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Momentus builds small spacecraft and the engines that move satellites around in space, selling rides and hardware to governments and companies that need to reposition things in orbit.
Momentus is a space company that sells two related things: small satellites built for customers, and a line of compact rocket engines called propulsion systems that let spacecraft change their position in orbit. Its customers are mostly commercial satellite operators, government agencies, and research groups that need to launch a small satellite and then move it where they want it — something many small satellites historically could not do.
The core problem it solves is maneuverability. Most small satellites get dropped off in roughly the orbit their rocket happened to deliver them to, and without an engine they are stuck there. Momentus makes thrusters that use a heated, water-based propellant — simpler and cheaper to handle than the toxic chemicals traditional satellite engines rely on — so a satellite can raise its orbit, dodge debris, or move to a different location after launch. Customers pay for the hardware itself and for services, including "rideshare" launches where multiple small satellites share one rocket and each needs its own way to reach its final spot. Financially, it is a small, early-stage company with a rough history. Momentus went public in 2021 through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, and shortly afterward its founding chief executive was pushed out and later faced federal charges related to misleading investors about the company's technology and testing. It has posted losses and needed repeated fundraising to stay alive, and in 2024 it did a reverse stock split to keep its share price above the minimum needed to stay listed on Nasdaq. Revenue has been minimal relative to its costs, which is typical of companies still proving out their hardware.
Momentus started in 2017 in San Jose, California, with an idea that sounded like science fiction: build a kind of tow truck for space. Satellites often get dropped off in one orbit and need to move to another, and the company wanted to handle that last-mile delivery using water-based plasma propulsion. It also planned to offer satellite buses and rides for customer payloads, betting that the growing commercial space economy would need this infrastructure.
In August 2021, Momentus became a public company by merging with a blank-check company called Stable Road Acquisition Corp., and its shares began trading on Nasdaq. There was just one awkward thing: it had never completed a commercial launch, and it was losing large amounts of money as it prepared for public markets.
Soon after going public, the SEC charged Momentus, its SPAC partner, and founder Mikhail Kokorich with fraud and negligence. The problem was that investors were not told a 2019 satellite-hauling test had failed and contact with the demonstration satellite was lost, and they were also not told about the founder's national-security risk. The company paid $7 million and Stable Road paid $1 million to settle, without admitting wrongdoing.
Momentus finally got its Vigoride orbital service vehicle into space on a first test mission in 2022, and a second test mission began in January 2023. These flights were meant to prove the water plasma propulsion and orbital service vehicle technology actually worked.
The first two years as a public company were brutal: Momentus burned through roughly $180 million in cash. Its Vigoride-3 vehicle suffered communications issues and a solar array that failed to deploy. The company did a 1-for-50 reverse stock split in August 2023 and ended a quarter with just $21.6 million left, surviving only thanks to extra funding from its original sponsors.
By late 2025, Momentus was still fighting to keep its Nasdaq listing. It did a 1-for-17.85 reverse stock split in December, shrinking its share count from about 24.9 million to about 1.4 million, specifically to get back above Nasdaq's $1.00 minimum bid price. Around the same time, a warrant-inducement deal raised about $3.74 million.
Then came a real breakthrough. In March 2026, Momentus deployed its Vigoride 7 Orbital Service Vehicle from a SpaceX rideshare mission, carrying 10 commercial and government payloads. The spacecraft fired its water-based engines more than 30 times and began hosted payload operations for customers including DARPA, NASA, and the Space Force. CEO John Rood said the next mission, Vigoride 8, was already sold out to a government customer.
Momentus started to look like a winner from rising government space spending and the Golden Dome missile-defense push. It held contracts with DARPA, the Air Force research arm SpaceWERX, the Space Development Agency, NASA, and the Missile Defense Agency, and could compete under a huge 10-year defense contract vehicle. Investors bet on space militarization, and the stock climbed about 272% year-to-date by late May 2026.
By June 2026, the company had raised money through a private placement, warrant exercises, and an at-the-market program, reaching roughly $76 million in cash and no debt. It forecast 2026 revenue of $10 million, about nine times the prior year, driven by milestone-based NASA and Defense Department contracts. Rood said the stronger balance sheet would fund investment in satellite technologies, orbital transportation, and on-orbit services.
The bet is that as small satellites become more common, more of their owners will want engines and maneuverability, and Momentus wants to be the supplier of both the thruster and, in some cases, the whole satellite. The risk is straightforward: it is a capital-hungry hardware business competing against larger, better-funded players, and it must convert its technology into steady, profitable deliveries before its cash runs out.
Saved answer · last researched 22 Oct 2026