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Propulsion & Power

Impulse Space wins $28m Space Force contract for Mira mission

By SpaceEnergy 23 September 2026 1 min read

(SpaceEnergy) Impulse Space has won a $28m US Space Force contract for a future low-Earth-orbit mission using its chemically propelled Mira spacecraft for space domain awareness activities.

The contract will be funded partly through a $19.75m Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies award received by Impulse for fiscal 2026 and sponsored by US Space Command.

A government-provided launch will place Mira into low Earth orbit, where the spacecraft will host an optical payload supplied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory to support observation of objects in geostationary orbit.

Impulse said Mira can provide up to 850m/s of delta-v while carrying a 100kg payload. The flight-proven spacecraft uses chemical propulsion and is designed for manoeuvring, payload hosting, deployment and rendezvous and proximity operations.

“Mira’s demonstrated ability to perform both long-duration and rapid engine burns have underscored the mission flexibility that maneuverability creates,” Impulse president and chief operating officer Eric Romo said.

The mission is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than 2029.

Impulse also develops the Helios kick stage, whose Deneb engine is designed to transport payloads from low Earth orbit to higher-energy destinations including geostationary, heliocentric, lunar and planetary trajectories.

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