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Sep 16, 2024 _ Press Release

Impulse Signs GEO Rideshare Agreement with French Company, Space Network Services, at WSBW Paris

PARIS, France, Sep. 16 — Impulse Space announced today, at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris, France, the signing of a GEO Rideshare agreement with Space Network Services, a French developer of small GEO satellites.

Space Network Services’ GEO satellite, called Kaon, is a small and versatile telecommunication satellite designed for government and commercial customers that want to establish sovereign SATCOM systems or increase their capacity over congested areas. Space Network Services plans to launch up to six Kaon satellites at a time through Impulse’s GEO Rideshare Program, delivering savings previously unavailable through any other launch option.

“Before, if we wanted to launch four or six satellites direct to GEO at once, our only option was to buy a dedicated launch,” said Yann Le Du, co-founder of Space Network Services. “Through Impulse’s GEO Rideshare Program, we can quickly get to GEO at a fraction of the cost and have the flexibility to launch as many Kaons as we want based on our manifest. It enables us to approach the business in a completely new way.”

Impulse’s GEO Rideshare Program plans to provide reliable, rapid, and cost-effective deployment of small satellites in GEO at a regular cadence using its Helios vehicle. Operators will no longer have to spend many months orbit-raising to GEO after a GTO drop-off or purchase a dedicated launch on a low-supply heavy launcher. By avoiding a lengthy transit through GTO, satellite operators can also forgo many subsystems and services, like additional electric propulsion systems, propellant tanks, power processing units, and radiation shielding—as well as expensive operator and ground station costs incurred during the orbit transfer period—generating further savings.

“Space Network Services’ Kaon satellite is a great example of the kind of model that can really benefit from GEO Rideshare because it allows them to lower costs and achieve faster time-to-revenue, all while simplifying mission operations,” said Eric Romo, President and COO of Impulse Space. “It’s rewarding to see how they can take advantage of those benefits even at the design stage for Kaon, and we look forward to our continued work together.”

“We see this as a safe bet,” says Le Du. “Impulse has a team we trust that has an unbeatable pedigree in the domain. We’re excited for the bright future this partnership holds.”

The GEO Rideshare Program plans to begin offering launches in 2027 on a dedicated U.S. launch vehicle. The first flight of Helios is scheduled for Q2 2026.

About Space Network Services

Space Network Services (SNS) is developing the Kaon agile GEO satellite series for government and commercial customers. These small and versatile dual-use communications satellites offer nations a frugal path to sovereign SATCOM. For established operators and ministries of defense, they provide affordable fleet agility and resilience, and enable surgical capacity boosting in HTS demand hotspots and dynamic operations theaters. Space Network Services believes in an alternative way of doing telecommunications satellites; a frugal, effective, and affordable way. The vision: serial production of small, capable satellites filling the gap in the industry’s offerings and bringing a radical rationalization of satellite spectrum use.

About Impulse Space

Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go. For more information, visit www.impulsespace.com.

Impulse Press Contact:
press@impulsespace.com

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