{"id":17808,"date":"2020-02-04T19:16:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T11:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/accion-systems-raises-11m-for-tiny-ion-engines-with-boeing-horizonx-ventures-playing-a-lead-role\/"},"modified":"2020-02-04T19:16:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T11:16:30","slug":"accion-systems-raises-11m-for-tiny-ion-engines-with-boeing-horizonx-ventures-playing-a-lead-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/accion-systems-raises-11m-for-tiny-ion-engines-with-boeing-horizonx-ventures-playing-a-lead-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Accion Systems raises $11M for tiny ion engines, with Boeing HorizonX Ventures playing a lead role"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_545805\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545805\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-545805\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Accion ion thruster\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/200203-accion-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-545805\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Each of Accion Systems\u2019 ion thrusters is about the size of a postage stamp. (Accion Systems Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Boeing HorizonX Ventures has teamed up with Shasta Ventures to lead an $11 million Series B investment round for Accion Systems, a pioneer in developing miniaturized ion propulsion systems for satellites in space.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time Boeing and Shasta have announced investments in Accion, which was spun out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014. Shasta led a $7.5 million Series A round in 2016, and Boeing HorizonX led a $3 million venture round in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Accion says it has now amassed $36 million in total funding to date, including $14 million in Defense Department and NASA contracts. The new capital will be used to ramp up production capabilities as well as Accion\u2019s workforce, the company said today in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Accion\u2019s Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray propulsion system, known as TILE, aims to increase the lifespan and maneuverability of satellites. TILE uses electric fields to accelerate a non-toxic, ionic liquid propellant through tiny thrusters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the size of a postage stamp, our propulsion system is rewriting the rules of small-sat navigation and maneuverability,\u201d Accion Systems CEO Natalya Bailey said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to ramp up production and offer our clients benefits such as extending mission lifetime, station-keeping and deorbiting capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"This 31-Year-Old Is Changing Space Travel\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0odk9X5PvkI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Accion\u2019s TILE system will be used on several experimental nanosatellites due for launch in 2020, and the venture was one of 14 companies to receive \u201cTipping Point\u201d funding from NASA last year to develop technologies for missions to the moon and Mars. Accion received $3.9 million to work with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an ion propulsion system that could be used on small satellites, like the MarCO CubeSats that sailed past Mars in 2018 in conjunction with the Mars InSight mission.<\/p>\n<p>The newly developed ion drive could come into play as soon as next year.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing HorizonX Ventures said its investment \u201csupports Boeing\u2019s leadership in adopting next-generation technologies to advance satellite capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HorizonX serves as the aerospace giant\u2019s channel for investments in technologies that are relevant to Boeing\u2019s business lines, ranging from advanced manufacturing and virtual reality to autonomous flight and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>The HorizonX portfolio of 20 companies includes several other space-related ventures, including Isotropic Systems, BridgeSat and Myriota. In 2018, Boeing acquired Millennium Space Systems, which specializes in building small satellites for national security missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each of Accion Systems\u2019 ion thrusters is about the size of a postage stamp. (Accion Systems Photo) Boeing HorizonX Ventures has teamed up with Shasta Ventures to lead an $11 million Series B investment round for Accion Systems, a pioneer in developing miniaturized ion propulsion systems for satellites in space. This isn\u2019t the first time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2509,670,4874,1775,4405,20,442],"class_list":["post-17808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-accion-systems","tag-boeing","tag-boeing-horizonx","tag-electric-propulsion","tag-propulsion","tag-satellite","tag-satellites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}