LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zenno Astronautics today confirmed that its flagship Supertorquer — expected to become the most powerful magnetic actuator ever flown — is integrated aboard Portal Space Systems’ Starburst-1 spacecraft, which Portal revealed publicly for the first time today.
The reveal marks the next step in the Supertorquer’s flight heritage, following its first launch with Impulse Space. When the November 2025 partnership was announced, the Supertorquer was on track for its first mission with Portal; today it is built, integrated aboard Starburst-1, and moving through the final flight preparations.
“Portal was built to enable the next generation of spacecraft capabilities, and that means working with partners who are pushing the state of the art,” said Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems. “Zenno’s Supertorquer is a great example of exactly that. Flying the world’s most powerful magnetic actuator aboard a highly maneuverable spacecraft expands the mission options available to our defense and commercial customers and reinforces what’s possible when advanced technologies are brought together on a single platform.”
“Seeing Starburst revealed with our Supertorquer on board is a different kind of milestone than announcing a partnership,” said Max Arshavsky, co-founder and CEO at Zenno Astronautics. “This is real hardware, integrated onto a real vehicle, weeks from shipping to the launch site. Fuel-free control authority at this power level has never been demonstrated in orbit. We are about to prove it.”
The Supertorquer is a world-first system that uses superconducting electromagnetics to control a spacecraft’s attitude — its orientation — without consuming chemical propellant. The flight unit is designed to generate a magnetic dipole of up to 3,500 A·m², interacting directly with Earth’s magnetic field to provide control authority in MEO and GEO orbits without depleting a consumable resource or competing with the propellant budget reserved for maneuvering. On a mission built around rapid, repeated repositioning, that distinction is the point: every kilogram of fuel Starburst does not spend on pointing is a kilogram available for changing orbits.
That powerful magnetic field may also produce another useful effect: radiation shielding. By deflecting some charged particles away from the spacecraft, the Supertorquer’s field has the potential to reduce the radiation environment experienced by onboard systems. Zenno’s laboratory testing has shown promising results, and the Supertorquer aboard Starburst-1 will carry a charged-particle counter to measure the effect in orbit.
Starburst-1 is Portal’s first free-flying mission with live payloads, designed to demonstrate rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), rapid retasking, and rapid orbital change for national security and commercial operators. The mission will run for a one-year primary campaign and will also validate subsystems shared with Portal’s larger trans-orbital vehicle, Supernova, including the high-performance RCS thrusters that serve as Starburst’s main translational propulsion.
For Zenno, the mission is the proving ground for a product line aimed at becoming standard equipment on maneuverable spacecraft. Attitude control is one of the few spacecraft functions still almost universally tied to consumables or to reaction wheels with finite operating lives. Replacing it with a solar-powered magnetic system changes how long a vehicle can stay useful in orbit.
“Superconductivity is where the next decade of spacecraft maneuverability gets decided,” Arshavsky said. “Starburst-1 is where we show the industry what that looks like in practice.”
About Zenno Astronautics
Zenno develops the most powerful magnetic technologies for space. This is a new class of superconducting systems designed to power the next era of human expansion. Our belief is simple—stable and scalable infrastructure in space will rely on resources already present there.
Zenno is building that future by harnessing one of the fundamental forces of the universe, electromagnetism. Our superconducting technologies enable fuel-free spacecraft positioning, radiation shielding, and electromagnetic acceleration systems for defense, transportation, and industrial activity in space.
About Portal Space Systems
Portal Space Systems is a next-generation spacecraft company headquartered in Bothell, Washington. Portal’s reconfigurable Starburst and Supernova spacecraft are built for rapid maneuver across and between orbital regimes, supporting defense and commercial missions on operational timelines. The company’s Supernova vehicle is powered by FLARE, Portal’s proprietary solar thermal propulsion system. Since emerging from stealth in 2024, Portal has raised $75 million in funding, earned SBIR and STRATFI support, and been named a Via Satellite “Top 10 Startup to Watch.” Learn more at portalsystems.space.
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