Paenibacillus phoenicis is a spore forming bacterium that was originally isolated from the Phoenix lander spacecraft assembly facility. Its ability to survive in oligotrophic environments defines it as a species of interest for Planetary Protection. Studying the complete genome could provide insight on new strategies to minimize the risk of contaminating extraterrestrial environments with Earth-based microorganisms. This study assembled the draft genome of Paenibacillus phoenicis. A hybrid assembly was created merging short and long reads. The assembled genome was placed into a whole genome tree encompassing the Paenibacillus genus. Simulated nanopore reads of a mock microbial community were created to test against open-source taxonomic annotation pipelines. This will assess the reliability of external and internal taxonomic pipelines. If successful, this could expedite obtaining metagenomic data from spacecraft assembly facilities.