The spacecraft of the American startup Inversion Space will serve as a warehouse, transporting goods anywhere in just one hour.
Inversion Space, an American startup founded in 2021, aims to revolutionize the military logistics sector with the concept of “warehouse in space”, as reported by Interesting Engineering on May 17. The company plans to deploy reusable reentry spacecraft to store goods in orbit and deliver them anywhere on Earth within one hour.
Ray spacecraft of Inversion Space. (Photo: Inversion Space/X).
The Ray mission is expected to launch as early as October. The test spacecraft will be sent into space during SpaceX’s Transporter-12 shared flight. Ray will test technologies to support the development of a larger vessel, according to Inversion Space co-founder and CEO Justin Fiaschetti.
Inversion Space aims to be a transportation and warehousing company, Fiaschetti stated. “We store goods in space and deliver them in less than an hour when needed,” he said. The spacecraft can transport anything from medical supplies and battlefield equipment to small surveillance drones.
“The military always needs to transport goods quickly and accurately worldwide,” Fiaschetti explained. Inversion Space also considers the U.S. Department of Defense as its primary customer. After succeeding with military clients, Inversion hopes to lower costs, allowing commercialization of its services for sectors such as private aviation and cruise ships.
The spacecraft of Inversion Space is designed to be compatible with all commercial launch vehicles. However, the company has yet to disclose specific details about the spacecraft’s payload capacity.
With the upcoming Ray mission, the compact spacecraft will operate in orbit for several weeks before beginning engine burns to lower its orbit. As planned, it will plunge back into the atmosphere at supersonic speeds while deploying a pair of parachutes developed by Inversion Space to gently land in the waters off the coast of California, USA. This mission will help validate critical reentry technologies before constructing larger cargo ships.
