Boeing Co., one of the government contractors taking advantage of a renewed U.S. emphasis on space development and exploration, is investing in a satellite-building startup that’s developing a more efficient propulsion system.
The aerospace giant’s involvement will help Boston-based Accion expand its manufacturing capabilities and offer access to the Chicago-based company’s experts and facilities, the companies said in a statement. Accion’s Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray, or TILE, propulsion combines non-toxic propellant and thrusters the size of a postage stamp to provide smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective maneuvering for vehicles in orbit.
The technology “can help bring game-changing capabilities to satellites, space vehicles and customers,” said Brian Schettler, managing director of Boeing’s HorizonX Ventures unit, which funds startups with the potential to transform the aerospace industry.
Boeing, like rival military contractors including Lockheed Martin, is benefiting from the White House’s interest in space exploration and defense, with President Trump proposing missions to the moon and Mars while developing a Space Force.
The defense budget the president signed earlier this year includes $1 billion for space programs, and the administration is asking Congress to allocate another $8 billion for such efforts over the next five years.
“Investing in startups with next-generation concepts accelerates satellite innovation, unlocking new possibilities and economics in Earth orbit and deep space,” Schettler said.
The Chicago-based planemaker didn’t say how much money it provided to Accion, which was founded in 2014 by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers and has won contracts from the Department of Defense for the past three years.
The firm’s propulsion system “fundamentally rewrites the relationship between mass and propulsion,” Accion co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Natalya Bailey said in the statement.
In September, Boeing company completed its purchase of Millennium Space Systems, which builds high-performance satellites weighing from 50 to 6,000 kilograms for national security clients.
That acquisition filled out the low end of Boeing’s satellite products as the industry pivots to smaller, less expensive orbital vehicles, said Robert Spingarn, a New York-based analyst with Credit Suisse.
The space plane that Boeing is developing for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is one piece of that effort. Known as the Phantom Express, it’s an unmanned craft designed to carry satellites from 400 to 1,300 kilograms into orbit, then return to Earth and be ready for another flight in a matter of hours.
