Inversion Space became the third company to receive a spacecraft reentry license from the Federal Aviation Administration, clearing the way for the startup to launch and return to orbit its Technology Pathfinder mission later this year.
The three-year-old startup has ambitions to transform space into a new “Earth's transport layer” with ultra-fast, on-demand cargo delivery from orbit to anywhere on Earth. The Ray vehicle is the first piece of hardware that Inversion will send into space. The actual Ray capsule, mounted on the oven-sized bus, is only about twice the size of a Frisbee and much smaller than the company's full-fledged spacecraft. However, the mission will test many of the final technologies.
According to the FAA's draft environmental assessment (EA) for the Inversion project released in May, the aluminum ray capsule “includes many of Inversion's custom-developed systems that will reduce costs and increase atmospheric reentry space.” “It is included for testing and demonstration purposes.” capsule. ”
The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation issued Inversion's Ray a vehicle operator license under new Part 450 regulations aimed at modernizing spacecraft licenses. SpaceX and Varda were added to the final list of operators approved for spacecraft reentry, but Varda was the only one also approved under Part 450 regulations. A new regulatory framework was finalized in 2020 to streamline the licensing process for satellite and rocket operators, but a significant number of critics question whether Part 450 achieved that goal. . Inversion's Ray licensing process took 18 months, a spokesperson said.
The new license gave Inversion permission to return the Ray capsule to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Ray, which will launch on SpaceX's Transport-12 rideshare mission (likely to launch later this month), will spend one to five weeks in space, Inversion CEO Justin Fiaschetti said in a previous interview with TechCrunch. .
According to the EA, atmospheric reentry will take place in two stages. First, the capsule deploys a drogue parachute while Ray is traveling at approximately Mach 2, helping the capsule decelerate from supersonic speed. Once the capsule reaches about 6,000 feet above sea level, the main parachute deploys, slowing the capsule to 25.5 miles per hour and dropping water droplets.
The spacecraft will then activate a recovery buoy and broadcast the capsule's location to Inversion's mission control center, where a team will go to retrieve the 41-pound capsule from the water.
Following Ray's demonstration mission, Inversion will introduce a larger vehicle called Ark, which is expected to launch as early as 2026, but will require a separate license.