Advancing to the next space age – the industrialization of space – requires that we move beyond launch. Argo was founded to do this: we are creating an in-space logistics system that will stretch from low Earth orbit to the Moon. Argo’s new space architecture is built on a new foundation - water. As the industrialization of Earth ran on coal and oil, space will run on water. Argo’s water-based architecture is not an incremental improvement on existing systems or capabilities. To bring about the industrial space age requires rethinking how our space systems are built and operated from first principles.

Water’s utility as a propellant in space is the foundation of Argo’s architecture. Today, water-based propulsion lets us create next-generation spacecraft with the characteristics necessary to provide next-generation capabilities. Water is readily storable in space at low pressure, non-cryogenically – this lets our space transportation and mobility vehicles operate for years. Water uniquely provides a single propellant that lets us fly in a fuel efficient mode for unprecedented low-cost transportation to geosynchronous or Lunar orbit, or fly in a high thrust mode to deliver unprecedented deltaV and maneuver on orbit. This architectural choice provides myriad benefits, from rapid, low-cost ground testing and iteration, to enabling an unmatched spacecraft propellant mass fraction. It also enables Argo’s next key architectural choice – extending reusability into orbit by making our spacecraft refuellable. This is critical for creating the space “trucks” that will operate our orbital logistics system. We are flying our refueling interface already on our first mission.

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But even more significantly, in the long term, the right fuels for use in space are those that can be sourced from space. Once we have demonstrated our spacecraft capabilities with propellant launched from Earth, we will begin sourcing our water propellant from the Lunar surface. The Moon’s shallower gravity well, combined with Argo’s unique Lunar water harvesting and transportation technologies, will provide a 10x advantage in propellant mass delivered to low Earth orbit (compared to Earth launch), and a 40x advantage for propellant in GEO. While our spacecraft capabilities and in-space reusability provide massive advantages today, using Lunar-sourced propellant will deliver Argo, and the broader industry, another step change improvement in cost and capability. This is the beginning of abundant transportation for space, and the approach that will bring the Moon into Earth’s economic sphere.

We have taken the hard path, but this is what is required to deliver true disruption. We could have taken the expedient approach to our first mission – buying or building a standard satellite bus to put our propulsion system on, flying a hosted payload, or launching some cubesats – and gotten to space easier, faster, and with less risk. But low-risk delivers only incremental improvement, “faster horses” when what we need is fundamental change.

Our Argonaut Demo vehicle was designed from the ground up, built, and tested by Argo’s engineers, creating a new class of spacecraft specifically for mobility. Argo’s toroidal water propellant tank, lightweight roll-out solar wings, water-cooled avionics and power, propulsion systems, flight software, spacecraft simulation, and so much more were all designed and built by Argo to serve our logistics and mobility mission set. Where existing components didn’t meet the unique needs of our architecture, we built our own. Even some seemingly-simple subsystems like solar array drive actuators, solar panels, or thruster gimbals did not exist in the market at a performance point or on a timeline that met our needs, so we made them. Where we could meet our performance and cost goals by purchasing components or partnering with suppliers, we have done so, but over 75% of the Argonaut Demo spacecraft is designed, built and integrated in-house, tailored to this new class of spacecraft. Even for this scrappy first demonstration, we were able to achieve >70% spacecraft propellant mass fraction (a key metric for any movement or maneuver use case), and integrated solar wings over 200 W/kg. Going forward, this development approach and architecture will enable Argo to provide the lowest cost transportation service while delivering unprecedented performance for logistics and mobility.

We didn’t set out to create a faster horse, and our first mission demonstrates our commitment to disrupting the industry. We are creating vehicles and infrastructure that change the way we think about movement in space. This Argonaut Demo vehicle builds the foundation for our fully reusable and refuellable Argonaut and creates a new state of the art along the way.

While we refer to this first spacecraft as “Argonaut Demo”, we named the mission “Navigator”. We chose this name because this is our first foray out into the unforgiving environment of space, and because this mission is designed to help us chart a course to our full space logistics architecture and the industrial space age. We have taken on an ambitious scope and significant risk for our first mission, but this is commensurate with the massive advances we are pursuing to industrialize space.

All of this was done with extreme capital efficiency and a scrappy team of exceptional engineers. This vehicle was designed and created from the ground up with an average total company size of just 16 personnel, and will launch with only 26.

Not only is this spacecraft validating our tech stack, it is also validating demand for our services and capabilities with multiple paying commercial customers onboard and US government objectives to complete on-orbit. Anduril, ThinkOrbital, and Infinite Orbits have all entrusted their payloads to us, and we look forward to delivering for them. Stay tuned here for post-launch updates on the mission and what we have coming up next in the pipeline.

This is just the beginning of how we are moving beyond launch to create the industrial space age. If you want to help bring about the industrial space age, reach out to us on our website, Linkedin, or X.

S/

Robert, Ryan, and Kirby

Potentia ex Aqua