Impulse Space, Inc.’s Saiph thruster is now space qualified and is ready to support the LEO Express-1 mission that is scheduled to launch in October of 2023.
LEO Express-1, Impulse Space’s first orbital mission, was announced earlier this year and will use Mira, Impulse’s first spacecraft, to perform in-space services.
Qualification testing was efficiently accomplished within 17 days. Impulse Space has completed 50,000 pulses of the Saiph propulsion system and operated the thruster for a total of 65,000 seconds. The Saiph thruster has demonstrated up to 12 continuous minutes of burn duration.
“The completion of the Saiph thruster qualification is validation of Impulse’s in-house capabilities and rapid development approach. This thruster is one of the key building blocks for our current and future propulsion systems.”
— Kevin Miller, Impulse Space Vice President of Propulsion
About the company
Founded in 2021, Impulse Space is a Space 2.0 pioneer providing agile, economical space logistics services. With a near-term focus on Low Earth Orbit (LEO), services include in-space transportation to custom orbits, in-space payload hosting and precision re-entry trajectory injection. Long-term, Impulse will offer services for all classes of payloads to distant destinations such as Geostationary Equatorial Orbit (GEO), the Moon, and Mars.