Momentus is now selling a version of its orbital tug simply as a service module for satellites
The orbital tug company Momentus has discovered that it can make money selling a version of its orbital tug simply as a service module, or bus, for commercial and military satellites.
The company announced Aug. 2 that it was now offering customers a bus called the M-1000. The bus is similar to the Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle that Momentus has flown three times so far, but without the water-based propulsion system it uses for changing orbits.
The bus emerged from limitations flying hosted payloads on Vigoride, which remain attached to the tug rather than deployed as satellites. Rob Schwarz, chief technology officer at Momentus, said in an interview that the company started gauging interest a year ago in hosted payloads on Vigoride, including from U.S. government agencies. “What we’re finding is that a lot of government customers don’t really want to borrow the bus and lease it, but instead they want to own it,” he said. “Also, in some cases, because of the sensitivity of the payloads they don’t want to share it with other users.”
That led Momentus to instead consider a version of Vigoride that would be a satellite bus sold to customers instead of provided as a service. It uses many of the same subsystems, like avionics and power, as Vigoride. Changes include improved pointing and options for third-party chemical and electric propulsion systems.
This is just good and smart business practice. Momentus has a product that doesn’t appeal to some customers, in its designed iteration. Rather than trying to deny reality, the company quickly accepted the situation and revised its product in a somewhat easy way so it can be sold to those customers.
The orbital tug company Momentus has discovered that it can make money selling a version of its orbital tug simply as a service module, or bus, for commercial and military satellites.
The company announced Aug. 2 that it was now offering customers a bus called the M-1000. The bus is similar to the Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle that Momentus has flown three times so far, but without the water-based propulsion system it uses for changing orbits.
The bus emerged from limitations flying hosted payloads on Vigoride, which remain attached to the tug rather than deployed as satellites. Rob Schwarz, chief technology officer at Momentus, said in an interview that the company started gauging interest a year ago in hosted payloads on Vigoride, including from U.S. government agencies. “What we’re finding is that a lot of government customers don’t really want to borrow the bus and lease it, but instead they want to own it,” he said. “Also, in some cases, because of the sensitivity of the payloads they don’t want to share it with other users.”
That led Momentus to instead consider a version of Vigoride that would be a satellite bus sold to customers instead of provided as a service. It uses many of the same subsystems, like avionics and power, as Vigoride. Changes include improved pointing and options for third-party chemical and electric propulsion systems.
This is just good and smart business practice. Momentus has a product that doesn’t appeal to some customers, in its designed iteration. Rather than trying to deny reality, the company quickly accepted the situation and revised its product in a somewhat easy way so it can be sold to those customers.
