SpaceVan Electric Propulsion Transfer System
Exotrail
Exotrail's SpaceVan — an in-space propulsion transfer vehicle combining Hall-effect thrusters for delivering satellite payloads from rideshare drops to their operational orbits.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Power
- 300 W
- Thrust
- 0.001 N
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Propulsion Type
- Hall-effect (xenon) electric propulsion
- Thruster Family
- ExoMG (1–15 mN thrust, 1,000–1,800 s Isp)
- Power Range
- <300 W
- Function
- Last-mile orbit delivery (rideshare → operational orbit)
- Transfer Time
- Weeks to months (vs. hours for chemical)
- HQ
- Palaiseau (Paris area), France
- Founded
- 2017
About
SpaceVan is Exotrail’s orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) service, which combines Exotrail’s proprietary Hall-effect electric thrusters with a spacecraft bus to provide last-mile orbit delivery for satellite operators using rideshare launches. Rideshare launches typically deposit satellites at a fixed orbit (often 500–550 km SSO); SpaceVan accepts those satellites and transfers them to their intended operational orbit, which may differ in altitude, inclination, or plane.
SpaceVan uses Exotrail’s ExoMG Hall-effect thruster family — low-power (<300 W) xenon-propelled thrusters producing 1–15 mN of thrust with specific impulse of 1,000–1,800 s. While electric propulsion is slower than chemical (transfers taking weeks to months), the high Isp translates to dramatic propellant savings compared to hydrazine or bi-propellant chemical OTVs.
Exotrail, founded in 2017 in Palaiseau (near Paris), focuses on both the SpaceVan OTV and on selling ExoMG thrusters directly to satellite manufacturers for on-board propulsion. The company has flight-demonstrated its ExoMG thruster on multiple satellites and has ESA, CNES, and French government backing. Exotrail competes with Impulse Space's Mira, Spaceflight's Sherpa, and D-Orbit's ION for the OTV market.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.