Atomic-6 Armor to Shield Spacecraft in Crowded Orbital Highways

MARIETTA, GA – January 15, 2026 – In a move to address the escalating threat of orbital debris, advanced composites manufacturer Atomic-6 has announced that its innovative Space Armor® tiles will protect a next-generation spacecraft built by Portal Space Systems. The technology is scheduled for its first operational orbital deployment aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during the Transporter-18 rideshare mission in October 2026.

This mission represents a critical milestone, moving the novel shielding from ground-based testing to the harsh reality of space. For both companies, it's a validation of technologies designed to ensure mission survival in an increasingly hazardous environment. Portal Space Systems will use the flight to evaluate the armor's performance, installation procedures, and integration into its future fleet of highly maneuverable spacecraft, marking a significant step toward commercial adoption for the protective tiles.

The Growing Peril of Orbital Debris

The orbital environment, particularly Low Earth Orbit (LEO), is becoming dangerously congested. Decades of space activity have left a legacy of defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from past collisions. According to space surveillance networks, there are tens of thousands of trackable debris objects larger than 10 centimeters, each capable of catastrophically destroying a satellite on impact.

The more pervasive threat, however, comes from what cannot be seen. Experts estimate there are over a million pieces of debris between 1 and 10 centimeters in size, and more than 130 million particles smaller than that. Traveling at hypervelocities exceeding 7 kilometers per second (over 16,000 mph), even a paint fleck or a millimeter-sized fragment carries enough kinetic energy to puncture critical systems, disable electronics, or compromise fuel tanks, leading to mission failure.

The situation is so severe that some high-traffic orbital altitudes are now considered "super-critical," where the density of objects is high enough to create a self-sustaining chain reaction of collisions. This is evidenced by the dramatic increase in collision avoidance maneuvers; SpaceX's Starlink constellation alone performed nearly 50,000 such maneuvers in the first half of 2024. This constant threat of MMOD (Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris) strikes poses a direct financial and operational risk to the burgeoning multi-billion dollar space economy.

A New Generation of Shielding

Traditional MMOD protection, known as a Whipple shield, typically uses multiple layers of metal like aluminum to break up and stop incoming projectiles. While effective to a degree, these shields add significant mass and volume to a spacecraft, which increases launch costs. Furthermore, they can create a cloud of secondary fragments upon impact, potentially harming the very spacecraft they are designed to protect and adding to the overall debris population. They also have the drawback of blocking radio-frequency (RF) signals, complicating the placement of antennas and communication systems.

Atomic-6's Space Armor® tiles are designed to overcome these limitations. Developed using the company's proprietary advanced composite manufacturing process, the tiles offer a multi-faceted upgrade. A key innovation is their fragmentation resistance; extensive testing has shown the tiles can absorb hypervelocity impacts without producing the harmful secondary ejecta common with metallic shields.

"Portal is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in orbit, and they need protection that keeps up with their ambitions," said Atomic-6 CEO, Trevor Smith. "These flights move Space Armor® tiles from operational testing to real commercial use, and they demonstrate how quickly the industry can adopt better ways to survive in the harshest, most debris-filled operating environment while simultaneously helping to reduce the risk of Kessler syndrome."

The tiles are also significantly lighter and thinner than their traditional counterparts and are available in an RF-permeable variant, allowing for greater design flexibility by enabling antennas to be placed behind the protective layer. The company offers two main configurations: Space Armor® Lite, designed to withstand impacts from debris up to 3 mm, which accounts for over 90% of the lethal, untrackable debris in LEO, and Space Armor® Max, a more robust version rated for impacts up to 12.5 mm and suitable for protecting human-rated space stations.

A Strategic Partnership for Mission Assurance

For Portal Space Systems, a company building its reputation on "highly maneuverable, reconfigurable spacecraft," superior protection is not just a feature—it's a core enabler of its business model. Their Starburst and Supernova vehicles are designed to operate across and between orbital regimes, offering responsive mobility for defense, civil, and commercial clients. This sustained maneuverability is a key differentiator in the market.

Protecting critical systems like propulsion, power, and avionics is paramount to delivering on this promise. An unprotected impact could cripple a spacecraft's ability to maneuver, shortening its operational life and jeopardizing its mission. By integrating Space Armor®, Portal aims to harden its assets against the unpredictable dangers of orbit, ensuring they can perform complex, long-duration missions reliably.

"Our customers rely on Portal spacecraft to remain maneuverable over extended mission timelines," said Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems. "That means protecting critical systems in a way that supports, rather than limits, on-orbit performance. By incorporating Atomic-6's Space Armor® tiles into our spacecraft, we're expanding our ability to offer customers sustained maneuverability and longer operational time on orbit." The upcoming flight, designated the Starburst-1 mission, will serve as the crucial on-orbit validation for this strategy.

Combating the Kessler Cascade

The collaboration between Atomic-6 and Portal Space Systems extends beyond a single mission's success, touching upon the long-term sustainability of space itself. The partnership represents a practical step in mitigating the risk of the Kessler Syndrome, a theoretical scenario proposed by NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler in 1978. He warned that a cascading series of collisions could generate so much debris that LEO becomes unusable for generations.

While active debris removal technologies are being developed to clean up existing junk, preventing the creation of new debris is equally critical. Technologies like Space Armor® play a vital role in this preventative strategy. By stopping hypervelocity impacts without creating secondary fragments, the composite tiles help break the chain reaction at the source. A satellite that survives an impact intact does not become a source of thousands of new pieces of lethal debris.

This approach aligns with global initiatives like the European Space Agency's Zero Debris Charter and the United Nations' Guidelines for the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities. These frameworks call on operators to take responsibility for minimizing their environmental impact. By investing in advanced shielding, companies not only protect their own high-value assets but also act as better stewards of the shared orbital commons, ensuring that space remains a viable domain for science, commerce, and security for years to come.