Company Performance Metrics
Matthew Travis: President / CTOPast Role: Aphelion Orbitals, Co-Founder / President- Miguel Ayala: Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Aphelion Aerospace, Inc. (DUNS # 074595993) was founded in March 2019 and is dedicated to developing launch solutions and products for the nanosatellite industry. Our business strategy relies on three core components (launch services, cubesat hardware and software) which allow us to provide a true turnkey, end-to-end space utilization solution.
Realization of our vision relies on successful development of the Helios cubesat-class launch vehicle.
The Helios nanolaunch system is a three-stage vertical launch vehicle with liquid propulsion in the first two stages and a solid propellant third stage. The design utilizes common propellants in the first two stages and a common engine design with nozzles optimized for altitude in a “plug cluster” aerospike configuration.
Phoenix utilizes a unique hydrogen peroxide-based hypergolic propellant that eliminates the need for a separate ignition system but also is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and the exhaust products are environmentally-friendly. This propellant family was fully developed and hot-fire qualified by Aphelion Orbitals, Inc. in 2018. We further matured the technology into Aphelion Aerospace's proprietary propellant mixture.
The first stage is designed to be reusable using boostback, powered descent and vertical landing. Helios will be completely mobile and not rely on any fixed infrastructure, launch pad or processing facilities. The vehicle will be able to remain fully fueled for hours to days before launch and launch on short notice (2-3 days) after arrival at the launch site.
Our launch service provides a number of key competencies: dedicated launch, custom orbital insertion, low cost, and a very short lead time. We target the following use customer types:
* Commercial customers desiring rapid, guaranteed launch * Clients requiring a method of deployment and maintaining large nanosatellite constellations for communications, resource identification, and monitoring * Missions demanding specific orbits inaccessible through rideshare * Time-sensitive missions which require quick turnaround to launch * Spacecraft that need to be powered on and/or monitored real-time before deployment * Clients desiring to launch spacecraft with irregular volume and mass envelopes
Aphelion Aerospace pursues an innovative launch service business model:
* Our launch services are sold in a manner similar to airline ticketing * Regularly scheduled launches are provided to defined orbital inclinations * 30 days from cubesat acceptance to launch * “Gas and go” on-demand capability for dedicated launches on short notice * Full up-front price disclosure and guaranteed
