Inversion, founded in 2021 to build re-entry vehicles to deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in under one hour, announced that Ray, the company’s technology test platform, will be launching on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-12 Rideshare mission, no earlier than October 2024. The purpose of Ray’s mission for Inversion is to test key technologies for the yet-to-be-announced next-generation vehicle that Inversion is developing.

“We have developed Ray at a record low cost, while simultaneously making investments into our next-gen vehicle. Ray’s first mission is a major step on the path to making returning from space an everyday occurrence. This ethos of cost efficiency is core to accomplishing this mission,” said Justin Fiaschetti, Co-Founder and CEO of Inversion.

Once in space, Ray will remain in orbit while the Inversion team conducts functional checkout. Upon completion, Ray will be commanded to conduct its de-orbit burn using Inversion’s 8 lbf thrust bipropellant rocket engine, named CE-1. Ray will then re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, 17800 mph. Ray will deploy its parachute, which Inversion has developed from scratch, to slow to a gentle 12.5 ft/s touchdown velocity and splash down off the coast of California.

“We decided early on that Ray would be used to test technology for our next-gen vehicle, which is why we’ve developed nearly every one of Ray’s subsystems in-house for both the capsule and the service module. This sets up Inversion to develop our future vehicles faster, ultimately speeding up our vision of space becoming a transportation layer,” said Austin Briggs, Co-Founder and CTO of Inversion.

Inversion’s mission is to make space the fourth transportation domain alongside land, air, and sea. It is the only domain that does not interface with sovereign borders, giving unheard-of advantages to those who embrace it.

Click here to learn more about Inversion's Ray Space Capsule.