Mission Possible was The Exploration Company’s second demonstrator mission, aiming to prove-out avionics, thermal protection, propulsion, GNC, flight software, and other technologies for the subsequent larger-scale Nyx-Earth.
I arrived at TEC just as hardware was starting to arrive in Munich, and had the opportunity to contribute to a variety of activities from thruster thermal analysis to avionics TVAC testing. This culminated in the thermal qualification of the spacecraft at Airbus facilities in Toulouse, France (see pictures below).
The capsule launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg on 23 June 2025. The mission involved separation from the upper stage, operation of 25 customer payloads (~300 kg) in-orbit, and execution of a controlled de-orbit and guided atmospheric re-entry from ~550 km. Communications reappeared after the re-entry blackout, although they were lost again around 26 km altitude, shortly before the planned drogue/main parachute sequence and ocean recovery.
