[Jeff Foust] Impulse Space ramps up GEO rideshare program

[threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works]

::: spoiler Article text
Jeff Foust

4–5 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Impulse Space will increase the cadence of its rideshare missions to geostationary orbit, citing strong commercial demand.

During a side session at the Small Satellite Conference here Aug. 25, Joshua Rea, director of commercial sales at Impulse Space, said the company has closed bookings for its first Caravan rideshare mission, scheduled for the first half of 2027, using the company’s Helios kick stage to deliver payloads to GEO.

The company has also opened waitlists for three additional missions: Caravan-2 in the first quarter of 2028, Caravan-3 in the fourth quarter of 2028 and another 2028 mission where the primary customer has additional capacity for secondary payloads. The waitlists provide opportunities for customers if satellites currently booked on those missions change their plans.

“We are fully committed across all rideshare missions out to the end of 2028,” he said. “It’s a great demand signal that the service is really needed.”

Impulse Space announced plans for a GEO rideshare mission two years ago at this conference, and at the time the company was uncertain what the demand would be. A year later, the company reported it saw enough demand to fly rideshare missions once a year.

Impulse now plans to increase the cadence of those missions. “We originally thought we wanted to do one mission a year for rideshare,” he said. “We now think about two rideshare missions a year seems about right.”

A manifest displayed during the session showed two more rideshare missions, Caravan-4 in the first half of 2029 and Caravan-5 in the second half of 2029. Those are in addition to dedicated flights of Helios for government and commercial customers.

Rea said demand for the three rideshare missions in 2028 is “100% commercial.” The overall rideshare program has 25 to 30 satellites signed up to fly, ranging in size from 16U cubesats to 1.5-ton satellites. Those satellites will perform missions ranging from space domain awareness and inspection to science and communications.

The concept of operations for the Helios rideshare missions involves placing the kick stage and payloads into a very low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 160 kilometers. Helios will fire its Deneb engine about a half-hour after launch to raise the apogee of its orbit to 36,000 kilometers. After a five-hour coast, the Deneb engine will fire again at apogee to circularize the orbit. Helios will then deploy its payloads.

Rea said payload deployment will take place about 500 kilometers above the GEO arc, a deliberate move intended to enhance space safety. “We see ourselves as a responsible operator. This is a highly valuable orbit,” he said.

Deploying above GEO gives satellite operators time to check out their spacecraft and ensure they are working before making a small maneuver down to GEO. It also allows satellites to drift to their desired GEO slot.

Those plans start with the assumption that Helios will launch on a Falcon 9, a vehicle that SpaceX may phase out over the next several years as it devotes its resources to Starship.

“We love SpaceX. Whenever possible, we’re going to take whatever we can find on SpaceX,” Rea said. However, he said Helios is designed to be launch-vehicle agnostic and can use other vehicles.

“We’re already going down the path with a number of other launch providers,” he said. “Exactly what launch provider for what mission will depend on the market and manifest availability.”

:::