Located in Webster, Texas, three miles away from NASA's Johnson Space Center, and Liberia, Costa Rica, the company was incorporated on January 14, 2005.

The VASIMR is intended to achieve several advantages over current chemical rocket designs, including lunar cargo transport, in-space refueling, and ultra-high speeds for distant space missions.

The facility is located approximately 10 km west of the city of Liberia, capital of the province of Guanacaste, on the campus of EARTH University.

[5] The partnership is currently ongoing as of July 2021,[6] with Ad Astra aiming to achieve the NASA-set goal of firing VASIMR continuously for 100 hours at 100 kW in the second half of 2021.

Chang-Díaz developed the concept of the VASIMR in 1979, shortly following his graduate research in fusion and plasma-based rocket propulsion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After retiring in 2005 from NASA, Chang-Díaz formed Ad Astra Rocket Company to develop and commercialize the VASIMR technology.