Loft Orbital is currently flying two condosats with buses built by LeoStella and Blue Canyon.
Loft Orbital has contracted Airbus to supply more than 15 satellite platforms derived from the Airbus Arrow platform, the foundational satellite platform of the OneWeb constellation.
There are 394 Airbus Arrow platforms on-orbit for the OneWeb constellation and a further 254 are being produced to complete the 648 spacecraft required by OneWeb. With this acquisition, Loft Orbital confirms its intention to make the Airbus Arrow platform a workhorse enabling its service business model.
Loft Orbital, based in San Francisco and Toulouse, France, offers end-to-end service to space customers with modular hardware and software products that allow any payload to fly on any commodity satellite bus.
Loft Orbital intends to continue rapidly growing its French presence following this contractual relationship with Airbus. Airbus previously benefited from public support to develop the Arrow platform and OneWeb pilot line in Toulouse.
The improvements to the Arrow platform, including all the engineering, qualification, test, and production of the first few spacecraft will be performed by Airbus in Toulouse. The production at scale of the remaining Arrow-derived platforms will be performed by Airbus OneWeb Satellites (AOS).
Bruno Le Maire, French Minister for the Economy, Finances and the Recovery, said: This groundbreaking contract between start-up Loft Orbital and global space leader Airbus is a very good news. It demonstrates the uptake of New Space companies in France and the synergy across the space ecosystem for developing industry-wide innovation. It also testifies the speed at which the French space ecosystem is growing, with start-ups, SMEs, and large groups working together to provide world-class solutions, and fully validates the ongoing government strategy and initiatives to develop a vibrant and growing next space innovation ecosystem. I am very pleased that the project presented by Loft with the support of Airbus relies on French suppliers, more than 60% of the value being created in France.
Jean-Marc Nasr, Head of Airbus Space Systems, added: This sale of our small LEO platform Arrow to Loft Orbital is a ringing endorsement of our strategy to develop mass manufacturing for the next space era. Our reliable platform is already proving its worth in orbit for OneWeb who have more than 60% of their fleet in orbit. We look forward to working with Loft Orbital to provide them with the best space technology possible combining industrially-proven know-how with disruptive innovations to serve their customers.
Pierre-Damien Vaujour, CEO of Loft Orbital, stated: We are beyond excited about this procurement agreement with Airbus that is an industry first. Leveraging Airbus engineering experience and Airbus OneWeb Satellites production capabilities is enabling us to truly bring Loft’s vision to life. While we are using this initial procurement to deliver to our customers who have ordered services based on a few tens of satellites, we see this as an opportunity to offer much larger constellation services to governments and companies worldwide. In addition, the level of support we have received in France, and the quality of the engineering talent, is simply unmatched and we are looking forward to growing the company here in Toulouse.
