Vigoride is Momentus' small orbital transfer and service vehicle that uses a water-fed microwave electrothermal plasma thruster to deliver, host, and reposition satellites in low Earth orbit.
Vigoride
Vigoride is Momentus' small orbital transfer and service vehicle that uses a water-fed microwave electrothermal plasma thruster to deliver, host, and reposition satellites in low Earth orbit.
Description
Vigoride is Momentus Space's flagship in-space transportation and orbital service vehicle, designed to provide last-mile delivery, orbital transfer, and hosted-payload services for small satellites launched as rideshare payloads. The vehicle is built around Momentus' proprietary Microwave Electrothermal Thruster, a plasma-based propulsion system that uses water as propellant: solar-generated electricity drives a microwave source that heats water into plasma to produce thrust. Vigoride offers over 300 kg of payload capacity and up to 3 kW of peak onboard power, enabling orbit-raising, plane and inclination changes, and precision deployment of customer satellites, as well as hosted power, communications, and attitude control services. Target customers include commercial smallsat operators, research institutions, and government agencies including NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense. Flight heritage includes Vigoride-3 (May 2022, suffered a solar array deployment anomaly but still deployed several satellites), Vigoride-5 (January 2023, successful, hosted Caltech's Space Solar Power Demonstrator), Vigoride-6 (April 2023, successfully deployed all customer payloads, though two NASA cubesats were released early into a slightly different inclination due to a software error), and Vigoride-7 (launched March 2026, hosting ten government and commercial demonstration payloads).
Specifications
| Propulsion type | Microwave Electrothermal Thruster using water plasma propellant |
|---|---|
| Payload capacity | 300+ kg |
| Peak onboard power | Up to 3 kW |
| Status | Operational / in service since 2022 |
| Flight heritage | Vigoride-3 (May 2022: solar array deployment anomaly, partial payload deployment); Vigoride-5 (Jan 2023: successful, hosted Caltech Space Solar Power Demonstrator); Vigoride-6 (Apr 2023: successful, minor software-error affected 2 NASA cubesats); Vigoride-7 (Mar 2026: fourth flight, 10 demo payloads) |
| Services offered | Delivery (orbit transfer and deployment) and Hosted (orbit maintenance, attitude control, power, and communications) |