMOS Enterprise. Supports TSDB metrics with partition sizes, row counts, and disk usage visibility. Used in enterprise sharding configuration for massive scalability.
- ValKeycoreValKey used for enterprise sharding support in Kubernetes deployments. Enables COSMOS to scale to hundreds of targets using sharded ValKey instances alongside QuestDB.
- KubernetescoreCOSMOS Enterprise supports Kubernetes deployment for enterprise scalability. Containerized architecture built on Docker with native Kubernetes orchestration support.
- KeycloakcoreKeycloak provides identity and access management for COSMOS Enterprise. Supports LDAP integration for enterprise user management and role-based access control.
- Docker/PodmancoreCOSMOS is containerized using Docker. Also supports Podman as alternative container runtime, particularly for Red Hat Enterprise Linux environments where rootless operation provides security benefits.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
OpenC3 competitors and assessment
Company assessmentRegional players
- Leaf Space: European-based ground-station network and mission-operations provider offering managed services to satellite operators — geographically complementary to OpenC3 but competing for the same operational tooling wallet.
- KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services): Global ground-station operator with extensive polar coverage and managed mission-services offering. Competes for satellite-operator mission-ops contracts where COSMOS Enterprise is a candidate C2 backbone.
Others
- Wind River Systems: Provides real-time operating systems and software platforms widely used in spacecraft and aerospace command/telemetry stacks. Competes indirectly via embedded/flight-software integration where COSMOS interfaces into target systems.
- MathWorks: MATLAB/Simulink is the de facto test, simulation and verification environment for aerospace hardware, overlapping with COSMOS's board-, box- and subsystem-test positioning at the engineering-workbench layer.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS Ground Station): Hyperscaler offering cloud-integrated satellite ground-station and increasingly C2-adjacent services. Bundles ground ops with broader cloud, ML and storage capabilities, competing for the same mission-operator wallet as OpenC3.
Emerging players
- Atlas Space Operations: Ground-station-as-a-service provider with a managed Freedom platform that abstracts mission operations for satellite operators — direct overlap with COSMOS Enterprise's mission-ops and constellation-monitoring use cases.
- RBC Signals: Provides global ground-station network and mission-operations services to satellite operators, overlapping with the operational layer where COSMOS Enterprise is deployed. Uses in-house and partner C2 tooling that competes for the same operational scope.
Broad incumbents
- Microsoft Azure Orbital: Hyperscaler ground-station-as-a-service and space-development platform integrating with Azure cloud. Competes with OpenC3 for enterprise satellite-operator C2 workloads via bundled cloud economics.
- Ansys (AGI / Systems Tool Kit): Owns Analytical Graphics Inc. (STK), the dominant commercial space mission-analysis and C2-adjacent platform used across aerospace primes and defense. Competes with OpenC3 for high-end mission-ops and satellite-operator software budgets.
Direct peers
- Analytical Space (Kubos): Acquired Kubos, the closest open-source satellite command-and-control framework directly comparable to OpenC3 COSMOS. Both target smallsat operators with open-core C2 stacks and similar mission-ops positioning.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
OpenC3 social profiles
Digital presenceOpenC3 financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
OpenC3 leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
OpenC3 funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
OpenC3 M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about OpenC3
What does OpenC3 do?
OpenC3 develops and sells OpenC3 COSMOS, a command, control, and communications (C3) software platform used to integrate, test, and operate hardware systems ranging from test equipment and satellites to entire constellations and drone fleets. The platform is offered as a free open-source edition (COSMOS Core) and as a commercial enterprise edition (COSMOS Enterprise) with multi-user production environments, Kubernetes scalability, and commercial licensing.
Is OpenC3 a public or private company?
OpenC3 is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was OpenC3 founded?
OpenC3 was founded in 2022. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is OpenC3 based?
OpenC3 is headquartered in Erie, United States, in the North America region.
How does OpenC3 make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. COSMOS Core (Open Source) is the primary driver. The others are COSMOS Enterprise Subscription, COSMOS Enterprise Perpetual, training Services, additional Support Contracts and custom Development.
Who are OpenC3's main competitors?
Regional players on record are Leaf Space and KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services). Others are Wind River Systems, MathWorks and Amazon Web Services (AWS Ground Station). Emerging players are Atlas Space Operations and RBC Signals. Broad incumbents are Microsoft Azure Orbital and Ansys (AGI / Systems Tool Kit). Analytical Space (Kubos) is listed as a direct peer.
Does OpenC3 have an API?
Yes. COSMOS provides a comprehensive scripting API supporting both Ruby and Python for test procedures and automation. The scripting API enables command and telemetry operations, interface management, packet subscriptions, limits monitoring, and file manipulation. COSMOS 7.2 introduced an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that allows external LLMs to access COSMOS APIs, enabling AI assistants to interact with the command and control system. Users can point their preferred LLM to the /mcp endpoint to access COSMOS functionality programmatically. Developer documentation is at docs.openc3.com/docs/guides/scripting-api.
What industry is OpenC3 in?
OpenC3's product category is Satellite Command and Control Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAFANAB, NFV Infrastructure (NFVI), with a secondary code of HDABABAK, Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management. Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.