Proteus Space Launches AI-Powered MERCURY ONE Satellite in Record Time

Proteus Space has successfully launched and contacted MERCURY ONE, its first four-payload ESPA class spacecraft. The mission marks a major milestone in satellite design, showcasing the capabilities of the company’s AI-driven MERCURYTM platform. The MERCURYTM platform is an AI-enabled system that speeds up spacecraft design and integration. It cuts the traditional multi-year process down to months, delivering complete design packages with hardware validation. Using this technology, Proteus Space designed and launched MERCURY ONE in just nine months, achieving TRL9 flight heritage.

The spacecraft carried payloads from multiple collaborators, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, UC Davis, and Leonardo DRS. Leonardo DRS joined the project after the Preliminary Design Review, fitting its radio payload onto the bus with ease. Proteus Space handled the entire mission in-house, proving its ability to manage the full lifecycle for payload and mission owners.

The mission was supported by a contract from SpaceWERX and the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate. It validates a shift in satellite development, offering customers a faster, more flexible approach to building mission-ready systems. MERCURYTM now provides a proven path to elastic space capacity, rapidly producing custom satellite designs. Proteus Space CEO David Kervin announced plans to release a beta SaaS version of the platform by the end of 2026. The success of MERCURY ONE demonstrates the platform’s potential to transform satellite engineering.