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Momentus’ contract with student team CalgaryToSpace for 2025 orbital delivery services

The M-1000 bus from Momentus is based on its Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle. Credit: Momentus

Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS), a U.S. commercial space company that offers satellite buses, transportation, and other in-space infrastructure services, signed a contract with CalgaryToSpace (CTS) for transportation and orbital delivery services in 2025.

CTS is the only student team in Calgary (Alberta, Canada) with the goal of building and operating a satellite in orbit. Momentus is contracted to fly CTS-SAT-1 – a scientific platform for two sophisticated payloads developed at the University of Calgary. The first is a Miniaturized Plasma Imager that will be used to study auroral arcs near the Earth’s poles, developed by Dr. Johnathan Burchill. The second is a flexible carbon fiber boom manufactured using a patent-pending 3D printing technique, developed by PhD candidate Nick Elderfield.

Satellite 1’s mission will be a maiden voyage for CalgaryToSpace, and will also be the first student-built satellite launched in the history of Calgary. ​With each unit measuring 10cm x 10cm x 10cm, CubeSats are a type of nanosatellite. Their compact size makes for a much more affordable mission. 

“The CalgaryToSpace team is very excited to be working with Momentus to launch our city’s first student-developed satellite,” said CalgaryToSpace President Kaleigh Beer. “It’s amazing to see the strides being made in the aerospace industry, with companies like Momentus helping to make space missions feasible for student teams. We thank Momentus for providing this opportunity to realize our mission, and RIDE! space for their invaluable guidance through the launch services procurement process.”

The Mini Plasma Imager is based on the ESA Swarm mission’s thermal ion imagers and will investigate upper atmospheric ionized winds. A version of this MPI has been flown on rockets and the current version is being adapted for long-term satellite deployment. This will be the MPI’s first long-term mission.

“We leveraged our partnership with RIDE! space to serve as the transportation provider for CTS’ mission and we’re pleased to be entrusted to support their first trip to orbit,” said Momentus Chief Commercial Officer Chris Kinman.

The CTS contract marks Momentus’ seventh commercial contract announced since August. The other recent contracts include services for AVS, FOSSA, Aarhus, C3S, SatRev, and RIDE! space.

Momentus is currently booking rideshare and hosted payload customers on the SpaceX Transporter-11 mission targeted for no earlier than June 2024 and the SpaceX Transporter-12 mission targeted for no earlier than October 2024. Momentus provides its transportation and in-space services on either a deployer mounted directly to a Rideshare modular plate or a Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle, depending on customer mission requirements. Momentus also offers its M-1000 satellite bus for customized and dedicated flights.