SAN FRANCISCO – Viridian Space Corp. won a $1.25 million award from the U.S. Air Force for very low Earth orbit (VLEO) electric-propulsion technology.
With funding from the Phase II award from Space Force technology innovation arm SpaceWERX, the Southern California startup will develop an air-fed cathode able to withstand erosion in the oxygen-rich VLEO environment.
“Because erosion is a major concern, this is an important win for us,” Matthew Feldman, Viridian co-founder and chief technology officer, told SpaceNews.
Under the 21-month contract, Viridian will develop and test the new cathode.
Viridian, founded in 2021, is developing an electric propulsion system capable of scooping up air for plasma thrusters.
“The vision is not VLEO for VLEO’s sake, but to open the aperture on what you can do with a satellite,” Feldman said. “If a satellite can refuel in orbit, its life is not limited and its maneuverability is not limited.”
In recent months, government and commercial organizations have shown increasing interest in VLEO for high-resolution Earth observation and high-bandwidth communications.
For instance, DeepSat won a $1.25 million U.S. Air Force contract for VLEO observation. The Aerospace Corp. plans to send one of the first DiskSats into VLEO. And Earth-observation startup Albedo won a National Reconnaissance Office contract to share imagery from its VLEO satellite Clarity-1.
Viridian has won a series of Small Business Innovation Research awards from the Air Force and the National Science Foundation.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed Viridian’s award to AFWERX instead of SpaceWERX.