LeoStella is a state-of-the-art company that specializes in designing and manufacturing small satellites (smallsats) cost-effectively and at scale. As a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and BlackSky, LeoStella focuses on transforming constellation construction to meet the growing demand for efficient satellite production. Their primary product is small satellite buses, like the LS-300, and they have partnerships with companies like Loft Orbital, BlackSky, and Safran, and also works with the Space Development Agency (SDA). LeoStella aims to provide agile solutions for various missions, delivering critical space infrastructure for government and commercial clients.
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Exolaunch is preparing to launch Loft Orbital’s YAM-3 satellite, built by LeoStella, on a Falcon 9 flight scheduled for December 2020.
Each LeoStella-built BlackSky satellite weighs 55 kg and is designed for a three-year service life.
The LeoStella-built satellites feature improvements in manufacturability, a rapidly commissionable imaging payload, and steam-powered propulsion units from Bradford Space.
LeoStella, a joint venture of Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, is building 20 satellites under contract with BlackSky.
Some of the LeoStella-built satellites will replace older BlackSky satellites to maintain a 16-satellite constellation.
LeoStella is the joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space tasked with building BlackSky’s constellation.
Once Mitsui completes its purchase of Spaceflight Industries’ launch business, Spaceflight will use the sale proceeds to repay the $26,000,000 loan and use any additional proceeds to pay down an undisclosed amount of overdue payments to LeoStella.
The eight planned BlackSky launches are part of a group of 20 satellites under production at LeoStella, Spaceflight Industries’ joint venture with Thales Alenia Space to manufacture small satellites.
Loft Orbital established a partner network in 2018 that includes satellite manufacturers LeoStella, Maxar Technologies, OHB/LuxSpace, Satrec Initiative, and Blue Canyon Technologies, along with partners in launch, ground communications, and analytics.
BlackSky is preparing to launch an Earth observation satellite built by LeoStella and equipped with Bradford’s Comet thruster on a Rocket Lab Electron mission scheduled for 2019-08-16.
Cloud Constellation selected LeoStella to build a system of 10 satellites for low Earth orbit.
The lower price of LeoStella’s offer reduces Cloud Constellation’s estimated total cost to deploy the SpaceBelt orbiting cloud storage system from $480,000,000 to $350,000,000.
Choosing LeoStella reduced Cloud Constellation’s projected SpaceBelt deployment cost by $130,000,000.
LeoStella opened a smallsat factory in February near Seattle with design capacity to build up to 30 satellites per year once in full operation.
LeoStella formally opened a smallsat production facility in Tukwila, Washington on 2019-02-15.
LeoStella’s factory will primarily build satellites in the 50- to 150-kilogram range and can accommodate satellites weighing up to 300 kg.
Thales Alenia Space and Spaceflight announced the LeoStella joint venture in March 2018 as part of a $150,000,000 Series C investment round for Spaceflight to support development of the BlackSky constellation.
When fully built out, the LeoStella factory will be able to build up to 30 small satellites per year.
LeoStella will be responsible for building the BlackSky constellation after the first four satellites that Spaceflight built.
LeoStella-built BlackSky satellites will begin launching later 2019 at a pace intended to yield eight operational satellites by the first quarter of 2020 and 16 operational satellites by the first quarter of 2021.