Accion Systems

Accion Systems, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, designs and manufactures electrospray electric propulsion systems for small satellites using ionic liquid propellants. The company's TILE (Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray) propulsion modules are engineered for CubeSats and microsatellites requiring precise attitude control, orbit maintenance, and deorbit maneuvering within tight volume and power budgets.

ACCION's TILE technology operates by extracting ions from ionic liquid reservoirs through an array of nanofabricated emitter tips under an electrostatic field, producing high-specific-impulse thrust without moving parts or pressurized propellant tanks. This architecture enables thrust levels from sub-millinewton to several millinewtons at specific impulse values of 1,000–3,000 seconds — far exceeding chemical propulsion alternatives for small platforms. TILE modules come in scalable sizes (TILE 1 through TILE 5) enabling missions from 1U CubeSats to 100 kg microsatellites.

Accion's propulsion has been validated on orbit through multiple commercial and government rideshare missions. The company has supplied propulsion for customers including defense primes building responsive space satellites and commercial operators deploying Earth observation constellations. NASA selected Accion's technology through multiple SBIR Phase II awards validating its readiness for science and exploration applications.

Accion competes with Busek Company, Enpulsion (Austria), and Bradford ECAPS in the electric propulsion market for small satellites. The company raised Series A funding from investors including MassVentures and In-Q-Tel, supporting manufacturing scale-up as the small satellite constellation market grows rapidly. MIT spinout origins give Accion strong ties to the academic research community driving continued electrospray innovation.