Momentus has been awarded of a U.S. Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract to accelerate innovations for in-space transportation services and satellite upper stage technologies.

The Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the SBIR process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants and decrease bureaucratic overhead. Beginning in SBIR 18.2, and now in 19.3, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has begun offering "Special" SBIR topics that are faster, leaner and open to a broader range of innovations.

A graduate of the prestigious Y Combinator program, and based in Santa Clara, California, Momentus raised $40M of equity funding, including a $25.5M Series A in 2019. Momentus has created new patent-pending and proprietary technologies, including a water plasma propulsion system that eliminates HAZMAT concerns and provides rapid, affordable, and revolutionary launch deployment technologies and in-space shuttle services. A 16U demonstration mission, “El Camino Real”, was launched and tested in 2019. Two demo missions of the Vigoride transfer vehicle will fly in 2020, paving the way for commercial mission beginning in 2021 onward.

Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus, stated that the company is honored to have been selected by the U.S. Air Force for this SBIR 19.3 award. By partnering with the Air Force through the SBIR program, Momentus can bring unique in-space transportation solutions to the Air Force for faster deployment of new missions and new ways to improve space resiliency and space access. The company's Phase I study will identify Air Force missions where Momentus’ space vehicles can be used to transport satellites to unique and/or more precise orbits.