Home / Companies / Southwest Research Institute
SPACE MINING · OPERATOR PROFILE · DATA AS OF 2026-05-14

Southwest Research Institute

Active Space Mining Government HQ: San Antonio, Texas Founded 1947

Independent nonprofit applied R&D organization with a major space science program. Led science operations for New Horizons and Juno, and builds instruments and small spacecraft for NASA heliophysics and planetary missions. One of the top nonprofit NASA science contract recipients.

57.7
ARI Composite
Low-Moderate Risk
#29 of 40
Peer Rank
Defense cohort
Total Launches
No flights tracked
Estimated valuation
Not disclosed

FINANCIAL HEALTH

57.7
ARI composite · Low-Moderate Risk
Peer rank#29 of 40
Peer groupDefense
Data coverage53%
Tracked gov contracts$945.2M across 44 awards

RECENT DEALS & CONTRACTS

Date Type Amount Counterparty Significance
Jan 22, 2025 Contract Award $7.7M National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Medium
Dec 23, 2024 Contract Award $30.3M National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Medium
Aug 30, 2024 Contract Award $22.7M National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Medium
May 01, 2020 Contract Award $6.0M National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE Medium
Apr 21, 2004 Contract Award $383.4M National Aeronautics and Space Administration, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE High

Full deal history →

SECTOR POSITION

Primary sectorSpace Mining
Rank within sector#29 of 40
Tracked peers40
Secondary sectors

RECENT COVERAGE

Date Source Headline
Dec 23, 2024 USAspending.gov Administration Awards $30.3M to SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE for SPACE WEATHER CORONAGRAPH - EFFORTS INCLUDE INTEGRATE, TEST, CALIBRATE, EVALUATE...
Aug 30, 2024 USAspending.gov Administration Awards $22.7M to SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE for JOINT EUV CORONAL DIAGNOSTIC INVESTIGATION (JEDI) EFFORT. PHASE A WORK INCLUDES...
May 01, 2020 USAspending.gov Administration Awards $6.0M to SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE for SOLAR ORBITER SPICE PHASES E/F EFFORT
Apr 21, 2004 USAspending.gov Administration Awards $384.6M to SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE for TAS::80 0120::TAS AS THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) INSTITUTION FOR THE MAGNETO...

REGISTRY DATA

Legal nameSouthwest Research Institute
OwnershipGovernment
HeadquartersSan Antonio, Texas
CountryUS
Founded1947
FounderTom Slick
AliasesSouthwest Research Institute, SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SwRI
Key programsNew Horizons (science lead), Juno (science lead), IMAP, PUNCH, Lucy instruments, DoD sensors and materials research
Gov customersNASA, DoD, DOE
IPO statusN/A — nonprofit R&D

Source: space_company_registry.json · Operator homepage → · Southwest Research Institute official site — confirms space instruments division (IMAP, PUNCH, Dragonfly mass spectrometer).

METHODOLOGY

Launch history and subsystem outcomes aggregate from AstraVeris's launch_events table with Wilson 95% lower bounds on success rates. ARI scores come from the 11-factor composite (/finance/methodology/). Constellation counts derive from the live CelesTrak/GCAT object catalog. Gov contracts from USAspending.gov awards; private deals from deduplicated pipeline deal extraction. Absence of a row means "not tracked" — we never fabricate. See /methodology/ for the full data model and /data-licensing/ for licensing terms.

Not investment advice. For insurance underwriting, verify against primary-source filings and operator investigation reports.