On September 28, 2026, Star Catcher said its Protostar prototype was prepared for SpaceX’s Transporter-18 mission, scheduled to launch no earlier than October 1. The planned test would beam power from Protostar to a separate, untethered cubesat launched on the same mission. It would be a test of power transfer between two spacecraft—not a ground demonstration.
What the Protostar test is designed to measure
The cubesat, a separate small satellite fitted with off-the-shelf solar panels, is intended to receive power from Protostar. Star Catcher plans to measure how much power reaches it as the distance between the spacecraft grows, then compare those measurements with the company’s models.
The planned in-space demonstration is designed to bring together energy harvesting, spacecraft acquisition and tracking, and power transmission. In other words, it would test how the spacecraft find and track a moving receiver while attempting to beam it power.
How the planned test differs from earlier demonstrations
Star Catcher reported that its 2025 ground campaign delivered more than 1.1 kW of electrical power to commercial solar panels and more than 10 megajoules over the campaign. Those figures describe the ground test. In late 2025, the company’s Sextant Alpha mission demonstrated spacecraft acquisition and tracking software on orbit, a separate milestone from transferring power between two spacecraft.
Company footage of the ground campaign shows the test setup and monitoring screens at Kennedy Space Center.
Engineering challenges for power in orbit
A practical orbital power network would have to address spacecraft tracking, heat management, efficiency, and long-duration operation in the cold vacuum of space. These engineering challenges bear on whether the approach could operate economically.
