Portal Space Systems has introduced a new spacecraft, Starburst, designed to bring rapid maneuverability to small satellite constellations and national security missions. The vehicle builds on technologies from the company\u2019s larger Supernova satellite platform.<\/p>\n
The Starburst-1 mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 aboard SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-18 rideshare, marking Portal\u2019s first free-flying spacecraft carrying live payloads. The mission will demonstrate rendezvous and proximity operations, rapid orbital adjustments, and retasking capabilities for both commercial and defense applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur strategy is to deliver what customers need now and accelerate what they\u2019ll need next,\u201d said Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems, in a statement. \u201cStarburst gives operators a maneuverable bus that supports proliferated architectures in the orbit that matters to them. Supernova brings the trans-orbital reach. Flying Starburst-1 in 2026 lets us field capability quickly and advance the shared systems that raise confidence for Supernova\u2019s 2027 debut.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starburst is designed to enhance flexibility for proliferated space architectures, which are increasingly used in large-scale constellations such as SpaceX\u2019s Starlink and Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper, and are gaining attention for defense applications.<\/p>\n
Both Starburst and Supernova share core systems and manufacturing processes, including thrusters developed for Supernova\u2019s reaction control system. Each uses heated ammonia as a propellant, offering a compact, environmentally friendly solution that improves performance and responsiveness in orbit.<\/p>\n
Portal plans to deploy Starburst-1 into a sun-synchronous orbit for a one-year mission. The spacecraft targets 1 kilometer per second of total delta-v, translating to an orbital velocity change of more than 2,200 miles per hour \u2014 a benchmark for small satellite agility.<\/p>\n
The ESPA-class spacecraft will host two payloads: a stereo video monitoring system from California-based TRL11, and a superconducting magnetic actuator from New Zealand\u2019s Zenno Astronautics. Zenno\u2019s payload will test magnet-based technologies for precision satellite positioning and inter-satellite interactions.<\/p>\n
Portal\u2019s next-generation Supernova platform remains on track for launch in 2027, aimed at providing higher power and propulsion capacity for long-range and trans-orbital missions.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Portal Space Systems has introduced a new spacecraft, Starburst, designed to bring rapid maneuverability to small satellite constellations and national security missions. The vehicle builds on technologies from the company\u2019s larger Supernova satellite platform. The Starburst-1 mission is scheduled to launch in 2026 aboard SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-18 rideshare, marking Portal\u2019s first free-flying spacecraft carrying live payloads. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21089,"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":[4412,642,316,5480,7725],"class_list":["post-21088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-jeff-thornburg","tag-portal-space-systems","tag-spacex","tag-starburst","tag-starburst-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21088"}],"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=21088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}