Momentus Launches First Demonstration Flight on SpaceX Falcon 9
25 Maio 2022 - 5:37PM
Business Wire
First customer satellite orbited; more customer
payloads to be deployed and Vigoride spacecraft tested
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) ("Momentus" or the "Company"), a
U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer transportation
and other in-space infrastructure services, today announced that it
has launched its first demonstration flight of the Vigoride orbital
transfer vehicle to low-earth orbit aboard the SpaceX Transporter-5
mission. Momentus also announced that it has placed its first
customer satellite in orbit and plans to conduct more deployments
of customer payloads in the coming days.
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the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220525005971/en/
Momentus' Vigoride Orbital Transfer
Vehicle. Photo Credit: Niall David.
The versatile Vigoride spacecraft, designed to support a range
of transportation and in-space infrastructure services, is slated
to perform a series of operations in space to test and demonstrate
the performance of the vehicle and its subsystems. Under the
company's license from the Federal Communications Commission, the
mission is scheduled to last up to 180 days. The mission will also
feature the deployment of several customer satellites and the
testing of hardware for another customer.
"Today's launch was the culmination of months of work to conduct
an extensive ground test campaign, ready the spacecraft, and obtain
the necessary government licenses and approvals for our first
flight of the Vigoride vehicle," said Momentus Chief Executive
Officer John Rood. "We're excited to see our vision of providing
transportation and space infrastructure services and being an early
provider of these key services to the growing new space economy
starting to be realized."
A key part of the Vigoride vehicle is the Microwave
Electrothermal Thruster (MET) which uses water as a propellant. The
MET produces thrust by expelling extremely hot gases through a
rocket nozzle. However, unlike a conventional chemical rocket
engine, which creates heat through a chemical reaction, the MET
heats propellant using solar microwave energy. Using the MET offers
cost-effective, efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly
propulsion to meet the demands for in-space transportation and
infrastructure services.
"MET technology has been researched in academia since the 1980s,
but we're pioneers in bringing it to market," said Rood. "Testing
the MET on this first Vigoride flight is one of the important tasks
that we plan to conduct as we continue to refine and improve its
performance."
On this first flight, Momentus welcomes FOSSA Systems and Orbit
NTNU among its customers. FOSSA is deploying multiple
picosatellites as part of a constellation to provide global and
real-time Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity for industrial
applications. Orbit NTNU will be using its payload, SelfieSat, to
take a selfie from a satellite in space (the payload has an
external screen, displaying pictures sent up by the public while a
camera mounted on an arm photographs the screen with the Earth in
the background.)
In addition to Vigoride, Momentus used a second port on the
Falcon 9 to fly a third-party deployer from a trusted partner.
Momentus used this deployer to place its first customer satellite
from Bronco Space at the California State Polytechnic University at
Pomona in orbit. Four other satellite payloads that are customers
of the deployer system partner were also placed in orbit.
"Our journey to space was only made possible by our team's
dedication, focus, and considerable talent," said Rood. “I’m proud
of how Momentus employees responded to the many challenges we
faced. It would have been easy to believe that our initial
challenges were insurmountable, but the fact that Momentus didn’t
quit speaks to an emerging culture that will be the true foundation
of our success over time.”
Rood concluded by saying, "We're looking forward to helping our
customers meet their mission objectives, pushing our Vigoride
through an in-space test campaign, and applying all that we learn
to continually improve our service offerings as we strive to enable
the new space economy to flourish."
About Momentus
Momentus is a U.S. commercial space company that plans to offer
in-space infrastructure services, including in-space
transportation, hosted payloads and in-orbit services. Momentus
believes it can make new ways of operating in space possible with
its planned in-space transfer and service vehicles that will be
powered by an innovative water plasma-based propulsion system that
is under development.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain statements which may
constitute “forward-looking statements” for purposes of the federal
securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements regarding Momentus or its management team’s
expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding
the future, projections, forecasts or other characterizations of
future events or circumstances, including any underlying
assumptions, and are not guarantees of future performance. Because
forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject
to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that
are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of Momentus’
control. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements in this press
release, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties
included under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Annual Report on
Form 10-K filed by the Company on March 9, 2022, as such factors
may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), accessible on the
SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of
our website at investors.momentus.space. Forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not
to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and, except as
required by law, the Company assumes no obligation and does not
intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events, or
otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220525005971/en/
Investors Darryl Genovesi at investors@momentus.space
Media Jessica Pieczonka at press@momentus.space
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