{"id":2804,"date":"2025-09-08T13:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/benchmark-secures-nasa-phase-ii-sbir-to-advance-aquila-hybrid-transfer-stage-for-high-energy-missions\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T13:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:49:09","slug":"benchmark-secures-nasa-phase-ii-sbir-to-advance-aquila-hybrid-transfer-stage-for-high-energy-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/benchmark-secures-nasa-phase-ii-sbir-to-advance-aquila-hybrid-transfer-stage-for-high-energy-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Benchmark Secures NASA Phase II SBIR to Advance Aquila Hybrid Transfer Stage for High-Energy Missions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/benchmark_cover_638929153408048378.png\" width=\"712\" height=\"377\" alt=\"Benchmark Secures NASA Phase II SBIR to Advance Aquila Hybrid Transfer Stage for High-Energy Missions\" class=\"imageload removeImageattr\" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/benchmark_cover_638929153408048378.png\" style=\"opacity: 0.705757;\"><meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/benchmark_cover_638929153408048378.png\"><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"712\"><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"377\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Benchmark<\/strong> has been awarded a <strong>NASA<\/strong> Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to advance development of our Aquila Small Spacecraft Transfer Stage (SSTS), a low-cost, small spacecraft compatible solution engineered for delivery of payloads to high-energy orbits, including lunar destinations.<\/p>\n<p>Designed to bridge the accessibility gap between common launch insertion points and mission-critical orbits, Aquila combines Benchmark\u2019s flight-proven high-test peroxide (HTP) bipropellant propulsion with an electric Hall-Effect Thruster resulting in a versatile low-cost, scalable transfer stage. The platform integrates &nbsp;proprietary control electronics, to deliver precise autonomous mobility in space. The Aquila system is capable of delivering over 50 kg of payload to low lunar orbit (LLO) from a circular low Earth orbit (LEO), and is reconfigurable to trade chemical for electric propulsion depending on mission needs, enabling flexibility in mass, volume and delta-V profiles.<\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-layout related-content-also-read-box my-3\">\n<h4 class=\"mb-0\">Also Read: What is an Electric Propulsion System for Satellites?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWinning Phase II positions Aquila as a game-changer for small satellite missions requiring access to orbits previously dominated by larger, costlier spacecraft,\u201d said <strong>Ryan McDevitt<\/strong><strong>, Benchmark\u2019s Chief Technology Officer<\/strong>. \u201cBy combining high-thrust and high-endurance technologies with a modular, launch-agnostic design, Aquila opens new doors for both commercial and government customers targeting destinations from GEO to the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most Aquila subsystems are already at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 6\u20139 or are commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS), streamlining the path toward critical design, qualification, and flight infusion by 2026\/2027. The Phase II effort will mature Aquila to a flight-ready system architecture, complete with qualification planning, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and expanded mission design studies for beyond-Earth missions. This milestone builds on Benchmark\u2019s growing reputation as a leader in non-toxic space mobility, with a suite of heritage propulsion systems launched and over 100 thrusters delivered or on order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benchmark has been awarded a NASA Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to advance development of our Aquila Small Spacecraft Transfer Stage (SSTS), a low-cost, small spacecraft compatible solution engineered for delivery of payloads to high-energy orbits, including lunar destinations. Designed to bridge the accessibility gap between common launch insertion points and mission-critical [&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":[26,25,49,20],"class_list":["post-2804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-launch","tag-propulsion-systems","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804"}],"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=2804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}