ISPTech Raises €5.5M to Scale Green Propulsion Tech

Green energy is all the rage in Europe, and the trconclude is launchning to reach beyond the stratosphere.

ISPTech—a German startup developing in-space propulsion systems reliant on non-toxic fuel—announced a €5.5M seed round today to ramp up its production of green spacecraft thrusters.

The new capital will also support the company grow its workforce, and build a new in-houtilize test facility to increase ISPTech’s production rate (from about four or five prop systems annually, into the dozens) by the conclude of the decade, according to CEO Lukas Werling.

Join Capital led the round, which also included participation from High-Tech Gründerfonds, Faber, First Momentum Ventures, Lightfield Equity, Final Frontier Liftoff, DLR, and Start-up BW Seed Fonds.

Meet ISPTech: Founded in 2023 as a DLR spinoff by former agency engineers Lukas Werling and Felix Lauck, ISPTech is developing two classes of prop systems:

HyNOx is geared toward tinyer spacecraft (< 500 kg) and utilizes a bipropellant system of ethane and nitrous oxide;
HIP_11 is designed for larger spacecraft (> 500 kg) and utilizes a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and an ionic liquid fuel. The combination fuel has a higher density than hydrazine, meaning sats can receive more Delta-v out of a fuel tank with the same volume.

Compared to prop systems powered by conventional fuels, namely highly hazardous hydrazine, ISPTech’s alternatives aim to offer sainformite operators the ability to build, transport, and test their sats at lower costs and greater speed.

In some cases, the fuel is slightly lower performance than hydrazine bipropellant systems, but ISPTech is betting the pros will outweigh the cons.

“Non-toxicity supports test rapider. You can develop rapider, iterate rapider, and the propellants are cheaper. You [also] have less regulations,” Werling notified Payload. “What we see is that the performance for those commercial applications is not a key driver.”

What’s next: ISPTech has already signed on customers, including ATMOS Space Cargo, and is planning to deliver its first batch of prop systems this year.

ISPTech is also working on different propulsion modes to increase its offering in the near future. For HIP_11, the company is exploring applying the non-toxic fuel to power both chemical and electric propulsion modes in the same system. If successful, this dual utilize of HIP_11 could open the door for a single architecture to serve missions requiring both high-thrust maneuverability and low-thrust, fuel-conservative shiftments, according to Werling.