{"id":17533,"date":"2021-06-25T00:43:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/leostella-delivers-first-loft-orbital-satellite-for-spacexs-jam-packed-rideshare-mission\/"},"modified":"2021-06-25T00:43:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:43:50","slug":"leostella-delivers-first-loft-orbital-satellite-for-spacexs-jam-packed-rideshare-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/leostella-delivers-first-loft-orbital-satellite-for-spacexs-jam-packed-rideshare-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"LeoStella delivers first Loft Orbital satellite for SpaceX\u2019s jam-packed rideshare mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_627534\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-627534\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-627534\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210623-yam3-630x414.jpg\" alt=\"Clean-room workers with satellite\" width=\"630\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210623-yam3-630x414.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210623-yam3-1260x828.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210623-yam3-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/210623-yam3.jpg 1388w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-627534\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loft Orbital\u2019s YAM-3 satellite is on display in the foreground at LeoStella\u2019s factory in Tukwila, Wash. In the background, clean-room workers use their arms to spell out Y-A-M-3. (Leostella Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX is getting set to launch scores of satellites for its Transporter-2 rideshare mission, and one of those satellites marks a milestone for LeoStella.<\/p>\n<p>Loft Orbital\u2019s satellite, known as YAM-3 (\u201cYet Another Mission-3\u201d), is the first of its kind built for San Francisco-based Loft Orbital by LeoStella, a joint venture between BlackSky and Thales Alenia Space.<\/p>\n<p>All of the satellites previously shipped out from LeoStella\u2019s factory in Tukwila, Wash., were built for BlackSky\u2019s Earth observation constellation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first satellite LeoStella has delivered to a customer other than BlackSky,\u201d Brian Rider, LeoStella\u2019s chief technology officer, told GeekWire in an email. \u201cLeoStella successfully tailored its core production satellite as a multi-mission bus to support Loft, on a very different payload and mission. Loft is our first customer for which we applied this approach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>YAM-3 will host a variety of payloads \u2014 including a demonstration for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency\u2019s Blackjack satellite constellation program, and an Internet of Things telecom payload for Eutelsat. The satellite is part of a broader contract that calls on LeoStella to build and integrate satellite buses for several upcoming Loft Orbital missions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"LeoStella satellite factory delivers for Loft Orbital\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Myd_D9TrZ4k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been impressed by the LeoStella team\u2019s agility and dedication, and we\u2019re looking forward to expanding our partnership for future missions,\u201d Pierre-Damien Vaujour, Loft Orbital co-founder and CEO, said in a news release. \u201cNow that our Payload Hub is fully compatible with LeoStella\u2019s product, our upcoming missions will be even more reliable and delivered to orbit even faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Loft Orbital and BlackSky aren\u2019t LeoStella\u2019s only customers: Since its founding in 2018, the joint venture has also made deals with NorthStar Earth and Space and Cloud Constellation Corp. for satellite design and assembly. Rider said the approach developed for Loft Orbital could be used for other satellites.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\">Inside the satellite factory: How LeoStella uses software to track spacecraft hardware<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cLeoStella plans to continue to expand its support of emerging small sat companies using COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] multi-mission satellites,\u201d he said via email. \u201cOne advantage is the ability to leverage our continuous manufacturing to exploit bus inventory on the shelf, which enables a short schedule and an agile payload integration process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>YAM-3 and a wide variety of other satellites are set for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida sometime in the next few days.<\/p>\n<p>Exolaunch is handling pre-launch logistics for YAM-3 and 28 other satellites.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-2 satellite rideshare mission will also mark a milestone for Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc., which is managing the logistics for 36 other customer payloads. This mission represents the first orbital outing for Spaceflight\u2019s Sherpa-LTE, an in-space transfer vehicle with an electric propulsion system.<\/p>\n<p>Another free-flying, satellite-deploying spacecraft known as Sherpa-FX will be riding along as well. (Spaceflight used a Sherpa-FX for the first time on SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-1 mission in January.)<\/p>\n<h4>Get an inside look at Spaceflight\u2019s Sherpa orbital tugs<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loft Orbital\u2019s YAM-3 satellite is on display in the foreground at LeoStella\u2019s factory in Tukwila, Wash. In the background, clean-room workers use their arms to spell out Y-A-M-3. (Leostella Photo) SpaceX is getting set to launch scores of satellites for its Transporter-2 rideshare mission, and one of those satellites marks a milestone for LeoStella. Loft [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4542,4592,20,442,4560,2340,316],"class_list":["post-17533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-leostella","tag-loft-orbital","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-sherpa","tag-spaceflight","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}