Anduril and Impulse Space are partnering to conduct a high-precision Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) mission in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), targeted for 2026. Together, Anduril and Impulse are deepening their collaboration through the combination of core technologies to advance critical space-based capabilities for the United States and its allies.
As the space domain becomes increasingly contested and congested, the ability to protect and maneuver key assets is foundational to a strong in-space security posture. RPO missions are critical to strengthening U.S. space operations by maintaining the capacity to maneuver freely and safely on orbit. This is especially important as adversaries continue to invest in counterspace capabilities that pose a risk to strategic assets, attempting to deny our ability to safely operate in space.
While RPO missions are essential to strengthening U.S. space operations, those missions are inherently complex and, as a result, have historically been both expensive and required extended lead times – dynamics which are inconsistent with the mandate for a tactically responsive space posture. This internally-funded mission will combine Impulse’s highly-maneuverable spacecraft, Mira, with Anduril’s software-defined payloads, demonstrating how the partners can unlock faster, more cost-effective, and more accessible RPO missions in GEO.
To support the mission, Anduril will integrate its mission data processor (MDP), long-wave infrared (LWIR) imager, and other third-party systems required for high-precision RPO missions aboard Impulse’s flight-proven Mira spacecraft. Once equipped with Anduril payloads and other third-party sensors, the Mira spacecraft will be integrated on Impulse’s Helios kick stage. Through a commercial launch, Helios will reach low Earth orbit (LEO) and will subsequently transfer across orbits, delivering the Mira spacecraft from LEO to GEO in less than a day. Powered by Impulse’s Deneb engine, Helios will provide a faster, more reliable, and significantly more cost-effective route to GEO than traditional methods that rely upon expensive direct-to-GEO insertion or slow electric-propulsion-powered orbit raises through geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Once in GEO, Mira will separate from the Helios vehicle, which will be sustainably decommissioned to a graveyard orbit, and initiate its RPO demonstrations.
The RPO mission aims to achieve long-wave acquisition tracking and relative high-precision navigation for close-range RPO in the challenging GEO environment. The spacecraft will capture images of designated resident space objects (RSOs), analyze those images, and autonomously execute a series of highly precise maneuvers to observe the RSOs of interest from a variety of vantage points, validating critical hardware and software performance.
Communications constraints and harsh radiation typically present significant hurdles to highly precise, manually-operated missions in GEO. To bypass those challenges, Anduril will leverage its flagship MDP payload to enable highly-efficient edge processing of imagery data and autonomous mission management. The MDP payload will host both Anduril’s Lattice software platform and the mission’s RPO flight software, serving as the connective tissue that enables rapid data sharing across software suites, Anduril payloads, third-party sensors, and Impulse’s Mira spacecraft.
Anduril and Impulse use their own dollars to design, develop, demonstrate, and ultimately operate critical national security space systems. As Anduril’s fourth announced space demonstration executed via Independent Research and Development (IRAD) expenditure, this mission expands Anduril’s suite of solutions offered in the space domain.
The applications for highly-maneuverable, autonomous spacecraft extend far beyond RPO. Through this partnership, Anduril and Impulse will continue to invest and collaborate on a variety of projects and capabilities that require advanced propulsion technology, in-space mobility, on-orbit autonomy, and effective command and control for a variety of mission sets to support the Warfighter.
