A Loft Orbital-owned and -operated microsatellite, flying multiple customer payloads onboard as a service. Credit: PRNewsfoto/ Loft Orbital Solutions Inc.

Loft Orbital Solutions has signed agreements with over 20 companies to be inaugural members of its inSpace Mission Partner Program.

The new inSpace members include LeoStella, Space Systems Loral, Rocket Lab, Vector Launch, Kongsberg Satellite Services, GomSpace, and Orbital Insight.

They will provide satellite buses, launch services, ground segment services payload and data analytics for Loft Orbital’s future spacecraft.

Under the agreements, the respective products of each member have been validated for compatibility with Loft Orbital’s technology.

With inSpace, Loft Orbital aims to make it easier for organisations to access space as well as rapidly and efficiently deploying several mission configurations and capabilities for its customers.

The company also intends to bring standardisation into its low earth orbit infrastructure.

“The technology we are building for payload accommodation and satellite operations are essentially abstraction layers, enabling us to fly any payload on any satellite bus from inSpace.”

Loft Orbital Solutions co-founder Pierre-Damien Vaujour said: “The technology we are building for payload accommodation and satellite operations are essentially abstraction layers, enabling us to fly any payload on any satellite bus from inSpace – within a given mission envelope – with little to no customisation and non-recurring engineering required.

“We aim to do for space what USB did for connecting all devices.”

Loft Orbital is currently developing Payload Hub, an interface designed to accommodate multiple payloads on the same satellite, as well as Cockpit software that enables customers to operate their payloads in orbit.

The Payload Hub and Cockpit solutions are expected to create cross-compatibility between the elements of a satellite mission.

Vaujour furhter added: “Our inSpace partners, who have different interfaces, different software protocols and different processes, can be a part of our missions without making any changes to their existing products.

“For example, it is now possible for a customer in Indonesia to benefit from a mission operated by Loft Orbital as a service to monitor sea surface winds, where a Moog payload flies on a Satrec-i bus that is launched by Rocket Lab and the data is downlinked through a rented ground segment in Scandinavia – and none of these companies need to talk to each other or do any customisation because Loft Orbital brings the cross-compatibility to the mission.”

Over the next few months, Loft Orbital is scheduled to announce its first satellite missions.