SteamJet Space

SteamJet Space Systems develops water-based electrothermal propulsion systems for CubeSats and small satellites, aiming to close the industry's propulsion gap with fast and affordable orbital mobility. The company was founded by a team of six co-founders - Marco Pavan (CEO/Inventor), Pavel Savin (CBDO), Ivan Timofeev (CTO), Victor Agafonov (CFO), Vladimir Fedorov (Lead Engineer) and Gleb Philin (QA Manager) - drawing on engineering heritage from the Airbus A350-XWB programme and supersonic micro-jet research.

SteamJet's core innovation is a low-pressure, non-toxic water propellant electrothermal thruster technology, protected by a granted US patent (US12320340B1) covering an electrothermal steam thruster subassembly. The company's thrusters use water, and optionally a water-alcohol mixture for cold environments, to generate thrust via a supersonic nozzle, avoiding the toxicity, regulatory burden and RF interference issues associated with many conventional electric or chemical propulsion systems.

The technology has reached TRL 9 (flight-proven), with more than seven thruster units operating successfully in orbit since 2022, including flights on SatRevolution's 'Above the Clouds' mission and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) PHI-Demo mission in 2023. SteamJet's thrusters have also been selected for NaraSpace's K-RadCube mission on Artemis II. The company's products are ITAR-free and comply with NASA GSFC-STD-7000A and ESA ECSS-E-ST-10-03C standards, and are approved for launch on Falcon 9, SLS and Soyuz vehicles.

SteamJet is based in Birmingham, UK, and works with partners and customers including Momentus, Westcott Innovations, the UK Space Accelerator, MRB Space Center and Naraspace, serving the growing small satellite propulsion market for constellation phasing, collision avoidance, orbit raising, station-keeping and compliant de-orbiting.