Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has added one other spacecraft to its product line: a rapid-maneuverability automobile referred to as Starburst, which takes benefit of applied sciences which are being developed for its extra highly effective Supernova satellite tv for pc platform.
Starburst-1 is because of star in Portal’s first free-flying area mission with stay payloads a 12 months from now, beginning with a launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 satellite rideshare mission. Portal says the mission will display rendezvous and proximity operations, fast retasking and fast orbital change for nationwide safety and business functions.
Starburst is designed to carry maneuverability to missions that depend on constellations of small satellites, an method generally known as proliferated space architecture. Such an method is already getting used for business constellations together with SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and the idea can be gaining traction for national security applications.
Portal says the Starburst platform and the bigger Supernova platform will share many manufacturing processes and core methods, together with the thruster system being developed for Supernova. Like Supernova, Starburst will use heated ammonia as a propellant.
“Our technique is to ship what prospects want now and speed up what they’ll want subsequent,” Portal CEO Jeff Thornburg mentioned in the present day in a information launch. “Starburst provides operators a maneuverable bus that helps proliferated architectures within the orbit that issues to them. Supernova brings the trans-orbital attain. Flying Starburst-1 in 2026 lets us subject functionality shortly and advance the shared methods that increase confidence for Supernova’s 2027 debut.”
Starburst-1 is to be deployed right into a sun-synchronous orbit for a one-year main mission. Portal’s goal for on-orbit maneuverability is 1 kilometer per second of complete delta-v, which interprets to a change in velocity amounting to greater than 2,200 mph.
The ESPA-class spacecraft will carry two hosted payloads: a stereo video monitoring system supplied by California-based TRL11; and a superconducting magnetic actuator supplied by New Zealand-based Zenno Astronautics. Zenno plans to display the magnet technology that it has developed for satellite tv for pc positioning and precision interactions between satellites.
In an electronic mail, Thornburg informed GeekWire that “the Starburst-1 mission is totally funded by Portal to cut back threat and show functionality for our prospects forward of future contracted missions.” Portal plans to supply Starburst for buyer missions beginning in 2027.
