In-space electric propulsion company Neumann Space has successfully completed the initial testing of the Neumann Drive ND-50 on the EDISON Satellite.
The EDISON Mission is a part of the European Space Agency’s Pioneer programme, designed to support emerging companies seeking to provide new and innovative satellite communications technologies and services.
Danish microsatellite manufacturer Space Inventor designed and built the EDISON satellite based on their already demonstrated and proven 8U platform. This in-orbit demonstration partnership between Space Inventor and Neumann Space was announced mid-2023.
During 2024, Neumann Space worked closely with Space Inventor. Neumann Space flew its engineers to Aalborg to test, demonstrate and verify ease of integration and ease of operations of the Neumann Drive. The collaboration work on the ground went flawlessly with the integration and testing completed in a matter of hours.
EDISON was launched on January 14, 2025, onboard SpaceX Transporter 12 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. After commissioning the satellite, the Neumann Space and Space Inventor teams were able to run boot up and health checks and to confirm all communication systems were operational to command the propulsion system.
Space Inventor’s mission and payload operations provided Neumann Space with fast and easy access to the data of the Neumann Drive automatically, enabling it to rapidly analyse all parameters. The Neumann Drive ND-50 was fired several times on different orbits and Neumann Space is pleased to report that the propulsion system is healthy, working as expected, with all in-orbit parameters returning nominal values.
“We are thrilled to achieve this first success with Space Inventor,” said Neumann Space CEO Herve Astier. “We are grateful that they trusted us to join the EDISON mission under the umbrella of the European Space Agency.”
“Getting to successfully fire the Neumann Drive so quickly is a testament to the great work both teams have done in the lead-up to this mission and to the quality and maturity of our respective technologies,” he added. “We are fortunate to have had the support from Space Inventor and from the Australian Space Agency for this project and look forward to a very exciting testing campaign in the next few months onboard this satellite.”
“With this 3rd flight, the Neumann Drive cements its status of space propulsion system with proven flight heritage with another in-orbit demonstration planned later this year,” Astier said. “Neumann Space is now collaborating with a number of respected global satellite manufacturers and is continuing to improve the performance of the Neumann Drive with a growing product offering for various classes of satellites as we seek to deliver better mobility in space.”
Neumann Space will continue to test and operate the Neumann Drive jointly with Space Inventor over the coming months, with more extensive testing and validation of various case studies and simulation models helping to improve the performance of the Neumann Space products.
