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General Galactic Plans October Launch to Test Water-Only Satellite Propulsion
Space startup General Galactic is preparing to fly a 500 kg (1,100 lb) satellite powered entirely by water. The company has booked a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare slot for October 2026 to carry out the demonstration, called Trinity.
General Galactic was co-founded by CEO Halen Mattison, a former SpaceX engineer, and CTO Luke Neise, a Varda Space veteran. Their satellite will carry a single tank of water and use it to test two separate propulsion methods during the same flight.
The first is chemical. An onboard electrolyzer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, then burns the hydrogen with oxygen as the oxidizer — producing thrust in much the same way a conventional rocket engine does, but without toxic propellants. The second is electric. After electrolysis, the system supplies enough energy to convert the oxygen into plasma, then uses a magnetic field to accelerate it out of a thruster at high velocity. Electric mode trades raw thrust for efficiency, making it better suited to long-duration orbit corrections and deep-space travel.
Water has practical advantages over cryogenic fuels such as liquid methane. It does not require storage at −162 °C (−260 °F), it does not boil off when a spacecraft absorbs sunlight, and it carries no explosion risk during handling. General Galactic claims the approach could deliver 5–10 times the delta-v of conventional systems — a measure of how much a spacecraft can change its velocity over time.
The timing is relevant. Low Earth orbit is becoming more congested, and satellite operators increasingly need the ability to maneuver quickly. Water propulsion could offer a cheaper, safer way to reposition or de-orbit hardware on short notice.
General Galactic is not working in isolation. NASA has studied lunar water ice as a future propellant source for years. In 2023, Japanese company Pale Blue flew a nano-satellite using water vapor propulsion. Trinity would be the first large-scale orbital test of both chemical and electric water propulsion on a single platform.
Looking further out, the company’s roadmap includes a propellant depot on Mars and refueling infrastructure to support crewed and cargo flights to the planet. That timeline stretches to roughly 2035. The October launch will determine whether the underlying technology holds up.
Article Source: General Galactic
