Portal Space’s ‘Mini-Nova’ payload goes into orbit to test technologies for maneuverable space vehicles

Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has made its first foray into Earth orbit, in the form of a piggyback payload that will test technologies for highly maneuverable space vehicles.

The instrument package, which is about the size of a tissue box, was one of 119 payloads sent into orbit at 4:02 a.m. PT today from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for SpaceX’s Transporter-16 satellite rideshare mission. Portal’s “Mini-Nova” payload was attached to Momentus’ Vigoride-7 orbital service vehicle for the ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster landed autonomously on a drone ship that was stationed in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the second stage proceeded to orbit and deployed Vigoride-7 and other spacecraft.

“I’ve said for a long time that a company only really becomes a space company once it gets to space, and with last night’s launch out of Vandenberg, that’s now true for Portal,” the company’s co-founder and CEO, Jeff Thornburg, said in a LinkedIn post.

“We know that Mini-Nova is healthy, but it will be a few days before we get to download telemetry,” Thornburg told GeekWire in an email.

Mini-Nova will remain attached to Vigoride-7 for its demonstration mission. Over the next six months, Portal will use the payload to test the “brains and critical power systems for our upcoming Starburst and Supernova vehicles,” Thornburg said.

Both of those vehicles will be capable of maneuvering rapidly in orbit to rendezvous with other objects in space for a variety of purposes — including surveillance and space domain awareness, in-space servicing and space-junk disposal. Supernova will make use of an innovative solar thermal propulsion system that could cut the time required for orbital maneuvers from weeks to hours.

Thornburg said the first Starburst vehicle is due for launch as early as October on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission. The first Supernova vehicle is expected to be ready for flight in 2027.

Portal was founded in 2021 and has received millions of dollars in support from the U.S. Space Force and the Department of Defense. Last year, the startup raised $17.5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round.