TUKWILA, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LeoStella, a specialized satellite constellation design and manufacturing company, delivered its first satellite to Loft Orbital Solutions Inc. (Loft Orbital). LeoStella delivered the “Yet Another Mission-3” (YAM-3) satellite to Cape Canaveral for an upcoming SpaceX launch. The YAM-3 satellite will host a variety of payloads, including a demonstration for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Blackjack program and an Internet of Things payload for Eutelsat. The satellite is part of a broader contract to build and integrate satellite buses for several upcoming Loft Orbital missions.
The delivery of this satellite demonstrates LeoStella’s ability to leverage its continuous manufacturing line of commercial satellites to respond to short-term mission needs.
“We have built a great partnership with Loft Orbital,” said Brian Rider, chief technology officer at LeoStella. “By pulling satellites off our production line, we are able to tailor them for Loft’s Payload Hub and get them delivered in less than half the time normally required for a satellite build cycle. Loft has a unique approach to ‘Make Space Simple’ for their customers. We are proud to be part of their ecosystem of enabling technologies and processes.”
LeoStella’s intelligent manufacturing facility utilizes a software-defined digital process combined with a robust supply chain to make satellite production more flexible and efficient. The factory is designed to maximize efficiency, turning out up to 40 satellites per year, and is scalable to keep pace with the rapidly accelerating market demand.
“We’re excited to leverage LeoStella’s manufacturing capabilities to provide our customers with our in-orbit services,” said Pierre-Damien Vaujour, Loft Orbital co-founder and CEO. “We’ve been impressed by the LeoStella team’s agility and dedication, and we’re looking forward to expanding our partnership for future missions. Now that our Payload Hub is fully compatible with LeoStella’s product, our upcoming missions will be even more reliable and delivered to orbit even faster.”
About LeoStella
LeoStella is a state-of-the-art satellite design and manufacturing company transforming constellation construction by building smallsats cost-effectively and at scale. Based in Tukwila, Wash., LeoStella is a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and BlackSky. The company was founded to meet the growing demand for efficient satellite development and manufacturing arising from the increasing number of constellations. For more information, visit https://www.leostella.com/.
About Loft Orbital
Loft Orbital deploys and operates space infrastructure as a service, providing rapid, reliable, and simplified access to orbit for customer missions. The company has developed modular hardware and software technologies that enable any payload to fly on any standard, commodity satellite bus. By remaining payload agnostic and holding these satellite buses in inventory, Loft Orbital is able to deliver unprecedented speed-to-orbit without compromising reliability or schedule for even the most demanding customer payloads. For Payload-as-a-Service missions, Loft Orbital offers quarterly launches to ensure maximum schedule flexibility.
