Emergency Supply Delivery to Orbit in Less than an Hour

Aerospace and defense company Inversion is showing off its solution to getting emergency supplies anywhere on Earth in under an hour. It’s a constellation of the company’s Arc orbital supply craft, fully stocked and ready to drop at a moment’s notice.

As technology progresses, so does the pace with which things operate or are expected to operate. There was a time when military and humanitarian missions on the other side of the globe would take months, even years – and might even begin or end before anyone back home was even aware of them.

Today, emergency responses are becoming increasingly fast. Being on-site within a day to counter aggression or provide disaster relief isn’t good enough. Even proposed subsonic orbital craft that can touch down in two hours don’t come up to scratch.

Unless someone invents a teleportation device, immediate responses aren’t going to happen, but Inversion is aiming for the next best thing by prepositioning supplies where they can get anywhere in the world when needed. The idea isn’t new. For decades, major military powers and humanitarian agencies have established forward bases and supply depots from which materials can be quickly deployed.

However, these have obvious limitations. There are many regions where it simply isn’t possible to set up depots, such a network can only be so large, and getting from the depot to where help is needed can still take an unacceptably long time.

Inversion’s answer to this is based on its reusable Arc orbital reentry vehicle, which is an aerodynamic capsule capable of carrying up to 500 lb (225 kg) of cargo. Based on the company’s Ray vehicle, which flew in January 2025, Arc is designed to sit in low-Earth orbit until needed and then reenter autonomously to land by steerable parachute to a desired location inside an hour.

The idea is that to support military and humanitarian missions, constellations of Arc vehicles would be loaded up and launched into space. There they would park with a small service module docked to each one to provide propulsion and support systems, as well as power through solar panels. On command, the Arc would detach from the service module and reenter the atmosphere at Mach 20+ with a high sustained g-load to arrive at any location within its orbital inclination zone.

According to the company, such a capability can not only allow Arc to supply areas lacking transport infrastructure, but also locations where hostile forces might try to deny access. In addition to emergency supply missions, Inversion claims that Arc could be used as an advanced hypersonic test platform.

“With massive cross-range to cover great distances during reentry, and high maneuverability throughout every phase of flight, Arc delivers a transportation capability that has never existed before,” said Justin Fiaschetti, Co-Founder and CEO of Inversion. “We see a future where thousands of Arc spacecraft form a logistics network that provides transformative reach, resilience, and deterrence for the United States and its allies.”

Source: Inversion