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, who had been 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 and deploy satellites in 2014, known today as the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer or NRCSD.
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Tyler joined Quad-M in 2014 and Alex Kuehn in 2018, they 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 she 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 work out what was next.
Victor with NRCSD, 2013
Victor & Tyler w/Slingshot, 2017
Alex with 1st Flight XCDs
As the team considered their options, it quickly became apparent that the opportunity ahead went beyond vertically integrating Quad-M. Instead, they decided to build an entire standardized product line, 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. Quad-M and XTERRA are responsible for over 350 satellite deployments, have developed over 20 unique designs, and have been building hardware for over 30 consecutive years. Alex left XTERRA in 2024.
Tyler supporting hardware integration
XTERRA was aquired by Arrow Science and Technology in 2024 and operates as a deployment hardware division of Arrow.
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Tyler is the Product Line Director of XTERRA products for Arrow.