Liftero debuts BOOSTER propulsion

Moving a satellite after launch sounds simple until you remember there is no air to push against, so every orbit change depends on a tiny onboard engine carrying its own fuel. Small satellites often end up waiting on propulsion hardware longer than they wait on the rocket ride itself. (liftero.com) There are two common ways to do that job. Electric propulsion sips power and pushes gently for a long time, while chemical propulsion burns propellant and gives a harder shove, which is useful when a spacecraft needs to change orbit in days instead of months. (liftero.com, liftero.com) The catch is that chemical systems have usually been harder to package for the small-satellite market. Liftero says BOOSTER is built as a configurable green chemical propulsion system for spacecraft in the 20 to 500 kilogram range, using standardized parts instead of a one-off design each time. (satsearch.co, liftero.com) “Green” here does not mean harmless, but it does mean the propellants are meant to be easier to handle than older toxic spacecraft fuels. Satsearch lists BOOSTER as using nitrous oxide and ethane, a combination Liftero is pitching as a cleaner alternative to legacy chemical propulsion. (satsearch.co) Liftero says the system scales from 5 to more than 250 kilonewton-seconds of total impulse, which is a way of measuring the total push a propulsion system can deliver over its life. The company also says customers can configure up to 14 thrusters in 1 newton, 5 newton, and 20 newton classes. (liftero.com) That matters because satellites do not all need the same kind of movement. One spacecraft may just need station-keeping to stay in its lane, while another may need collision avoidance, deorbiting, or the kind of close-range maneuvering used in on-orbit servicing. (liftero.com, spacenews.com) The company’s main claim in this launch is not just performance but manufacturability. On its specification page, Liftero says propulsion has become a bottleneck in satellite production and says BOOSTER was designed for series production with supply-chain bottlenecks reduced by common building blocks. (liftero.com) Liftero had been talking about this system before, but the recent shift is from “scheduled to fly” to “operating in orbit.” In a March 20, 2026 mission update, the company said its RED5 in-orbit test campaign had completed more than 50 thruster operations, delivered more than 4 meters per second of delta-v, and produced more than 40 newton-seconds of total impulse. (liftero.com) That RED5 test flew on a 6-unit CubeSat platform operated by OrbAstro, and Liftero says active testing began in February 2026. Earlier company and European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre Poland posts had tied the mission to a SpaceX Transporter-13 rideshare, which is the “flight-proven via SpaceX rideshares” part of the story. (liftero.com, esabic.pl, liftero.com) Liftero says it went from developing BOOSTER from scratch to flight in roughly 15 months. For a young propulsion company founded in Poland, that speed is part of the pitch: not just “we built a thruster,” but “we can build the same thruster again without turning every order into a science project.” (liftero.com, leanspacetech.com) The first commercial pull is already showing up in missions that need stronger, faster maneuvering than electric propulsion usually gives. In March 2026, SpaceNews reported that India’s OrbitAID selected Liftero’s multi-thruster BOOSTER configuration for an in-orbit servicing mission involving both a chaser spacecraft and a target spacecraft. (spacenews.com) So the news here is less about a brand-new engine appearing overnight and more about a small propulsion company crossing a hard line in space hardware. BOOSTER now has a public spec sheet, an in-orbit test campaign with reported firings and orbital changes, and at least one named commercial use case beyond the demo mission. (liftero.com, liftero.com, spacenews.com)