Juno Propulsion, a WA-based startup attempting to bring a new type of propulsion system to the market, won one of NASA’s ten TechLeap prizes as Juno strives to demonstrate its rotating detonation engine (RDE) in space next summer.
Juno’s prize—valued at up to $500k—will support the company in two goals: expanding its team, and completing development and testing of an RDE to potentially launch as early as June 2026.
Meet Juno: Founded in 2023 by two Purdue PhD graduates—CEO Alexis Harroun and VP of engineering Ariana Martinez—Juno is seeking to build a commercially viable RDE to lower propulsion costs for launch companies and sat operators without sacrificing thrust.
Juno’s RDE is built a little like a race track. The engine uses nitrous oxide and ethane as fuel to create a rotating detonation wave. The wave burns continuously around its chamber, creating a high-pressure combustion that’s advertised as more powerful and efficient than conventional chemical-propulsion engines.
The result will be a more efficient propulsion system that will achieve specific impulses 5% to 10% greater than traditional rocket engines of the same size, according to Harroun.
Should the RDE prove viable, Juno leaders say the engine may allow companies to wean themselves off toxic hydrazine fuels, which require extensive—and expensive—safety protocols to handle.
“There are other non toxic [and] green solutions on the market, but because they’re not using a performance-enhancing tech like ours, they’re not going to be able to compete performance-wise,” Harroun told Payload. “We’re trying to bridge that gap.”
Show me what you got: Juno and the other 10 TechLeap winners have the chance to fly their tech on a NASA-assigned vehicle. If it hits its development milestones and wins a spot on that demo, Juno aims to test short bursts of thrust—and long-duration burns—to test the ability of its RDE for precise RPO maneuvers, as well as high thrust orbital raises.
Juno’s long-term vision is to build a suite of engines for different use cases, beginning with in-space prop systems, and graduating to rocket engines down the line.
The company expects to have the capacity to produce as many as 10 engines in 2027, and dozens more the year after.
Dizzying speed: Getting the system ready in time for the in-space demonstration will require a bit of hustle, but Harroun said Juno always planned to fly its tech as quickly as possible.
Juno has just three employees—its two founders and an intern—but plans to double its workforce with three or four more full-time workers by the end of the year. The company is also moving into a 3,000 sq ft Seattle-area facility, next month to ramp up its development timeline.