自阿波罗时代以来，太空探索中一直有个长期假设：乘员会在月球找到冰，把它分解成氢和氧作为燃料，然后在火星上用水冰与大气中的二氧化碳重复这种模式，但至今仍没有人把水转化为可供重要航天器使用的实用火箭燃料。由一名前 SpaceX 工程师共同创立、并由 2 位 20 多岁工程师领导的 General Galactic 声称，它可以用水作为在太空中的推进剂来源来填补这个缺口，近期目标与日益增长的快速卫星机动需求相关，这种需求源于对轨道冲突的担忧。该公司的第一个重大验证点，是一项计划中的在轨演示任务。

General Galactic 表示，它将在一个 Falcon 9 的发射名额上搭载一颗重 1,100 磅的卫星，目标为 2026 年 10 月或更晚的秋季某个时间发射，并计划在同一次任务中以水作为供料展示 2 种推进模式。对于化学推进，它会用电解把水分解成氢和氧，然后用氢与作为氧化剂的氧燃烧；对于电推进，它会透过分解水并将氧激发成等离子体来驱动霍尔推进器，接著用磁场将其加速并喷出。其主张是水比低温推进剂更安全、也更容易储存，可避免例如必须把甲烷维持在约 -260 华氏度之类的问题，而创办人声称，与传统卫星推进配置相比，这种方法可带来约 5 到 10 倍的任务 delta-V。

主要技术风险在于材料与性能：电离氧高度活泼，可能腐蚀或以其他方式侵蚀推进器组件，使材料选择与装置设计格外困难；而若电解硬体相较于传统推进剂系统增加过多质量，化学系统可能会失去竞争力。在财务方面，该公司表示已募得 $10 million，按航太标准这笔金额不大，但被定位为足以支撑这次初始飞行测试；在策略上，则被描绘为迈向更大型「补给网路」愿景的一步，包括最终在火星设置一座「加油站」。如果 2026 年秋季的测试如其宣称般奏效，它可能验证一种以水为基础的双模式架构，供需要兼具长时间高效率与偶尔快速反应推力的小型卫星使用，但即便是支持性的专家也形容其结果取决于多个仍未解决的「如果」。

A long-standing assumption in space exploration since the Apollo era is that crews will find ice on the Moon, split it into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, then repeat the pattern on Mars using water ice and atmospheric carbon dioxide, but no one has yet turned water into practical rocket fuel for a significant spacecraft. General Galactic, cofounded by a former SpaceX engineer and led by 2 engineers in their 20s, claims it can close that gap by using water as an in-space propellant source, with a near-term goal tied to a growing need for rapid satellite maneuvering amid concerns about conflict in orbit. The company’s first major proof point is a planned in-orbit demonstration mission described in a Wired piece dated 2026-02-09 (5:30 AM).

General Galactic says it will fly a 1,100-pound satellite on a Falcon 9 launch slot targeted for October 2026 or later in the fall, and it plans to demonstrate 2 propulsion modes on the same mission using water feedstock. For chemical propulsion, it would use electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then burn the hydrogen with oxygen as the oxidizer; for electric propulsion, it would run a Hall thruster by splitting water and energizing oxygen into plasma, then using magnetic fields to accelerate and expel it. The pitch is that water is safer and simpler to store than cryogenic propellants, avoiding issues like keeping methane at about -260 degrees Fahrenheit, and the founders claim the approach could deliver about 5 to 10 times the mission delta-V compared with conventional satellite propulsion setups.

The main technical risks are materials and performance: ionized oxygen is highly reactive and can corrode or otherwise attack thruster components, making material selection and device design unusually challenging, and the chemical system may lose competitiveness if the electrolysis hardware adds too much mass versus traditional propellant systems. Financially, the company reports raising $10 million, which is small by aerospace standards but positioned as sufficient for this initial flight test, and strategically it is framed as a step toward a much larger “refueling network” vision, including an eventual “gas station” on Mars. If the fall 2026 test works as advertised, it could validate a dual-mode water-based architecture for small satellites that need both sustained efficiency and occasional fast-response thrust, but even supportive experts characterize the outcome as dependent on multiple unresolved “what-ifs.”