{"id":864523,"date":"2026-09-29T08:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864523\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T08:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:54:09","slug":"portal-space-systems-in-bothell-prepares-to-launch-its-first-spacecraft-into-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864523\/","title":{"rendered":"Portal Space Systems in Bothell prepares to launch its first spacecraft into orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOTHELL, Wash. \u2014 A new era is about to begin for Portal Space Systems in Bothell as the company prepares to launch its first spacecraft into orbit.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft, called Starburst, is a 600-pound vehicle built to be highly mobile and serves as Portal\u2019s initial prototype.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a smaller 600-pound spacecraft that\u2019s built to be highly mobile and really our initial prototype to demonstrate Portal\u2019s early capabilities to our customers on the defense and commercial side,\u201d said Portal Space Systems CEO Jeff Thornburg. <\/p>\n

Portal let KOMO into the new facility to get a look at Starburst before it shipped to Cape Canaveral, where it is scheduled to launch in October. Thornburg said the spacecraft will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo launch on a Falcon 9 rocket that I worked on when I was at SpaceX in the 20-teens is a pretty exciting development for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thornburg started Portal Space Systems in his garage five years ago. <\/p>\n

\"KOMO<\/p>\n

KOMO News Anchor Holly Menino interviewed Portal Space Systems CEO Jeff Thornburg before Starburst’s launch. (KOMO News)<\/p>\n

\u201cFounded the company originally to really push humanity farther into the solar system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Starburst will carry a new camera system designed to monitor the spacecraft\u2019s health and its surroundings. It will also carry what Portal describes as \u201cthe world\u2019s largest superconducting magnet that\u2019s ever flown on orbit,\u201d Thornburg said.<\/p>\n

Thornburg compared the magnet\u2019s potential to science fiction technology. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really kind of like the Star Trek shields or the tractor beam of space. You can do a lot of cool things with that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said the magnet could allow the spacecraft to orient in ways different from normal propulsion systems, protect sensitive electronics from radiation, and potentially \u201cpush and pull on things theoretically on orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once in space, Starburst will operate within a single orbit. It is designed for five years of life and has a year\u2019s worth of mission objectives.<\/p>\n

Starburst is also described as a smaller version of Portal\u2019s Supernova, a space transport vehicle designed to carry items in space and move quickly around orbits between Earth and the Moon using Portal\u2019s solar thermal propulsion system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really about verifying the engineering team\u2019s design on orbit and showing our customers that data,\u201d Thornburg said.<\/p>\n

Portal has expanded rapidly, outgrowing a 6,000-square-foot facility and is now in a 65,000-square-foot facility in Bothell. The company plans to build about 30 spacecraft a year at the Bothell site.<\/p>\n

Portal also purchased its own Falcon 9 mission with SpaceX. The rocket will be a Portal mission and is expected to fly the first Supernova spacecraft in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOTHELL, Wash. \u2014 A new era is about to begin for Portal Space Systems in Bothell as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-864523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}