![]() ![]() They were excited to welcome us as a new US-designed and -produced space tug, so it confirmed the strategy made sense and we proceeded full speed.A completely new waterslide and ride experience, the Orbiter opened this year at OCT FABLAND in Xiangyang, China. ![]() We were developing Orbiter in any case as part of Launcher Light’s third stage and we reached out to SpaceX in Q1 2021 to inquire if they would fly Orbiter on their rideshare. We only offer Launcher Light, our small rocket flying from 2024 on, if the mission cannot be achieved on SpaceX rideshare due to schedule, privacy needs, or the target orbit being out of reach for Orbiter’s 500 m/s propulsive capability. We’re first trying to accomplish our customer’s mission with SpaceX rideshare and Orbiter, the most economical option. So we built a strategy aligned with our customers and SpaceX. In our view, dedicated small satellite launch from the ground will always be higher cost than a large rideshare bus ride, even though there’s room to optimize and reduce this 10x price difference, as we plan to do with Launcher Light. This view is shared by our customers but is contrarian to what the small launch companies are promoting. It is also readily available at short notice, very reliable, and has friendly rebooking terms. The latter is 10x lower cost-per-kg than Electron, the leading small launch vehicle. Our market view is that customers are only buying dedicated small launch vehicles, such as Rocket Lab Electron, if they cannot achieve their mission objective on SpaceX rideshare. Why did you (Launcher) decide to bring Orbiter to market before Light? What factors went into the decision? We’ve updated the story with his comments below. Note: Payload asked Launcher CEO Max Haot a couple questions and received his answers after publication. On the earlier-stage side, Momentus’s fellow Y Combinator alumni Turion and TransAstra (both YC S21) are developing the Droid de-orbiter and Apis transfer vehicle.Momentus ($MNTS) is set to launch its first Vigoride OTV this month or in early June on Transporter-5.By all appearances, the Italian startup’s SPAC merger with $BREZ is still a go. D-Orbit’s ION vehicle has flown five missions and recently claimed an on-orbit propulsive maneuvering first.Beyond Launcher bringing Orbiter to market as its first product, there’s plenty more happening in this space. Each manifested Orbiter mission will launch with Falcon 9.īig picture: The time of space tugs (or orbital transfer vehicles, or OTVs) may be upon us. Launcher is still selling capacity for all three missions, along with SN5 (slated for Q1 ‘24). Orbiter SN2, SN3, and SN4 are set to launch in January, April, and October 2023. Launcher’s tagline for the vehicle: “Anywhere in space, at the lowest price.”.Rideshare costs $8,000–$25,000/kg, inclusive of launch. A dedicated ride costs $400,000, plus $1M+ in associated launch costs.Orbiter can conduct altitude, plane, and inclination changes, along with in-plane phasing.Mass of 200 kg, payload capacity of 400 kg, and propulsive capability of 500 m/s delta-V.…and host payloads for CesiumAstro, yet another undisclosed customer, Beyond Burials, and TRL11.Orbiter will deploy craft for Skyline Celestial, Innova Space, NPC Spacemind, Bronco Space/Cal Poly Pomona, a Stanford student-run organization, and an undisclosed customer….Hawthorne, CA-based Launcher announced customers this morning: The satellite transfer vehicle and payload-hosting platform will launch on a Transporter-6 rideshare this October. Orbiter’s inaugural SN1 mission is nearly ready to fly.
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