Additional LEO Express Missions Announced by Impulse Space

Two additional LEO Express missions have been announced by Impulse Space. The LEO Express-2 and LEO Express-3 missions will perform in-space services, including payload hosting, last-mile orbital delivery, constellation deployment, low altitude maneuvers and controlled atmospheric re-entry.

“Our team is dedicated to continually support the growing space economy through rapid, reliable and consistent services.”

Tom Mueller, Impulse Space

The two additional LEO Express missions will be utilizing the same Mira vehicle in the previously announced LEO Express-1 set to launch in November. Mira has unparalleled maneuverability for orbital transfers in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), enabling customers to reach any altitude, rapidly phase constellations, shift equatorial crossing times and adjust orbital inclination. It has payload capacity for up to 300 kg (≈660 pounds) and can accommodate a combination of cubesats, smallsats, and hosted payloads. Mira uses in-house developed Saiph thrusters to provide rapid maneuvering capability for reaching custom orbits in LEO.

Additional LEO Express Missions to be Launched by SpaceX

The Saiph thrusters were qualified in May of this year. 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.

“We are incredibly excited to announce the LEO Express-2 and 3 missions to follow LEO Express-1 set to launch no earlier than November 2023,” says Impulse Space Founder and CEO Tom Mueller. “Our team is dedicated to continually support the growing space economy through rapid, reliable and consistent services.”

Similar to LEO Express-1, the two additional LEO Express missions will launch with SpaceX on their Transporter rideshare missions. Impulse has purchased slots on the SpaceX Transporter-11 and Tranporter-12 missions, which are currently set to launch no earlier than June 2024 and October 2024.

Impulse Space recently announced it has secured $45 million in its Series A funding round. The round was led by RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX.

(Source: Impulse Space news release. Images provided and from file)