Ion-X to supply upgraded thruster for Univity’s VLEO 5G constellation

TAMPA, Fla. — France-based propulsion startup Ion-X announced Oct. 23 it will provide an upgraded version of its electrospray thruster to Univity, a three-year-old French venture planning 1500 small 5G broadband satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO).

Ion-X CEO Thomas Hiriart said the company will supply propulsion systems for at least one of the two 350-kilogram UniShape prototype satellites Univity aims to launch in 2027, ahead of its full constellation deployment by 2030.

The UniShape mission would mark the first flight of Ion-X’s Halo-Max, designed to deliver around five times the total impulse (a measure of overall thrust capacity) of its Halo-100X thruster.

Halo-100X, which completed its first in-orbit demonstration in January, is capable of reaching a total impulse of several thousand newton-seconds, according to Hiriart.

Univity, formerly known as Constellation Technologies & Operations, recently deployed its first payload in low Earth orbit to test a service that would use cellular frequencies from terrestrial partners to connect user terminals developed in-house.

“The mission achieved its technical validation objectives,” a Univity spokesperson said, adding that full results from the test campaign would be released next month.

Univity partnered with France’s largest network of carrier-neutral hosting sites earlier this year to help integrate its proposed VLEO 5G services with terrestrial telecom operators.

Founded in 2021, Ion-X has previously outlined plans to produce 10 thrusters per month by 2026, scaling to 200 annually by 2028. 

“For now, Ion-X has signed a commercial agreement to contribute to the UniShape mission only,” Hiriart said, “but the company will speed up and strengthen its industrial roadmap if larger orders need to be made for the next phases of the Univity project.”

Ion-X also plans to supply its Halo-100X propulsion system for Estonia’s OPS-SAT ORIOLE mission, an Earth observation demonstrator slated for launch in October 2026. Hiriart said it will be the first time Halo-100X is used for a mission serving a purpose beyond a pure thruster test.