Apollo Fusion to propel Spaceflight's orbital Sherpa-LTE

Apollo Fusion, Inc. has been selected as the electric propulsion system for Spaceflight Inc.'s Sherpa-LTE. The Sherpa-LTE is a high specific impulse (Isp), xenon propellant, electric propulsion orbital transfer vehicle (OTV). It builds on Spaceflight's Sherpa-NG program by incorporating Apollo Constellation Engine (ACE) - a low thrust, high efficiency, radiation hardened Hall thruster propulsion system developed by Apollo Fusion, Inc.

As ACE systems are able to generate more than 6 kilometers per second of delta-V, Sherpa-LTE now has the capability to deliver customers to GEO, Cislunar, or Earth-escape orbits. Sherpa-LTE provides a low-cost alternative to purchasing full direct-inject launch vehicles and will extend the ability of small launch vehicles that are currently under development to reach beyond low Earth orbit. The Sherpa-LTE is targeted to fly mid-2021.

Apollo CEO Mike Cassidy noted, "We're thrilled to partner with Spaceflight Inc. to provide the significant delta-V required for Sherpa-LTE to deliver Spaceflight Inc. customers to their final orbits in LEO, GEO, and beyond."

"We have a successful track record of developing and deploying spacecraft from in-space vehicles," added Curt Blake, president and CEO of Spaceflight. "And we're delighted to have Apollo's high-performance propulsion system onboard to help our customers reach their target orbits efficiently and reliably."

Apollo Fusion, Inc. designs and builds state of the art Hall thruster propulsion systems for a variety of government and commercial satellite programs. The Apollo team members have extremely deep aerospace experience and over the course of their careers have designed and built systems that are flying on over 1,000 satellites that are in orbit today.

Apollo has built up the capacity to deliver dozens of propulsion systems every month to meet current high market demand. Apollo has raised nearly $25 million in funding. Apollo's founder and CEO is Mike Cassidy. Mike is a serial entrepreneur with four previous successful startups. Mike was previously a Vice President at Google where he led Project Loon, a high-altitude telecommunications system.

Related Links
Apollo Fusion
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Spaceflight unveils propulsive orbital transfer vehicles for custom orbital destinations
Seattle WA (SPX) Nov 13, 2020
Spaceflight Inc., the leading satellite rideshare and mission management provider, announced that it is developing two additional next-generation orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) that will debut in 2021. Its first, Sherpa-FX, will fly on a fully dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX, dubbed SXRS-3 by Spaceflight, no earlier than December 2020. The next two ESPA-class space vehicles in the company's portfolio are designed to provide more orbital diversification, including flexible manifest change ... read more