Aurora Propulsion Technologies

Aurora Propulsion Technologies Oy was established in 2018 in Espoo, Finland. In early 2019 the company joined the European Space Agency Business Incubator Centre (ESA BIC) Finland programme in Otaniemi, and in 2023 it was accepted into the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme — milestones that mark its progression from research spin-off to flight-proven hardware supplier.

The company develops two complementary product families for small satellite orbit and end-of-life management. Its Aurora Resistojet Module (ARM) thrusters use water as a safe, non-toxic, storable propellant, with individual thruster heads weighing about one gram, enabling compact multi-thruster configurations even on CubeSats for collision avoidance and orbital maneuvering. Its Aurora Plasma Brake (APB) is a propellant-free deorbiting device that deploys an electrically charged microtether thinner than a human hair, generating Coulomb drag through interaction with the ionospheric plasma to deorbit a satellite without consuming propellant or requiring active thruster firings.

Aurora's hardware has flown as in-orbit demonstrations, with the MEPE (Multi-Modal Electric Propulsion Engine) combining Hall-effect and resistojet thruster modes for deep-space-capable maneuvering, and multiple ARM-C collision-avoidance units delivered as flight models to CubeSat customers. The company maintains its headquarters and primary laboratory/production facility in Espoo, Finland.