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Propulsion & Power

NearSpace constellation tests power and storage technologies

By SpaceEnergy 25 August 2026 1 min read

(SpaceEnergy) US small-satellite developer NearSpace Launch says its SPEAR-1 constellation has demonstrated a distributed spacecraft architecture while maturing advanced power-generation and energy-storage technologies in orbit.

The Space Power and Energy Advanced Reconnaissance (SPEAR-1) mission combined hosted payloads with scalable constellation buses and a common time-ordered data architecture, according to material presented at the Small Satellite Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

NearSpace Launch said the constellation demonstrated multipoint operations while advancing power-generation and energy-storage technologies relevant to spacecraft performance and operational resilience. The published abstract does not identify the specific generation or storage hardware flown or provide performance figures.

The company said the mission approach is intended to accelerate technology-readiness advancement through repeated flight testing using scalable small-satellite platforms.

The conference record is dated 25 August 2026.

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