Viaspace is a clean energy company focused on commercializing technologies from NASA, Caltech, University of Southern California and the United States Department of Defense.

The company is associated with the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and the California Institute of Technology through its CEO, Dr. Carl Kukkonen (the former Director of the Center for Space Microelectronics Technology (CSMT) and Manager of Supercomputing at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

The company began with the objective of transforming space and defense technologies that were originally developed at JPL into commercial products.

This led to a joint venture partnership between the two companies called QWIP Technologies (QWIPTECH), which was incorporated in December 1998.

In 1999, a company called Spectrasensors Inc acquired exclusive patent rights from NASA and Caltech to commercialize gas sensor technology.

[13] At the beginning of 2006, DMFCC exercised an option for a worldwide license to 50 issued and 50 pending fuel cell patents from Caltech and USC.

[18] In October 2008, Viaspace entered the biofuels market with the announcement of the acquisition of Inter-Pacific Arts Corp (IPA), a company with a license to grow a fast-growing grass.

[19] Viaspace sold its humidity sensor line in April 2008 in order to focus on near term projects.

The decisions to allow Direct Methanol Fuel Cells onboard aircraft will enhance the future prospect of Viaspace.

[26][27] For the renewable energy markets, its subsidiary, Viaspace Green Energy, is cultivating Giant King Grass, a proprietary, fast-growing perennial grass for the production of liquid biofuels for transportation, and as a renewable substitute or replacement for coal as the heat source in stationary electricity generating power plants.

[30] Through its subsidiary Ionfinity, Viaspace is involved in collaborations with Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop and commercialize new sensor technology that can detect very small amounts of hazardous materials such as explosives, chemical/biological weapons, toxic gases and drugs.