This space company is betting its future on a propellant available everywhere
Summary
Argo Space, founded by three former SpaceX engineers, is developing spacecraft that use water as propellant, coolant, and radiation shielding. After a 2025 demonstration mission could not test its propulsion system because a solar array failed to deploy, the company plans two Chiron spacecraft missions in 2027 to demonstrate the system.Key Facts
- Robert, Ryan, and Kirby Carlisle founded Argo Space in late 2022 to build spacecraft and in-space transportation infrastructure.
- Argo aims to use water as propellant, which the company hopes could eventually be sourced from the Moon or elsewhere in the Solar System.
- The company says water can also cool spacecraft systems and shield them from radiation.
- Argo’s Navigator demonstration spacecraft flew on a Falcon 9 rideshare in July, but one of its two solar arrays failed to deploy.
- The spacecraft remained short of power, so Argo could not test its propulsion system during the Navigator mission.
- Argo plans two missions with its roughly 200-kilogram Chiron spacecraft in 2027 for an undisclosed national security customer.
- The planned Chiron flights will target low-Earth orbit and geostationary transfer orbit and aim to demonstrate propulsion and orbital maneuvering.
- The first Chiron mission is scheduled to fly on an undisclosed commercial rocket, and the second on a government-furnished launch vehicle.
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